Onboarding - Strategy Aids Employee Recruitment and Retention

Recently, I was interviewed by The Canada/Manitoba Business Service Centre (C/MBSC) for its Fall 2008 issue of Let's Talk Business. The article outlines some onboarding strategies for small businesses to aid in employee recruitment and retention:

With Manitoba’s unemployment rate sitting at a low 4.1 percent, many employers are aggressively competing for workers. While that may seemingly put smaller businesses at a disadvantage, at least one human resources expert says that’s not necessarily the case.

Wendy Phaneuf, founder and managing director of The Training Source, says while small businesses may not offer pensions and comprehensive benefits, they can find other ways to keep employees happy.

Phaneuf cites numerous studies showing that what employees value most are positive relationships with their immediate supervisors and a sense of feeling appreciated. She says these factors lead to greater employee retention and thus less time and hassle spent on recruitment.

One area where many businesses fall short, she says, is in providing early and on-going support to new employees — what she calls “onboarding.” Phaneuf explains that onboarding is not just orientation. Rather, it lasts much longer (at least three months) and is more comprehensive.

“I repeatedly see that there’s very little energy being put into supporting new employees. Companies tend to overwhelm employees with information the first couple of days, call that ‘orientation,’ and then leave them to figure things out.”

She says a planned onboarding approach, on the other hand, might see a new employee work side by side with another staff member; spend time learning about the company and their role in it; talk with a manager about expectations and where they fit in the organization; take on a gradually increasing workload; and receive appropriate skills training and ongoing feedback.

“If you consider how much effort we put into continually hiring, to sit down and map out an onboarding process makes a lot of sense,” Phaneuf insists. “Keep talking to your employees, build a relationship, and provide ongoing support.”

Most small businesses do not have formal HR departments, yet they may deal with similar HR issues as large corporations: finding qualified people; providing job orientation; making sure employees understand what is expected of them; monitoring job performance; providing training and performance reviews, etc.

Phaneuf says that, ideally, business owners should develop some expertise in HR basics but if that’s not possible, they should at least commit to hiring someone on a contract basis who can provide HR help.


The Canada/Manitoba Business Service Centre's goal is to provide fast, easy access to comprehensive business and trade information for new and existing entrepreneurs.

For more information on C/MBSC, visit www.canadabusiness.ca/manitoba

Read more from the Fall 2008 issue of Let's Talk Business.