The cost of staff attrition to the UK economy is likely to exceed £1 billion in 2010 and could be as high as £864 million in the first quarter*, according to a new survey of large UK corporations from e-learning company Brightwave.
This loss is only likely to increase as the economy and jobs market recovers and more people look for new jobs.
The same research also found an increasing trend in onboarding new staff to combat this staff loss – 63% of HRs surveyed by Brightwave plan to introduce a formalised onboarding strategy in 2010 if they don’t currently have one in place. This pre-induction approach helps reduce attrition by engaging, training and embedding new staff in their new company culture from the moment they accept the job offer.
Furthermore, the survey found that 52% of large corporations believed onboarding helped reduce induction time with 48% stating it reduced induction costs and helped engage employees. This evidence supports recent findings from the Aberdeen Group Report on Effective Onboarding Techniques and Strategies, which recommended onboarding to reduce attrition and training costs, improve engagement and increase productivity.
Global media company Sky recently introduced an onboarding programme including a portal developed by Brightwave to its call centres. Kenny Henderson, head of talent development operations at Sky said: “Our Get Up To Speed onboarding portal has already helped reduce early attrition in our contact centres and we’re hoping that its company wide roll-out in 2010 will continue to improve our retention as the jobs market picks up across the country. This onboarding portal makes new starters feel part of the team and put them in touch with others doing the same role and peers starting at the same time. It also already helped improve sales conversions for new starters, sped-up time to target performance and improved engagement. It’s exceeded all our expectations and we’re delighted it’s being acknowledged as best practice in the learning and development community!”
Charles Gould, MD at Brightwave added: “Our latest survey is reassuring in showing how UK businesses are putting people at the heart of what they do. It’s encouraging to hear that so many top employers have introduced, or will be introducing, a formalised onboarding strategy. Onboarding quickly engages new employees and provides knowledge when enthusiasm is high. It’s one effective approach to help minimise attrition as the economy starts to recover.”
Brightwave, current E-Learning Development Company of the Year, surveyed L&D and HR heads in the UK’s largest corporations, which employ over 750,000 staff between them.
* Based on responses from large organisations in Brightwave survey (online survey took place December 2009 to January 2010) about organisational attrition rates and cost of induction PLUS ONS (Office National Statistics) data stating job vacancies for the last recorded quarter (September-November 2009) – 432,000.
** PricewaterhouseCoopers recently found that a third of UK employees (33%) have not felt valued during the recession and would leave for another job if they could. Furthermore, a survey by recruitment firm CBSbutler found over 60% of employers have concerns about losing key staff in a recovery. (Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG).
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