Oof, first-year turnover hurts! It’s expensive and time consuming, and when one-third of new hires quit within the first six months, it’s just plain discouraging. Given that most employees leave because their day-to-day role wasn’t as expected, they had a bad experience, or their culture clashed, what’s the common thread?

Working at the company was vastly different from the employee’s expectations.

Double oof. It’s hard to hear that your company’s recruitment and onboarding process likely creates the very mismatch that makes your employees quit early. So what’s going wrong?

You’re recruiting for technical skills instead of cultural fit

You have a stack of resumes from technically qualified candidates, but you’ll cripple your hiring process if you stop your screening there. Don’t just ask who has the technical skills to do the work, ask who is best suited to get the job done the way your company does it. You might even prioritize finding someone who will mesh with the existing processes and personalities. If necessary, the technical stuff can be taught.

You’re not adequately describing life at the company

You need to find out whose personality and values will thrive in your work environment. A fast-moving extrovert will not do well in a meeting-heavy bureaucracy, and a measured introvert will not do well in an open-space free-for-all. Share an honest snapshot of what your company is like on a typical day as well as what it is like to work for the position’s immediate supervisor. Ask questions to discover who will thrive in that environment. You may want to mention potentially deal-breaking quirks, like, “We have three-hour staff meetings on Fridays” or “We work in open-space cubes but nobody says anything to anyone, ever.”

You’re misrepresenting the job

From job posting to onboarding to daily work life, the duties of the job need to stay consistent. Imagine an employee’s displeasure when they are hired and compensated as a low-level administrative assistant but are expected to do the job of an operations manager. On the flip side, imagine an employee who is hired as a game-changing operations manager but performs the duties of an administrative assistant. The job requirements, responsibilities, and compensation need to match the initial pitch.

You’re stopping at new-hire orientation

Orientation is a great way to show an employee the ropes, but onboarding shouldn’t stop there. Great onboarding explains culture, work roles and procedures, goals, and personnel introductions, to set up employees for success during their first week and over the long term. The absolute best onboarding processes will set checkpoints during the first year to ensure new hires get the right tools and opportunities they need to succeed.

You’re not trying to salvage employees who want to quit

Not every new hire will stay. It could be you made a bad hire, but, more likely, the hiring process created a mismatch that you might be able to fix. Talk to the employee about their reasons for calling it quits. Are the duties out of line with the job posting? Are relations tough with a coworker? You might be able to correct the mismatch or bring the problem to an agreeable solution so that the employee will stay.

In conclusion

Turnover happens! But with recruitment and onboarding processes that create realistic expectations, you can attract and retain the talent best aligned to the job requirements and company culture.