First-year turnover hurts! It’s expensive and time consuming. And when, according to some studies, as many as 40 percent of new hires leave almost right after they start work, with an additional 10 to 20 percent leaving within the first year—it’s just plain discouraging. Keeping in mind most employees leave because their day-to-day role wasn’t as expected, because of a bad experience, or because of a culture clash, what’s the common problem here?

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

This begs the question, how is your recruitment and onboarding process creating this mismatch, and what can you do about it?

1. You’re recruiting for technical skills instead of cultural fit. You have a stack of resumes from people who are qualified to do the job. If you stop there, you’re crippling your hiring process from the get-go. You need to ask, “Who is best suited to get the job done the way we do it?” Because of this, some companies prioritize the search for a cultural fit—someone who will mesh with the existing processes and personalities. If necessary, the technical stuff can be taught.
2. You’re not adequately explaining life at the company. You need to ask and answer, “Whose personality and values will thrive in our work environment?” A fast-moving extrovert will not do well in a bogged-down, 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 find someone who will thrive in that environment. You don’t need to out every skeleton, but you may want to mention potentially deal-breaking quirks, like, “We have three-hour staff meetings on Fridays,” or “We work in neighboring cubes but nobody says anything to anyone, like, ever.”
3. You’re misrepresenting the job. From job posting to onboarding to daily work life, the duties of the job need to match throughout. 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. Or 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 the attached compensation need to live up to the initial pitch.
4. You’re stopping onboarding at new-hire orientation. Orientation is a great way to show an employee the ropes–some companies even have multi-day seminars where every department head explains what their department does in minute detail. But onboarding shouldn’t stop there (or perhaps, should never go there). Great onboarding processes explain culture, work roles and procedures, goals, and personnel introductions, to set employees up for success not just during their first week but over the long term. The absolute best onboarding processes will set structured checkpoints during the first year to ensure new hires are thriving with the right tools and opportunities they need to succeed in their role and to build on their strengths.
5. You’re not trying to salvage employees who want to quit. Not every new hire will stay—that’s just a fact of life. It could be you made a bad hire, but more likely, the process created a mismatch of expectations that you might be able to fix. Talk about the employee’s reason for leaving. 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.

Bottom line: 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 the company culture.