To Retain New Hires, Make Sure You Meet with Them in Their First Week

Microsoft, which lacked a good way to measure the perceptions of its onboarding experience, conducted research to better understand what it thought of as “early attrition.” First, it created a survey to ask employees about their experiences. The most important factor of a good onboarding experience, it found, started with the simple things: making sure someone’s desk and computer were set up upon arrival. Delving deeper using people analytics techniques, Microsoft also learned that employees who met with their manager one-on-one during their first week were more likely to develop strong internal networks, had more-productive meetings, and were more collaborative than those who did not.