We know dispensary employees’ onboarding training is non-existent in the cannabis industry, but let’s take a look at other businesses’ onboarding training.
So, about 77 percent of onboarding programs among large employers in North America last just three (3) months or less, and 38 percent of employers report that their programs are only a week or less – much shorter than the 12 months many experts recommend.
Onboarding software firm SilkRoad surveyed Human Resource (or HR) leaders in the United States, Canada, and Mexico and found that employers increasingly view onboarding as a strategic imperative to support business success but that most programs are too short to meet desired goals.
Seventy percent of respondents said their companies will focus more on onboarding over the next three (3) years, aiming to boost employee engagement and reduce turnover. The numbers were even higher among HR leaders in Europe, the Middle East, Africa (84 percent), and Asia Pacific (75 percent).
It’s more evidence that onboarding is increasingly recognized as a strategic opportunity within HR. The acquisition piece is still important. But if you only emphasize attracting and acquiring talent without thinking about retention, you will have to repeat the hiring process repeatedly at great expense.
Organizations lose between one-third (1/3) and two-thirds (2/3) of new hires within the first 12 months on the job. That metric varies from role to role, but one study found that half of all senior-level new hires jump ship within 18 months, and a half (1/2) of all hourly workers last only four months.
With this kind of attrition, organizations are being challenged in a recruiting environment where having the right talent is critical. SilkRoad found that onboarding goals – if not outcomes – have evolved from transactional processing to improving employee engagement and retention.
North American respondents said new-hire engagement (80 percent) and new-hire retention (68 percent) were the top business outcome goals for their onboarding programs. Simply processing new-hire paperwork, once the primary reason for onboarding, received the least responses (24 percent).
Companies are putting that kind of transactional paperwork in front of new hires even before they arrive on site, and onboarding is becoming more about early-development experiences. But onboarding programs tend to end far too soon to effectively support engagement and retention, according to SilkRoad research.
Talent management experts recommend that new-hire onboarding programs last at least one year to increase productivity, help employees feel supported, and create engagement. Objective performance data shows that the ideal ramp-up time for a new employee is generally from 12 to 15 months. One of the main reasons is that most organizations have a yearlong business cycle.
One year gives the new hire and his or her manager time to hit all the work experiences that tend to happen over a year, aligned to the business cycle. Managers want to rush the onboarding process, thinking that if a person is spending one year to onboard, they are not fully contributing. A lot of managers just aren’t patient enough, but onboarding doesn’t mean not contributing.
If the mindset around onboarding can shift to it being a blended approach of learning and contributing, employers can create an environment where you have an extended experience for people that helps them drive performance in the cannabis business but still makes them feel like there are opportunities to learn and develop.
For some “very task-oriented and transactional” roles, maybe two (2) or three (3) months of onboarding is enough, but for knowledge-based jobs, an onboarding program of less than six (6) months will lead to performance and turnover problems.
That’s especially true of much of today’s work, which is more collaborative and social. Having a short onboarding period doesn’t provide enough time to develop the social connections to get work done in the cannabis industry.
Biggest Challenges
Respondents said that their biggest onboarding challenges were providing a new-hire experience (67 percent) and new-hire engagement (61 percent), followed by personalizing the experience (45 percent) and holding hiring managers accountable (41 percent). And the challenges in the cannabis industry are even more difficult!
Experts agree that a more personalized experience increases effectiveness and engagement. While you want to have an overarching experience that provides structure and consistency for all new hires, it is still important to remember to personalize the experience based on geography, business unit, role, or even the individual.
Think about what you want your new hires in sales to experience versus new hires on the factory floor. The personalization piece is particularly important to Millennials and Gen Z, who are used to having information delivered directly to them, tailored to personal preferences.
Recruiters and hiring managers can use information learned about new hires in the cannabis industry during the recruiting process to inform their onboarding programs, creating a more personalized experience. It is recommended that employers put more focus on involving managers in the process. Managers are the linchpin of ineffective onboarding.
When managers take an active role in onboarding, employees are 2.5 times more likely to feel that the process was successful. Some of the key themes to hit upon when designing an onboarding program are:
- Helping new hires thrive in the company culture.
- Helping new hires understand how their role connects to the overall business.
- Providing connections to key internal and external contacts who will work with new employees.
- Assigning work that will produce quick wins and build confidence.
Organizations should not limit their onboarding programs only to new hires, but they should also provide programs for employees after extended leaves and internal moves and promotions, if necessary.
If someone is shifting to another part of your cannabis business or taking on a significant shift in their role, it is a mistake not to onboard them again. Not doing so will set those internal transfers up to struggle, underperform and potentially quit.
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