Slowing Down to Be Successful: How Intentional Onboarding Pays Off

Unless your team retention rate is 100%, there is always room for improvement in the employee experience. One aspect that can drastically improve not only your retention rate, but also your safety and company reputation is your overall onboarding process.

Carly Haugen, CPO for Prescription Landscape, based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, says they started to restructure their onboarding experience back in 2018.

“We have seen a reduction in the number of employees who leave during the first 30-45 days as well as an increase in new hires engaging with our benefit offerings and using time off accurately,” Haugen says. “We also have consistently seen decreases in accidents and injuries from new hires since committing to our training consistently.”

Jennifer Jones, director of national recruiting for Mariani Premier Group, headquartered in Lake Bluff, Illinois, says aside from increasing retention with their improved onboarding process, they’ve also received positive reviews relating to their candidates’ experience during their onboarding journey.

“Anytime a new hire is excited about their onboarding experience, sharing that experience with others is a sign of employee engagement,” Jones says.

How Long Should Your Onboarding Process Last?

Haugen acknowledges it’s easy to go through the motions of getting someone through orientation as quickly as possible because you need them out producing in the field. However, only taking a day before sending new hires out on the job can result in them having a lack of clarity and sense of belonging on the team.

“That’s what we used to do, but taking our time to get to know our team members is truly the most important and frankly rewarding part of the process,” Haugen says.

Prescription Landscape’s onboarding period ranges from 7 to 14 days.

“We understand that everyone is coming to us with different backgrounds, learning styles, and levels of experience, so we don’t want to rush people through training that isn’t specific to them and their needs,” Haugen says.

Shantel Perez, employee success specialist with K&D Landscaping, Inc., based in Watsonville, California, says they’ve moved away from one-day information overloads with their new hires. She says the first 90 days are critical for new hires, but their development and integration continue well beyond that.

“New hires feel more comfortable asking questions, are more engaged in learning about the company, and take pride in joining the team from day one,” Perez says.

Jones says their onboarding cycle is 90 days as well, with the core training happening in the first two weeks. She adds that manager check-ins should be conducted frequently.

“Stop treating onboarding like a checklist and start treating it like a relationship,” Perez says. “Slow it down. Be intentional. Check in often and never assume people ‘just know’ what’s expected.”

Commonly Overlooked Aspects of Onboarding

One of the keys to enhancing your onboarding is getting to know your new hires personally. Perez says they intentionally create space for connection because belonging doesn’t happen by accident; it’s built.

“From an employee success standpoint, I wanted new hires to walk in feeling informed, personally welcomed, and excited about being part of the team, not just starting a job,” Perez says.

Language barriers can pose a challenge and lead to a lackluster experience for hires if you don’t have a plan in place to address this. Haugen says in the past if they had a new hire who spoke Spanish, she would ask one of their bilingual team members to come help, but this meant they were leaving field production duties to assist and often created scheduling challenges. Now, they have a bilingual recruiter who completes all their orientations.

Jones notes you shouldn’t exclude your laborers from your weekly check-ins, safety training, and clear job expectations.

Also, don’t limit your new employees’ introductions to merely their immediate circle of coworkers. Haugen says team members are initially placed on crews with crew leads who are experienced trainers.

“The new team member may not stay on that crew, so they get to meet more people through this process,” Haugen says. “We also hold seasonal in-person trainings in the fall and spring, where new hires get to meet people from different service lines at their branch and those from other branches as well.”

Jones says that for those in leadership roles, they create an orientation schedule during the first week that introduces them to team members, key stakeholders, and peers.

“We also like to take our new hires on tours in the field, whether they are field or office employees, to view our beautiful landscaping work,” Jones says. “Connecting them to the bigger picture gets everyone excited about what they get to be a part of.”

Advice for Others

If you’re looking for ways to improve your onboarding process, start by asking your current employees and managers.

“We ask our managers for feedback frequently, and they always come up with fantastic ideas,” Haugen says. “Send out surveys to new hires to ask what you could have done better or ask what they liked about the process. People get scared of surveys because they think people will just complain, but what we have found is that most people just like to be asked and are willing to share helpful feedback.”

Prescription Landscape sends out a survey to their new hires after their first week to make sure they feel welcome and ask for feedback on how their onboarding and training process has gone the first week.

Perez says consistent follow-ups and relationship building make the biggest impact on employee retention.

“When people feel seen and supported early, they stay, and they try harder,” Perez says.

Jones says creating onboarding roadmaps for managers, recruiters, and HR partners can also help eliminate bottlenecks and establish trust.

“Roadmaps are one of the highest impact, lowest cost elements of onboarding because they remove uncertainty at the exact moment new hires are vulnerable,” Jones says.

Haugen adds that for your HR department, the employee is the customer, so their most important job is giving new hires all the tools they need to be successful right away. Part of making new employees successful is ensuring they feel comfortable approaching HR with any questions or concerns.

“Improving your onboarding early is one of the smartest competitive advantages you can build,” Jones says. “It directly impacts your retention, productivity, safety, and reputation. These are all areas where a landscaping business can feel pain the fastest. Ensure you have a balance of culture, technical and mentorship in your onboarding process, and track your progress for the first 90 days. The goal is to make everyone better, not just your managers, but your HR and recruiting departments too.”