Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses and organizations have been plagued by higher-than-average employee turnover. While the quitting rate has been easing over the past few years — from 24.7 percent in 2022 to 17.3 percent in 2023 and 13.5 percent in 2024, according to a report from human resources consulting firm Mercer — many companies continue to face headwinds when it comes to staffing. This has also meant shouldering persistent costs for onboarding new hires.
But what if new-employee orientation, along with its expense and downtime, could be dispensed with? Imagine a technology solution that could get new hires working from their very first minute on the job.
According to Brianna Van Zanten, Customer Success Manager at technology company InCheq, this is now possible due to groundbreaking task-management systems.
The problem of traditional onboarding
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has estimated the average cost of hiring a new team member to be almost $4,700, but it warns that the price tag could be much, much higher. As its report points out, “many employers estimate the total cost to hire a new employee can be three to four times the position’s salary” due to the “soft costs” associated with hiring, including current managers’ time spent on the project.
Studies also show that conventional onboarding processes tend to take a long time. According to staffing company Foley, 26 percent of employers say they get it done in a week, 21 percent say it takes a month, and 11 percent, three months or longer.
Meanwhile, SHRM recommends taking an entire year, and Harvard Business Review warns against swamping new employees with too much new information at once, which can also lead as many as 20 percent of them to seek the exit within the first 45 days; one-third of them, within the first 90 days.
According to Van Zanten, today’s cutting-edge machine learning and AI-powered technology can actually be used to solve these problems, especially for roles that can be broken down into simple, concrete steps.
“I like to refer to these as ‘no-training’ solutions,” Van Zanten says. “They literally get the new team member up and running without requiring time, attention, or mentorship from a manager.”
Many of the sectors that contend with the highest turnover rates would be good candidates for this solution. For instance, the aforementioned Mercer study shows that the retail and wholesale industries are hit the hardest. In addition, non-management and blue-collar roles have higher turnover rates than those for management and executive positions.
How no-training solutions work
No-training onboarding tools like Van Zanten’s use QR codes to enable new hires to conduct their own orientation. All the person needs to do is scan the QR code, and instructions will appear for the task they have been assigned to complete.
“Let’s say you need the brand-new worker to unpack a shipment of clothes and get them ready to go on the sales floor,” Van Zanten says. “The instructions explain how to open the carton, how to unpack it, where to put the stock, and whether or not to change the hangers. It goes through the specific steps so the person knows exactly what’s expected of them. They learn by doing.”
The instructions can be as simple or complex as the particular task warrants. They can also include photos, videos, diagrams, PDF files, or any other supplemental material that helps employees get up to speed as quickly as possible.
“In effect, the trainer or manager is inside the new hire’s personal electronic device,” Van Zanten explains. “It can even explain to them how to fix common problems that might develop or who to contact if all else fails.”
When coupled with today’s sophisticated systems, these task-management platforms become even more effective and efficient.
Coupling QR codes with machine learning and AI
“Today’s AI can even communicate with individuals according to their own unique preferences,” Van Zanten says. “It can change the way it expresses things to account for how the human staff member reacts. When it comes to onboarding, it’s like the new employee can personalize their own instructor.”
In addition, these machine learning and AI-based systems can link tasks together automatically, directing the employee to the next one after they have completed the first. But that’s not all. Since these systems can adapt to changes on the ground in the literal blink of an eye, they can divert employees away from previous assignments and create new ones that align with the organization’s latest needs.
“At any given time, leadership knows their workforce is being put to maximum use,” Van Zanten says.
Moreover, these AI-based task-management systems offer a whole host of other advantages that can give businesses an edge over the competition. “Dynamic automation is just the beginning,” Van Zanten says. “These platforms can also analyze past performance, generate insights, and help you make better decisions for the company. They can even simulate the future, which gives you the information you need to steer in the best direction.”
The future of onboarding
Due to these powerful new task-management systems, companies now have a choice. They can follow the traditional route, spending thousands of dollars and wasting weeks, months, or even longer onboarding their new hires. Alternatively, they can invest in a solution that gets people working from the moment they set foot on the premises.
The future of onboarding is here, and it doesn’t require any training.
