Someone on your team just handed in their notice.

Before you spiral into “why is this happening to me” – here’s some context.

The average American worker now changes jobs 12 times during their career. Median tenure has dropped to just 3.9 years – the lowest since 2002. 91% of Millennials expect to change jobs every three years. And for workers aged 25 to 34, the median tenure is just 2.7 years.

This isn’t drama. It’s the landscape.

Which means the question isn’t “how do I stop people from leaving?” The question is: if people are going to move anyway, what’s the one thing I can actually control?

How quickly they get up to speed. And how good their experience is while they’re here.

Both of those things start on day one. Actually, they start before day one.

The Cost of Getting This Wrong

Most businesses treat onboarding as admin. Here’s what that actually costs you.

If someone takes six months to become fully productive – which is conservative – and they stay for two years, you’ve lost a quarter of their entire tenure to the ramp-up period. If they leave at eighteen months, you’ve lost a third. And you’re now starting again with someone new.

The businesses that handle this best aren’t the ones with the lowest turnover. They’re the ones who onboard so intentionally that new people hit the ground running – and feel so welcomed that they want to stay longer than they planned.

10 Things Most Businesses Get Wrong – and What to Do Instead

1. Nobody called before they started. A personal call from the CEO or their direct manager in the week before they start costs nothing and changes everything. Not a formal call. Just “I’m really excited you’re joining us, we can’t wait to have you.” The more comfortable someone feels before day one, the faster they integrate.

2. You don’t know anything about them. As part of their paperwork, ask them to fill out a simple get-to-know-you document alongside the contract. Favourite food. Favourite candy. How they like to work. What they’re most excited about. What they’re nervous about. Then use it. Order their favourite food for lunch on day one. Have their favourite candy on their desk when they arrive. It sounds small. It’s not.

3. Nobody is showing them how things work. Pair them with a senior team member for their first two weeks – not just to observe but to actively contribute to live work alongside them. They’re not watching. They’re doing. This is also where they learn how things run – how time gets recorded, how the project management system works, how work moves from one person to the next. Learning systems this way is ten times faster than learning them from a manual.

4. They don’t know what success looks like. Starting a new job without a clear Outcome Profile is like starting a race without knowing where the finish line is. They’re guessing what good looks like, what matters most, and how they’ll be measured. Give them clarity before they need to ask for it.

5. They don’t know anyone before they walk in the door. Ask every team member to record a short personal video before the new person starts and send them the week before day one.

“I’m in finance – you won’t see much of me day to day, but I’ll be your best friend on the 15th when payroll runs.”

“I’m in sales – I’m mostly out visiting clients so you probably won’t see me much, but when we get to proposal stage you’ll hear from me and we’ll work closely together to get it across the line.”

“I’m in operations – I keep everything running behind the scenes. You’ll interact with me most when you’re onboarding a new client or if something goes sideways with a project.”

They arrive knowing faces, names, and personalities. For remote teams this isn’t optional. It’s the difference between joining a team and joining a list of names on a screen.

6. They have no onboarding buddy. Assign someone who isn’t their direct manager to be their go-to person for the questions that feel too small or too awkward to ask officially. Someone who can tell them how things work around here and who to go to for what. The manager relationship has stakes. The buddy relationship doesn’t. Both matter.

7. You never find out what they think. At the end of their first week, ask them to write a brief on what they’ve observed – about the business, the team, and their role. Fresh eyes see things insiders stopped noticing years ago. It makes them an active contributor from day one rather than a passive recipient of information. And the answers are often genuinely useful.

8. You never check in properly. A six-month performance review isn’t onboarding support. Build in structured check-ins at two weeks, one month, and three months specifically focused on how they’re settling in – not just how their work is going. Ask what’s confusing, what they need more of, what surprised them.

9. They have nothing to own. On day one, give them a clear 30-day deliverable. Something specific and achievable that belongs to them. It gives them a target, forces them to engage with the real work quickly, and creates an early performance conversation that isn’t awkward because it was set up from the beginning. Nothing accelerates contribution faster than having something to contribute to.

10. I wish I didn’t have to include this one. But I do. The laptop isn’t ready. The email isn’t set up. The desk isn’t there. It still happens – and when it does, it isn’t just an admin fail. It’s a cultural signal. If we can’t organise ourselves enough to have the basics ready for someone’s first day, what does that tell them about how we run everything else? That deadlines are loose? That standards are flexible? That nobody really planned for them to arrive? First impressions aren’t just about welcome. They’re about the kind of company you actually are.

A note on remote workers: everything above applies – and then some. Send something physical to their home before they start. Schedule virtual coffee catch-ups with different team members in their first two weeks. Connection doesn’t happen by accident when you’re not in the same building. The video idea in point five is not optional for remote teams. It’s essential.

The Bottom Line

People are going to move. That’s not pessimism – it’s data. The average tenure in your industry is probably shorter than you’d like it to be, and that’s not going to change.

What you can change is what happens between the day someone signs their contract and the day they’re contributing at the level you hired them for. The faster that happens, the better the return. The better the experience, the longer they stay.

Onboarding isn’t the thing you do before the real work starts. It is the real work.

Sel Watts

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