On the right track with new recruits?

The challenge

Around 650 new starters join this national company of funeral directors every year. The company wanted to investigate the journey new starters went through. Were they getting the level and quality of support they needed within this crucial 12 – 15 months of their career?

Objectives

• To assess how new starters viewed the training and support offered in their first year
• To explore the level and quality of support provided by managers and colleagues
• To identify any gaps in training
• To provide directions on potential ways to improve the process

Our approach

As we had access to employee’s email addresses, a quantitative online survey was the perfect choice for this project. It also gave the employees chance to provide answers without being overheard by colleagues or supervisors – as could be the case with the telephone interviewing.

We invited more than 400 new starters to take part in an online survey. It was designed with input from both PCP and our client. We asked the employees about their satisfaction with various aspects of the recruitment process, induction process, initial training, probationary reviews and any further training they may have had or would like to have.

We issued a reminder after a couple of weeks to those who had yet to take part. This brought in another 40 replies.
155 employees completed the survey. We analysed the data and presented it to the client’s HR team.

Outcomes

Overall the data produced a very positive set of results. Our clients were particularly pleased with the high satisfaction ratings of various courses available to new employees. The survey helped them learn more about the intentions of new starters on first joining, how likely they were to remain with the company and what they hoped to achieve in their role. It also highlighted that only half of the new starters were assigned a mentor.

One element that could be improved upon was how employees felt managers did not always provide them with the necessary support. It helped the organisation identify that most of the problems and areas of dissatisfaction were with the more informal types of training. This information helped them make several important internal changes.