It’s harder than ever for HR teams to retain top talent. A whopping 46% of professionals across the globe are considering quitting in the year ahead. In the face of high turnover, companies focus on providing an optimal employee experience to keep their people happy and engaged and prevent them from looking for work elsewhere.
What is employee experience, and why is it important?
Employee experience refers to how talent feels at work. Several factors come together to influence employee experience, including:
- Company culture
- Talent’s relationships with their superiors and peers
- The ease of everyday functions like receiving pay and accessing benefits
- How HR teams support talent
- Workloads and the nature of the work itself
- Clarity behind a company’s mission and values
- The technology used by a workforce
- The onboarding and offboarding process
Companies that focus on the employee experience not only make life better for their workforce. They also boost their bottom line.
The average cost of losing an employee is estimated to be anywhere from one-half and two times the departing employee’s annual salary. Companies with an optimal employee experience increase their ability to hold onto their talent, helping them avoid the high costs of recruiting, onboarding, and training new team members.
How an employer of record improves your employee experience
First, let’s define employer of record (EOR). An EOR is the full legal employer of a business’s payrolled workers. When you partner with an EOR, your business finds the talent, and an EOR takes care of all of the legal duties, including but not limited to onboarding, timekeeping, wage and bonus payments, offboarding, and more.
An EOR handles two of the most significant milestones in the employee experience lifecycle—onboarding and offboarding. An EOR also takes on many nuts-and-bolts aspects of the employee experience, such as administering payroll, managing benefits, and supporting employees with any related questions.
Keep reading to learn more about how an EOR helps improve onboarding, offboarding, and the day-to-day employee experience.
1. Onboarding
Onboarding starts the second your talent accepts your offer—and it significantly impacts your talent’s tenure.
The adage “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression” significantly applies to the employee experience. That’s why offering a smooth onboarding process should be the first step in optimizing your employee experience. When your new team members find it easy to sign the required paperwork, choose benefits packages, and take care of other necessities to get up and running, they develop trust in you from the start.
On the other hand, a disorganized onboarding process leaves companies and their HR teams fighting an uphill battle from day one. When companies hire fewer and more remote employees, they may lose sight of a great onboarding experience that brings new hires up to speed and gets them feeling connected to their team and organization.
Sarah Marrs, MSc, Director of Employee Experience Strategy Execution, believes we should start caring about the onboarding process again. “Organizations need to take a closer look at their post-COVID candidate and onboarding experience. Think through: ‘How are remote hires being welcomed and enabled to build relationships? Have our leaders been taught the necessary skills to onboard new employees who may not be in the same location as them?’ How often are we checking in with new hires to see if they’re feeling included and like they belong? Then create new policy and structure to support a better experience.”
According to a study by Click Boarding, which offers onboarding software to companies, employees who experience a structured onboarding process are 58% more likely to stay with a company for three years.
Onboarding is one of the primary responsibilities of an EOR partner. That’s why turning your onboarding experience over to the right EOR ensures that your employee experience starts on the right foot. When you choose an EOR with a track record of success, you get a trusted partner who ensures a smooth and seamless start to your employment relationship with new talent.
2. Pay, benefits, and support
A proven EOR partner also delivers on-time and accurate pay, along with competitive benefits for your talent no matter what market in which they work. That's because a proven EOR partner knows how employee benefits impact your workforce.
When employees are not paid on time, they get frustrated—and lose trust in their employer. The same goes for being paid inaccurately. HR, finance, and other internal teams must align on bonuses, performance-based changes, and raises to ensure that employees receive accurate paychecks every pay period.
Team members also expect benefits packages that are right for their local markets. An EOR partner takes on all benefits-related responsibilities, giving employers peace of mind that their talent gets benefits that keep them protected and happy. The importance of offering the right benefits cannot be overstated, especially considering that 49% of employees will leave a new job within the first year because of dissatisfaction with their benefits. That’s why it’s more important than ever that you offer talent the benefits they want—no matter where they are.
Working with an EOR does more than just cover pay and benefits your team members. It frees up HR and other internal teams to focus solely on their talent’s day-to-day life at work. Because internal teams no longer have to wade through the complexities of insurance, vacation days, parental leave, payroll, and other related tasks, they can fully be there to support their talent through the everyday challenges of work.
3. Offboarding
Let’s be honest: most employees don’t stay at the same company their entire life. But they will form a lasting impression of your company after they leave—and this impression informs how they will influence other talent that might come your way.
That’s why it’s critical to offer a strong offboarding experience. Just as onboarding provides a tone-setting first impression that impacts the entire employee experience, offboarding provides a lasting takeaway that your talent will remember going forward.
The way talent perceives your company is important—even after they’ve moved on. Professionals often leave reviews on websites like Glassdoor or simply pass on their experiences to other peers through word-of-mouth. Making a positive final impression increases the chances your former talent will pass along favorable reviews of your company to other prospective employees.
Conducting a well-structured offboarding experience is one of the most powerful tools you have to improve your company’s overall employee experience. As with onboarding, a trusted EOR partner handles all aspects of a smooth end-of-work transition, ensuring the last impression your employees have of your company is a good one.
Keep your employees happy with help from a trusted employer of record
With unrivaled experience hiring and supporting teams across more than 185 countries, Velocity Global knows the importance of delivering a top-tier employee experience—and what it takes to do so.
Our experts have unmatched knowledge in benefits, payroll, onboarding, offboarding, and everything in between. Our unwavering commitment to providing best-in-class service means that we ensure the best possible employee experience, from start to finish. Reach out to Velocity Global today to find out how we can help you keep your team members engaged so you maximize retention.
