Onboarding Effects on Engagement and Retention in the IT Sector

Employee turnover is costly to businesses; replacing one employee costs 90-200% of the employee's annual salary (Allen, 2008; Cascio, 2006). Business leaders know that ineffective onboarding may be a component of the problem. This quasi-experimental study compares results from three annual cohorts of Associate Software Engineers who participated in a nine-month extended onboarding program (n = 184) and those who did not (n = 261). Specifically, this quasi-experimental study used a chi-square test to compare retention. The extended onboarding group had significantly higher one-year retention than the control group. The results of this study suggest that longer onboarding may be a solution for the human resource community regarding long-term engagement and retention.