You've done everything right. You wrote a great job description, ran a rigorous process, extended a competitive offer, and they accepted. Three months later, they're gone. What happened?
Poor onboarding is the leading cause of early attrition — and it's almost entirely preventable.
The first week sets the tone for the first year. New hires are forming lasting impressions every single day in week one. If their laptop isn't ready, if no one takes them to lunch, if they sit idle because their manager is too busy — they're already updating their LinkedIn.
Structured onboarding has a measurable ROI. Companies with structured onboarding programs see 82% higher retention at 12 months and 70% greater new hire productivity. This is not a soft metric.
The 30-60-90 day framework works. Define what success looks like at 30 days (learning), 60 days (contributing), and 90 days (leading). Share this with the new hire on day one. Give them a roadmap.
Manager relationship is the number one retention driver. In exit interviews, "left because of manager" outranks every other reason. Invest in your managers. Great individual contributors don't automatically become great managers.
At Switch4, we don't consider a placement successful until the 90-day mark. We check in with both clients and candidates throughout the onboarding period and intervene early if we see warning signs.