There's nothing like that new job smell and nobody loves a new job like today's workforce. Over 2 million Americans quit their jobs each month in favor of shiny new opportunities, leaving both talent recruiters and managers in the throes of turnover.
But while losing employees after a year or two may be the new normal, red flags should wave when workers don't last six weeks—or even eight hours. Surprisingly, four percent of new hires quit after just one day on the job, and 22 percent after only 45 days, according to Bersin by Deloitte research.
Here, three ways to keep your company from becoming someone's "horrible first day" horror story:
1. Give new hires a mentor: Introducing new talent to everyone in the office is merely a gesture. Find someone with whom the new hire can partner with on a project or task right away. It's important to make the new hire feel needed, included, and useful right from the start.
2. Deal with problem managers: One new hire at a literary agency famously quit on his first day by leaving a Post-It on his verbally abusive boss's computer screen before lunch. You probably already know which managers are likely to drive talent away; intervene now before you start losing entry-level rock stars.
3. Be crystal clear about the job from the start: Sugarcoating a job description isn't going to help anyone. If new hires are disappointed in their new role or feel tricked into tasks they didn't know they'd have, there's a good chance that they'll lose trust in the company as a whole — and the bigger the schism between promises and expectations, the bigger the likelihood of losing employees in a dramatic departure.
