261: How to Save Thousands in Turnover Costs Through Great Employee Onboarding - with Harris Fanaroff

People talk a lot about how to hire the best employees but they don't often think about what do you do once you hire them? How do you onboard that employee? So they feel engaged and they feel like they're loved. How do we make sure that we do it so well that they stay in big numbers, we don't have to face crazy turnover costs. Fortunately, I had Harris anarFoff. On the show, he's with Activate Onboarding and he helps people understand how to set up the best employee onboarding structures, so you can have incredible team members who stick around. This is definitely an episode you want to see.

Welcome to Scale Your SaaS, the podcast that gives you proven techniques and formulas for boosting your revenue and achieving your dream exit brought to you by a guy who's done just that multiple times. Here's your host, Matt Wallach,

and welcome to Scale Your SaaS. Thank you very much for being here. I am Matt, I'm your host, and I am delighted to have you here. And I'm super super pumped to have Harris Fanaroff. With me, Harris, how're you doing?

Doing great, Matt. Thanks so much. I'm excited to be here and looking forward to talking with you.

Absolutely. I'm looking forward to this as well. I've followed you for a while on Twitter. By the way, if you haven't followed him on Twitter, he's a great twitter follow, definitely go check Harris out, you'll see the link down in the description. But Harris, let me make sure everybody knows who you are. So Harris is the founder of activate onboarding. He really has a passion for the people side of business. He wakes up every day with a goal of helping organizations to support and find the right talent. Finding and retaining talent is a core element of success in today's business environment. We are on an onboarding consulting and technology company this that's these guys are really awesome what they do. And they help you save time and money while ensuring your new hire, show up excited and ready to be productive on day one. I can tell you running several businesses, it's important to make sure your team is excited. If they are not, things don't look good. So Harris, thanks so much for coming on the show.

Absolutely appreciate the introduction, excited to talk with you and share a little bit about onboarding.

Awesome. So before we really get into it, just tell me what's been going on with you lately. And what's coming up.

Personally a very big change. I don't know when this will come out. But we were just talking about this before first baby's coming in the next two weeks at some point. So first baby boy coming in the first two weeks. So that's been taking up a lot of my time just mentally getting ready for that. So that's been a big thing. And then from activate, it's just been a lot of fun. So we're about in month nine of launching the company, pet a lot, a lot of success, a lot of failures, a lot of things that we've learned along the way, all the fun stuff of starting a company. And it's just been a joy. I've loved the process and everything that I've learned along the way. So totally enjoying the ride and seeing where it takes me.

It's so awesome. First of all, this will release after the baby comes. So congrats on your baby. Thank you, the first one was super cool. That's really very cool. I'm very happy for you, as many of the listeners know I have a couple of myself. But it's going to be a fun ride for you. But be prepared to not be prepared to not sleep so much in the next few weeks or so. But anyway, I just want to know how did you come up with the idea for activate onboard? I looked through a lot of it, it seems super slick. Just how did you how did that come to you.

So I've been in the people side of business for a long time now. And actually the company that I was working at before, what we did was in person workshops on things like emotional intelligence, personality type resilience. And so I was leading business development and sales for this company. And 90% of our work was going to organizations and doing a workshop or a two day or three day or five day workshop, and COVID came and just said, See you later business, that's no longer going to happen anymore. We're no longer going to organizations and doing workshops. And so I just said, Okay, I need to have a conversation with every one of our clients. And luckily the organization have been around for about 40 years. So we had a lot of client relationships are saying what are some of the big things that you're struggling with and things that are difficult in onboarding, and it's specifically like onboarding in this remote world kept coming up more and more like how do we make people feel welcome and engaged and retention was a big issue. And there was quiet quitting and quiet hiring and quiet firing and all these big issues. And I'm like, why are all these companies struggling with onboarding? And then you talk with people who are being on boarded. And 90% of people have a poor onboarding experience. I mean, anecdotally, but like, there has to be something there. And so that's when I just started to have more and more conversations, dive into consulting and doing some different technologies with that. And that's what landed me in this space and started posting a ton on Twitter and LinkedIn about it have started to gather a lot of momentum. One thing led to another and I launched activate onboarding.

I love it. It's such a cool story. I love hearing these backgrounds of people who saw a need and went out and solved it instead of just, you know, kind of said, Oh, no, what are we going to do? I think it's amazing. And I love that you just mentioned that you started posting on LinkedIn and Twitter and you've really grown a great audience. You have an awesome community You, especially on Twitter, where I know you, how has that helped has that help the company overall having that kind of a following.

All of my clients have come from Twitter and LinkedIn. So 100%, it has been by far the biggest business development generation that I have. And they've actually all been reactive to. So because I'm just constantly posting on this, people are being like, you're an expert in onboarding, let me talk with you, which turns into potentially consulting or potentially, the technology. And so it's been amazing. I actually don't know how I would have started a business without it. Luckily, I was building the audience before I had the company. So that kind of gave me a little bit of rather than having to do it later, that was a pretty big aspect. But it's been a godsend, honestly, for my business. And I've met some unbelievably interesting people had some great conversations. I mean, that's what we're doing here today. It's recommended. Hi, more than what it's done for me and my business. Yeah,

I mean, I totally agree. And this is something I teach my clients is, hey, don't start after you've launched the company, you need to start marketing. And that includes building your brand and getting your own personal brand rockin and so that people trust you connect, you have an audience, before you even launch the company. And, look, I mean, that's a perfect testament, your story here is that you've gotten to all of your clients through your personal brand. And it's just amazing. And I would agree. For me on the coaching side, LinkedIn is where we, where we really focus and the right from the get go, I started and that's where we got most of our clients. And now for my software company on Twitter is where we focus there. And we've gotten a lot of clients through there as well. So it's just amazing what can happen, once you kind of share some of your experiences, some of your your things you're going through that you're learning, and also some of the things you know, that you're an expert at, that other people can learn from. And I think they soak up that value, don't they?

Huge, and it's been a, I was not somebody who was naturally inclined to share everything on Twitter and or LinkedIn, it took a lot of pushing. And it took months and months of like, shouting into the ether, it felt like for people to actually care. And so I've been doing this basically every day since January of 2022. So we're talking 14 months, 15 months, every day, and I'm starting to get some traction. But it does take that long game, and you really have to be in it for the long haul to actually see any success. And that's where I see the biggest drop off, people try it for a week. They're like, nobody's calling me to buy my product, it's like, it's going to take you way longer than a week, it's going to take probably over a year for you to really start to build that momentum to get anything. And I think I'm just honestly at the tip of where this will lead me and take me based on continuing to post and share what I'm learning.

Yeah, I would agree. I've talked with other people who are, you know, have big accounts and have done it for quite a lot longer and have had a lot of success. And they say yeah, right there at that year. Point is really when it starts to start to tip. And I would agree. That's the problem that a lot of people have when they start a business and they start even a marketing channel is that they don't do it enough. They don't stay with it. They don't stay persistent. I would say, you know, your brand on social is a big thing that people will do for a week, like you said, or even a month. And even after a month, they got three likes over five posts. And they're like, Okay, nobody cares, it's not going to work. And they give up. But you're right, like post every day, three times a day for a year. And then let me know how that's when you start to see the results exactly

in your in your post start to get better and better. The more you do it as well, like in the beginning, it's like you have no idea what you're doing. But that's how you learn and get better to be able to start to post things that people actually care about. So it is a long journey. I'm very happy I started before this baby was born that but helpful son, I have a decent idea around how it works. But it's been super valuable for my business.

That's awesome, man. So let's talk about onboarding. So what are some of the mistakes that companies are making when it comes to onboarding new employees,

the biggest mistake that I see is HR kind of owns it, the hiring manager kind of owns it. And because both people kind of own it, nobody owns it, somebody has a really bad experience. And then they end up leaving sometimes before they even are supposed to show up, sometimes within a week, within a month. And it's like you spent all this time trying to recruit and find and talk with and it's like all this time and energy and effort. And then you don't even get to see that to have success. It's like you can't stop before the real stuff is supposed to actually begin. That's by far the biggest problem that I see. I think you also have a lot of managers who are really busy. And they might be the head of sales and they bring on someone underneath them and they're like, oh, Harrison, he'll just figure it out. It's like, no, as a manager, you have to really make sure that you're holding their hand and getting them set up for success. So arming and equipping managers to onboard people effectively is another really big important aspect that I see a lot of companies struggle with.

Yeah, I totally agree. And just thinking back to my own experience, I you know, there always was kind of that gray area between the department and HR have like, Hey, do you have this? Or should we handle that, or how's that happen? And really, as the company gets bigger, the communication gets worse it feels like so, of course, if there's three people and one of them's handling so that of course, you can talk it out and figure it out. But the bigger you get as your employer and onboarding, more employees, it just gets so nasty and yucky, and just difficult.

And those are the types of organizations that I really tend to work with and help the most. They are, say, Around 50 100 200 people. And maybe they only have one person in HR. And that person is really focused on bringing people in the door. And they don't have enough time and capacity to understand onboarding, what are the best practices? How do we implement some of that. And so that's where I really come in. And that's a person that I love working with, too. They love people so much. They want to make sure that those people have a good experience in their company that just over strapped and overworked. And so how can I help them implement best practices, processes systems to give those people a strong first impression? And then engage them throughout their tenure at the organization?

Yeah, I completely agree. I love that. What are the benefits then of having a structured onboarding process? How can people set up and then what what what are they going to gain from having that

the two biggest ones that I see is increased productivity, so they are productive quicker, I think if you have a strong well outlined, process, then you're going to be productive quicker, which saves the company a lot of money. And then retention, I mean, people similar to like, when I meet you, I care about the first impression that you make with me, that will stick with me for a very long time, I would argue the same exact thing happens from a company perspective. So if my first impression of X company is Harris, or just a number, we don't really care about you that much, it's gonna be really hard for that to change, they're gonna have to do a lot of things to get me back into good standing good feeling about that company. And when loyalty used to be such a big thing for employees, we know that in today's world, like people can just go online and find another job. Like it's so much different. Now, the world of work is so much easier to find opportunities. You don't have to be geographically located to you have to do retentions, and every day thing that you're working on, and it starts from the beginning. And that's one of the reasons why I really like onboarding is like if you do that, well, you can build a champion early. If you miss that opportunity, there's a pretty good chance that person is going to be leaving, and that cost you a ton of money to find somebody now.

Yeah, I don't think enough companies realize how much they cost them when they have to have go through some turnover. Even on an individual level. I just feel like companies kind of say, well, we'll just find somebody else. But it's it's pretty expensive.

Hmm. To, to which I had something go pretty viral on LinkedIn. It's on one of my featured things about like 60 to $90,000.60 to $90,000 of the total cost. I think it was Gallup or Sherm did for like a $80,000 employee of finding somebody getting them up to speed, it's like you're almost fully having to account for that salary just by them leaving. And to your point, a lot of companies will just say like, oh, it's that person, he was a, he was a bad egg, or she was a bad. It's like, well, sometimes you got to look in the mirror and make sure you have the right processes in place. That's been a big thing that I've seen. And when you do it, right, like people notice, and then it also helps you from a talent perspective. It's like, oh, I had a really good onboarding, I'm gonna go tell my friends, because there's good chance, we're also hiring if they already hired this. So it's one thing a big benefit that I don't think enough companies take advantage of is like, you give people a strong onboarding process, that stuff starts to talk in the market, and they start to their friends also start to become interested in that role becomes easier to recruit.

Yeah, that's something I didn't even consider. But you're absolutely right. If somebody in their first impression of the company, feels great, feels respected, feels like this is gonna be a great future for them. Of course, they're gonna go tell their friends, they're gonna say, Hey, guys, this company I'm with is amazing. You need to get over here. And that's, that's so powerful. I mean, some of my my best team members came from referrals from other team members. And so to think back, I never really pushed getting that to happen. I created a process around that more than just like, hey, it's 1000 bucks. If you send somebody and we've hired them like that, that feels like a very basic level of that. But getting the onboarding to work and getting them to right from the beginning. Love, it feels like an awesome way to get more referrals from employees.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think rather than start, if you don't on board, well, you start below. So like, if you're at zero, you're starting at a negative 310. From an employee retention perspective, you have to work so much harder to get them to be happy with your organization want to stay versus like, Let's do things, well start them at a 10. And then we can keep them there by doing some small minor things that require from an engagement perspective, but don't start behind the eight ball by not doing it well and not doing it effectively. And I just see that so often in organizations, and you'll talk with people and it is amazing how many people have poor onboarding experiences. It really, as I start to talk about this more the amount of direct messages that I get being like Do I wish my company did one of these 10 things that you're talking about, or I wouldn't have left if they did one of these 15 things that you're talking about, it's been pretty amazing to, to see and hear from different people out there.

That's kind of funny that you say that because in my sales coaching, I have people tell me, Hey, we implemented only one of these 10 things you told us and we already started closing more deals. So it is kind of funny that if you just do some things, right, you'll start to see results. It sounds like the same with sales or an onboarding. That's really cool. Absolutely. And I know you shared some some of the benefits to the company, but it also feels like the employees are getting massive benefits as well, from an of course, if you're a company and you care about your employees, obviously, I think most of us would say we do, they are going to feel amazing. It's so cool.

It's so it's what it's all about. And that's like why I'm in this is like I, we spent 90,000 plus hours of our life at work. And my goal is to make more people enjoy that I really dislike when people are like, like Mondays coming up or like, Thank God, it's Friday, it's like, you're gonna spend so much of your time doing work, please do something that that you enjoy. That is like my passion. That's why I get up every day. It's like, I want more people to enjoy the week where you spend so much time. And so onboarding, kicks it off? Well, retention is a big thing that I talked about engagement, things like that, and doing it in a way that people care about. And obviously Money plays a big factor. But money is not everything. Like you see all the statistics, it's like people have a really good friend at work, if they have a manager that values them, if they actually focus on what that employee cares about, like you're gonna keep your people, it just does not happen enough. From what I've seen in the world of work, and I'm doing my best to try to change that.

I love that. So how can companies address you know, making their onboarding process more engaging for their new employees?

Biggest thing, maybe not the biggest, one of the big things that I see is people ignore the pre boarding process. So from the moment somebody accepts their offer, through day one, how do you make sure that they're that you already start that engagement already start to get them excited? Some of this stuff sounds minor, but I think I would argue it makes a big impact, send them a swag pack, send them some company logo stuff, a coffee mug, a sweatshirt, a pair of socks, just I mean, you start to feel part of that organization. I would argue that you want to gather from the start, what brought them here? What's going to keep them here? What motivates them? And what's the best praise that I've received? So how do you gather that information from the start? So I have the blueprint for keeping you met in the organization, I think the more you can get senior leadership involved have a senior leader send a quick face to camera video, a mat, so excited for you to join the organization. Cool, that feels so cool. Wow, the president the founder reached out to me and, um, employee number 75. It's like all these different personal touches personal aspects. And then one, it's hard to talk about on onboarding without mentioning this, but ensuring that you're coordinated with it, your computer's there on time, your setup, probably comes up in three fourths of the conversation that I have. It's never done, right? You're losing out of productivity. Big time issues come from that.

Oh, that's so frustrating. So I remember I started at a company once when I was young, and I got there and they didn't have a desk ready for me, they didn't have a computer, there was nothing set up. They weren't prepared at all. It's just like what is going on. And so now ever since I always try to make sure that for any of our new hires, they always have everything set up locked and loaded, ready to rock as soon as they start day one. So they feel like we're ready for him. And we were excited for them. And they're already part of the team. Before they even get going. I just can't imagine not doing that anymore. It's huge.

I've talked 90% of people that I talked to have had an IT issue. I mean, maybe 100%, I'm just saying 90, because I I don't want to say 100. But it's very close. And so one of the things I recommend is like have someone from it available in the morning of day one for your new hire, have the manager be available from the morning. I think that's a very common one, someone starts on day one and their managers busy all four days. So they don't talk to them till Friday. It's like, talk about not setting yourself up for success and showing that you really don't care about somebody got to make your manager available, you got to make them like they are a valued member of your team, you have to treat them like that. Otherwise, it's too easy to go find another job.

I totally agree. Totally agree. So what other advice would you give to new software founders and leaders who are starting out and want to make sure that they set themselves up for success when it comes to employee onboarding?

So I would say what's going to set you up for success is making sure that you are building the company culture and creating it from the start so that you're getting everybody to buy in. And how are you getting to understand each individual and what they care about specifically, I think so often we're like, oh, I care about money. So Matt must also care about money or I care about title so Matt must also care about title to know we're all wired different. We're all focused on different things. So the more you can under stand that person's values, and what's important to them that will give you the key to retaining them. And I would argue that starts in day one, we sometimes ask these questions in the interview process. But then we don't document it anywhere it might be on like a notepad somewhere was like, that's not doing us any good. Like, we need to make sure that information is documented, like constantly bring it up, and use that blueprint to keep Matt and the organization because we really value Matt and know that the longer he's here, the more productive he becomes and less of a cost he becomes. Once you're up and running,

super valuable stuff. Really appreciate you coming in here as this has been amazing. How can our audience learn more about you, and also what you're doing with activate onboarding?

Yeah, absolutely. As mentioned, I am very active on Twitter at Harris fanaroff, at on LinkedIn as well, probably more active on LinkedIn, at Harris fanaroff, as well, I have a free newsletter called The optimistic office. So you can find that on my Twitter or on my LinkedIn, I share ideas to help you recruit onboard and retain your employees. So all the things that we talked about today, those are things that I really care about and love the people side of business. And yeah, connect with me shoot me a message on on any of those different platforms, and then check out our company activate onboarding, if you want help, understanding what best practices should be for your organization and implementing them or if you want technology to help make that easier for you. So yeah, I would love to connect with anybody who is passionate about onboarding and wants to make a difference inside their organization. I appreciate you having me on Matt.

Oh, it's been awesome having you you've shared so much value. I hope everybody has soak this up. And we'll make sure to put all your links into the show notes as well. So if you're listening or watching, you'll be able to check that out. Harris, this has been awesome. Thanks so much for coming on the show.

Thank you, Matt. I appreciate it. And I will talk to you soon.

Yeah, absolutely. And for everybody out there. Thanks for coming. Make sure you're subscribed to the show. You don't want to miss out on any other amazing leaders like Harris who are coming up in the next few weeks. So definitely hit that subscribe right now. Also, we're looking for reviews, go ahead and review us that really helps us get the word out to others. I'd really appreciate if you throw an awesome review on there. That would help me very much. Thank you very much for being here, and we'll see you next time. Take care.

Thanks for listening to Scale Your SaaS for more help on finding great leads and closing more deals. Go to Mattwolach.com