In product management, I often receive feature request after feature request. Some requests are straightforward and I understand, and some I have to go back to the customer to for clarity.
I’ll never forget receiving a request to “undo a hire” for an employee that already accepted a job.
The problem, as described to me: employees are “no showing” on their first day of work, and the hiring company is forced to roll back the hire.
I cringed when I heard this. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
As someone who has never found job hunting easy, I could not believe how common this is becoming in many industries. I would never do this, I thought to myself.
I did more digging.
What I found out: 31 percent of employees admit that they would ghost an employer after their first day on the job (Source: Visier).
Forbes’ findings are the same, demonstrating that 38 percent of employees leave within their first 90 days, and 88 percent of employees believe they are not given a good onboarding process.
As someone that filled out 188 job applications to obtain my current position, I still have trouble comprehending the concept of not showing up on your first day, thus forcing the employer into an HR nightmare wherein they have to undo everything in the hiring process, from your paperwork to your onboarding programs.
Onboarding woes, within healthcare, are far more common than you would think. Onboarding can cost anywhere from $200,000 to $300,000+, according to the company HealthStream.
I kept researching.
What is so hard about making an employee feel welcomed, educated and empowered in their first few days and months at their new job?
I searched for physician onboarding products to help solve the business problem. I came up with very little in the market. In fact, the companies that I interviewed expected the Human Resources person to endure a mountain of manual paperwork—but online, so I guess that makes it better?
Without the existence of such software, the administrative tasks get passed down to the physicians. Physicians are burned out and inundated with piles of paperwork during their onboarding, before they can start seeing patients.
According to Jackson Healthcare’s retention survey, one in three physicians receive no formal orientation.
It’s no wonder physicians are not feeling guided or supported. This only contributes to the burnout that everyone talks about in healthcare.
With the cost of recruiting a physician ranging from $250,000 to $1 million, it makes zero sense to drop the ball when the physician walks in the door.
Let’s do better so that our physicians can focus on what matters most—patient care and their own mental health.