Death of the honeymoon phase: Why new starters are looking elsewhere

Retention is the new name of the employment game. Fresh data has shown why employers should find ways to effectively onboard and reward new starters.

In the past, new employees were more engaged for the first year in a new role. Now, new hires report lower engagement, lower wellbeing, less inclusion, and lower intent to stay than other employees.

These and other concerning trends were unearthed in Qualtrics’ 2024 Employee Experience Trends report. Let’s take a look at the stats, before asking why employees aren’t enjoying the same surge in new-job enthusiasm.

No more honeymoon

“The workplace honeymoon period is what we call the first phase of your employment, usually lasting anywhere from two months to a year. This is the time [when] you’re still wearing your rose-coloured glasses, so to speak,” explained Ruul.

Research has established the existence of this honeymoon phase among new starters and has shown that intentions to leave are lower during this period of heightened satisfaction and enthusiasm.

It comes as a surprise, then, that new hires report worse key performance indicator (KPI) scores across the board, said Qualtrics. Employees who had joined their company within the last six months had the lowest intent to stay for three years or more (at 38 per cent, compared with 65 per cent overall). This is 3 percentage points lower than last year.

Similarly, new employees scored lower in the following three areas:

• Engagement (65 per cent versus 68 per cent overall)
• Wellbeing (66 per cent versus 72 per cent overall)
• Inclusion (66 per cent versus 73 per cent overall)

Clearly, new starters are no longer enjoying the same kind of honeymoon period as in years past. The question Qualtrics asked was: why?

According to Qualtrics, there are three trends behind the death of the new job honeymoon period:

1. Onboarding

Employers are not delivering on employee onboarding. “Rewind to just a few years ago, and many organisations were hiring in high volumes,” said Qualtrics. “And as such, were hyper-focused on the candidate experience. Now, fewer hires are being made across many industries, and organisations are focusing resources elsewhere.”

Onboarding is a crucial aspect of the employee experience. It can set the tone for an employment relationship and play a determinative role in the success of the employee moving forward. Despite this, 76 per cent of professionals believe onboarding is underutilised in their organisation, said Unboxed.

The hybrid reshuffle has fundamentally changed how employees interact with their colleagues, complicating the onboarding process.

“Organisations need to take a closer look at their post-COVID candidate and onboarding experience,” said Sarah Marrs, director of EX strategy execution at Qualtrics.

“Think through: ‘How are remote hires being welcomed and enabled to build relationships? Have our leaders been taught the necessary skills to onboard new employees that may not be in the same location as them?’”

As discussed in a recent HR Leader article, a good onboarding process is one that makes clear and coheres with the specific organisation’s values.

2. Employee experience programs

Qualtrics pointed to ineffective employee experience programs as contributing to the decline of the new-job honeymoon period. The employee experience extends beyond, but includes, the onboarding phase – continuing through every stage of the employee life cycle, to the exit and alumni stages. A central part of the employee experience is the social aspect of a role.

“Socialising helps new starters acclimate and ramp up effectively, make connections, and learn how to navigate new cultural norms,” said Qualtrics.

Not only will a more engaged and enthusiastic workforce serve individual new starters, but the broader business case is strong: “There’s financial benefit to retaining new talent, too. Losing a new hire is, frankly, expensive – more so than losing a tenured employee because you haven’t recouped the value of the hire.”

3. Growth and development

According to new employees, organisations are failing to prioritise growth opportunities among new starters. “Growth and development is the challenge to solve, with so many organisations working to reskill their workforces,” said Qualtrics.

“While growth and development is a top driver of employee experience outcomes like engagement, intent to stay, and (avoiding) burnout, employee sentiment tells us growth and development opportunities for new hires are scarce to nonexistent,” said Dr Antonio Pangallo, principal XM scientist at Qualtrics.

“At a time when Australia is trying to lift productivity and organisations are operating in uncertain and challenging markets, the decline in the indicators of a positive employee experience are a concern,” said Dr Crissa Sumner, senior manager of XM advisory services, Asia-Pacific and Japan, at Qualtrics.

“When you consider great employee experiences are linked to positive business outcomes – including profitability, productivity, retention, and customer satisfaction – employers need to act now, or they’ll be missing out.”