Companies spend between $7,500 and $28,000 to hire a single employee. Yet 20% leave within the first 45 days.
The reason? Onboarding.
Only 12% of new hires believe their company provides a good onboarding experience. The remaining 88% start their new role already feeling disappointed — before they have truly got to know their team or understood their responsibilities.
What is really happening?
More than half of new employees say their first days are dominated by administrative tasks: paperwork, system set-up and compliance forms. Instead of getting to know their colleagues and understanding their role, they are faced with bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, 38% of organisations run onboarding programmes for just one month, while 14% limit them to a single week. This is despite consistent research showing that effective onboarding should last between three and six months.
And here is the most striking part.
In 2026, the new employee “honeymoon period” has not simply ended — according to Qualtrics, it is “heading towards divorce.” Only 44% of new employees expect to stay with their company for more than three years.
What does this mean for businesses?
A poor first experience with an organisation is a financial risk. Losing an employee within the first few months means repeating the recruitment process, while also losing valuable time and organisational knowledge.
By contrast, organisations with effective onboarding programmes increase employee retention by 82% and improve new hire productivity by more than 70%.
First impressions are made only once. And businesses have just 44 days to make sure they are the right ones.
Source: Qualtrics Employee Experience Trends 2026, AIHR Onboarding Statistics 2026, Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2026.
