Employers Aim for “90-Day Rule”

The first three months of new employment are increasingly seen as key to employee retention, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

What’s going on: According to experts, three months has generally been a useful benchmark for employers interested in assessing how new employees are performing.

“Just as it can take weeks of consistent effort to develop an exercise habit that sticks, employers have found that 90 days is typically enough time for workers to get into a steady routine of a new job. This can be particularly important for hourly employees in higher-turnover industries like hospitality or manufacturing, executives say, where workers have plenty of options.”

Why it matters: In the midst of a tight labor market, when finding new high-quality employees is challenging, retaining new and long-term employees is more important than ever.

The manufacturing industry—which is confronting a skills gap that could result in 2.1 million unfilled jobs by 2030, according to a study by Deloitte and the MI—is especially vulnerable to the costs of lost hires.

What they’re doing about it: From 90-day onboarding programs to increased communication with new hires, employers are leaning into opportunities to create a more connected workplace that encourages new hires to stay.

Carrier Global Corp., a heating and air conditioning company, has begun a program designed to connect each new employee in its manufacturing facilities with a “buddy” who has been at the company long term to help promote cohesion.
Waste Management Inc., a trash removal and recycling company, is also pairing new hires with veteran employees and intends to launch a tool designed to help managers receive anonymous feedback from their teams in real time.