Onboarding KPIs: 9 Metrics That Predict New Hire Success

At one of my early startups, we lost three employees in their first 90 days. Not because they were bad hires. They weren't. We just had no idea they were struggling until they handed in their resignations.

That sucked. And it was expensive.

After that wake-up call, I rebuilt our entire approach to onboarding measurement. Our 90-day retention went from 71% to 94%. Not because we became better at hiring. Because we finally started paying attention to the right numbers.

I'm going to share exactly what we track now at FirstHR, why it matters, and where to start if you're currently measuring nothing.

Why Most Small Businesses Get Onboarding Measurement Wrong

Roughly one in three new hires quits within 90 days. Let that sink in.

And small businesses get hit harder. We see 12% annual turnover compared to 9.9% at large companies. We don't have dedicated HR teams. We don't have sophisticated systems. Half the time we're onboarding people while simultaneously putting out fires elsewhere.

So we wing it. Or we measure the wrong stuff.

I made this mistake for two years. I tracked completion rates religiously. Did they finish the paperwork? Watch the training videos? Sign the handbook acknowledgment? Check, check, check.

Everyone "completed" onboarding. Then people quit anyway.

What I missed: completion doesn't equal comprehension. Someone can watch every video and still feel completely lost on day 15. The metrics that actually predict whether someone will succeed and stay (satisfaction scores, time to first contribution, manager feedback) I wasn't tracking any of them.

That gap? That's the opportunity. Companies tracking onboarding KPIs see 25% better outcomes, per Brandon Hall Group. They catch problems before frustrated new hires start job hunting. They spot which managers onboard well and which need help.

The goal isn't drowning in spreadsheets. It's tracking a handful of metrics that actually tell you something useful.

The 9 Employee Onboarding KPIs That Actually Matter

Before diving into each one, here's the quick reference:

Now let me explain how we actually use these.

1. Time-to-Productivity

Time to Productivity = Date Reached Full Productivity − Start Date

Sounds simple. It's not.

"Full productivity" is meaningless unless you define it. For our customer success team, it means handling tickets independently without escalating everything. For sales, it's running demos without someone shadowing them. For engineering, it's shipping code that doesn't need to be completely rewritten.

Industry averages are all over the place. Entry-level roles: 8 weeks. Professional roles: 20+ weeks. Some sources say 8-12 months for "full" productivity, which honestly feels like a cop-out definition.

For small businesses, I'd focus on time to basic competency. The point where someone can handle core tasks without constant hand-holding. That's what actually matters for your day-to-day operations.

2. 90-Day Retention Rate

This is the single most important onboarding metric. Full stop.

90-Day Retention = (New Hires Retained at 90 Days ÷ Total New Hires) × 100

Aim for 90%+. If you're below 80%, something is seriously broken.

When we hit 71% last year, I assumed we had a hiring problem. We were picking the wrong people. Needed better interview questions. Better assessments.

Wrong.

We had an onboarding problem. New hires felt abandoned after week one. Nobody checked in. Nobody asked how things were going. The fix was embarrassingly simple: structured check-ins at days 7, 14, 30, and 60. That's it. I wrote a separate guide on new hire check-in questions that covers exactly what to ask at each milestone.

3. First-Year Retention Rate

First-Year Retention = (New Hires Still Employed After 12 Months ÷ Total New Hires) × 100

This tells you whether your early onboarding success actually translates into long-term employment. Someone might survive the first 90 days but still leave at month 8 because they never really integrated.

Target 75%+ for small businesses. Companies with structured onboarding see 69% of employees stay three years or more, according to SHRM.

4. New Hire Satisfaction Score

Stop guessing how new hires feel. Ask them.

We survey at 30, 60, and 90 days. Five questions, takes two minutes:

• How clear were your job expectations? (1-10)
• How prepared do you feel for your role? (1-10)
• How supported do you feel by your manager? (1-10)
• How welcomed do you feel by the team? (1-10)
• Would you recommend working here to a friend? (1-10)

You can get fancy and calculate an Employee Net Promoter Score:

eNPS = % Promoters (9-10 rating) − % Detractors (0-6 rating)

Above +30 is good. Above +50 is excellent.

But honestly? Just look at question three. Manager support. That single question predicts retention better than anything else we've tested. When someone scores their manager below a 6, we know we have maybe two weeks to fix it before they start updating their LinkedIn. I cover the full question framework in my onboarding survey questions guide.

5. Training Completion Rate

Training Completion Rate = (Completed Training ÷ Assigned Training) × 100

Here's a sobering number: only 19-25% of employees complete all onboarding checklists across US companies. Most people just... don't finish.

When our completion rate was 60%, I blamed the new hires. They weren't prioritizing it. They were too busy. They didn't care.

Then I actually looked at our onboarding checklist. 47 items. Forty-seven. Half of them were redundant. A quarter were outdated. Some literally didn't apply to certain roles.

We cut it to 12 must-dos. Completion hit 91% the next month.

If your completion rate is low, the problem is almost certainly your training, not your people. Target 85-90%.

6. Time-to-First-Contribution

This one doesn't have a universal formula because "first contribution" varies wildly by role:

• Sales: First closed deal or qualified demo
• Engineering: First shipped feature or merged PR
• Customer Success: First ticket handled without escalation
• Marketing: First published piece of content

Why track this? It's a leading indicator. You can see whether someone is on track long before you have retention data. New hires who hit early milestones tend to stick around. Those who struggle to contribute anything meaningful in the first month? Red flag.

We benchmark this against our best performers. If our top salespeople typically close their first deal in 3 weeks, that's what we're shooting for with new hires. Not an arbitrary number. A proven one.

7. Manager Satisfaction Score

Survey managers at 30, 60, and 90 days. Ask them:

• Is this person prepared for the role?
• Did our onboarding cover what they needed?
• Are they meeting your expectations for this stage?

This catches something important: misalignment between what onboarding teaches and what the job actually requires. I've seen situations where new hires aced all their training but still weren't prepared for the actual work. That's not their fault. It's ours.

This also identifies which managers need help. When one manager consistently reports satisfaction below 3.5 out of 5 while others are at 4+, that tells you something. Usually it's not that they're getting worse candidates. It's that they're worse at integrating people into their team.

Average scores above 4 = healthy. Below 3.5 = dig deeper.

8. Onboarding Cost Per Hire

Onboarding Cost = (Training Costs + Admin Time + Technology + Manager Time) ÷ Number of New Hires

Small businesses typically spend $600-$1,800 per employee. That's actually higher per-person than enterprise companies (~$500) because we can't spread fixed costs across hundreds of hires.

But here's my unpopular opinion: don't obsess over reducing this number.

I'd rather spend $1,500 on solid onboarding than $800 on crappy onboarding plus $40,000 replacing someone who quit.

9. Quality of Hire Index

Quality of Hire = (Job Performance + Ramp-Up Time Score + Engagement + Cultural Fit) ÷ 4

This is a composite score that tries to capture overall value. Average is 73 out of 100. Top companies hit 81+.

Only 20% of organizations track this, even though SHRM calls it the most valuable recruiting metric.

I'll be honest: we don't track this one rigorously. It requires pulling data from multiple sources and making judgment calls on subjective things like "cultural fit." For now, we focus on the more straightforward metrics and revisit this once we have better systems in place.

Industry Benchmarks: What "Good" Looks Like

A 15% turnover rate is excellent in retail and terrible in professional services. Context matters.

Technology

Tech runs hot. 12.9% annual turnover, second highest across industries. Hiring takes forever too, averaging 48 days versus 38 for other sectors.

Healthcare

Healthcare is in crisis mode. Hospital turnover hit 18.3% in 2024. Nearly a third of new hires (30.2%) leave within their first year. Replacing a single RN costs $56,000-$61,000.

Retail

Retail just accepts high turnover as normal. 60-75% annually is standard. Best-in-class retailers get it down to 30-40%, which in any other industry would be catastrophic.

Professional Services

Consulting and professional services hover around 13.6-20% turnover. Big 4 firms run 15-20% attrition as a feature, not a bug. Up-or-out culture.

The 5 Metrics Every Small Business Must Track

Nine KPIs is a lot. You probably don't have time for all of them. I get it. Neither did we when we started.

Here's the short list. These five give you 80% of the insight with 20% of the effort.

Why Small Business Numbers Look Different

Before the list, some context. Small businesses face different economics:

• We spend more per employee on training (~$1,100 vs ~$500 at large companies)
• We experience higher turnover
• 66% of small business employees report feeling "untrained" after onboarding, highest of any company size
• Only 36% of SMBs have structured onboarding programs

That last stat is actually good news. You can beat competitors just by being intentional about this stuff.

The Five to Focus On

1. 90-Day Retention Rate: Your north star. Captures the critical window when most departures happen. If you track one thing, track this.

2. First-Year Retention Rate: Tells you whether early success becomes long-term engagement. Watch for sudden drops.

3. Time-to-First-Performance-Goal: More practical than "time to full productivity." Define what success looks like for each role, then track how quickly people get there.

4. New Hire Satisfaction Score: A five-question survey at 30 and 90 days. Pay special attention to manager support scores.

5. Training Completion Rate: If people aren't finishing onboarding, your program is too long or too confusing.

Realistic Targets

Don't compare yourself to Google.

The goal is improvement, not perfection. Track your baseline, then beat it by 10% each quarter.

How to Start Measuring This Week

You don't need software. You need a system, even a basic one. (That said, this exact frustration is why I built FirstHR to automate the tracking that most small businesses skip.)

This Week: Establish Your Baseline

Grab a spreadsheet. List every hire from the past 12 months. Mark who's still employed. Calculate your current retention rates.

That's it. You now know more about your onboarding than most small businesses.

If you hired 10 people and 7 are still here after a year, your first-year retention is 70%. If 2 left within 90 days, your 90-day retention is 80%. Simple math, powerful insight.

This Month: Add One Survey

Create a simple satisfaction survey. Five questions, two minutes. Send it at 30 days.

Google Forms works fine. Don't overthink it.

Questions that work:

1. How clear were your job expectations? (1-10)
2. How prepared do you feel? (1-10)
3. How supported by your manager? (1-10)
4. How welcomed by your team? (1-10)
5. Overall onboarding rating? (1-10)

This Quarter: Build a Simple Dashboard

Still just a spreadsheet. Track:

• New hires by month
• Still employed at 30 days?
• Still employed at 90 days?
• Satisfaction survey scores
• Training completed?

Review monthly. Look for patterns. When someone leaves early, go back to their survey scores. You'll start seeing connections.

One Mistake to Avoid

Don't wait for perfect data.

I spent months trying to build a "proper" tracking system before measuring anything. Meanwhile, people kept leaving and I had no idea why. The crappy spreadsheet I finally threw together in an afternoon taught me more in one month than my plans for the "perfect system" ever would have.

Start messy. Track something. Improve as you go.

Common Questions About Onboarding KPIs

What's the most important onboarding metric for small businesses?

90-day retention rate. It captures the critical period when most early departures happen, and it's dead simple to calculate. If new hires are leaving in their first three months, that's an onboarding problem, not a hiring problem.

How do you measure onboarding success without HR software?

Spreadsheet. Seriously. Track new hires, retention milestones, and run a simple satisfaction survey through Google Forms. You can measure the most important onboarding KPIs manually until you're ready to invest in tools.

What's a good 90-day retention rate?

For small businesses, aim for 80%+ as a starting target. Enterprise companies shoot for 90%+. If you're below 75%, something in your process needs immediate attention.

How often should you survey new hires?

Minimum: 30 days and 90 days. Some companies add a 7-day check-in and 60-day survey, but start simple. Two surveys is better than zero surveys because you planned four and never got around to it.

Which KPI predicts retention best?

New hire satisfaction with manager support. Employees who feel unsupported by their manager in the first month are significantly more likely to leave within the year. That's why we weight question three heavily in our surveys.

What to Do Next

Pick one metric. I'd start with 90-day retention.

Calculate your current number. That's your baseline.

Then figure out why people are leaving early or staying. The answers are usually simpler than you'd expect. Check-ins that never happened. Training that confused instead of clarified. Managers who were too busy to manage.

You don't need a massive overhaul. You need to know what's actually happening, then fix the obvious stuff first.

The companies winning the talent game aren't spending more money on onboarding. They're paying attention. They measure, learn, and improve.

Your onboarding is either building your team or bleeding it. The only way to know which is to track the numbers.

Start this week.