Organizational Socialization: The Role of Onboarding in Employee Longevity

Abstract

This study proposed testing a model linking employees’ onboarding experience within the first three months at an organization with their tenure through the mediators of perceived supervisor (PSS) and organizational support (POS) while considering the moderator of reason for leaving. We hypothesized that data would show positive linkages between onboarding experience and increased PSS and POS leading to increased tenure and that these relationships would change under conditions of the moderator. The data included employees from a national financial institution who had all voluntarily left the organization and who also completed an onboarding survey after their first 90 days on the job as well as an exit survey upon their egress. Results indicated a significant relationship between onboarding and tenure, PSS and tenure, and PSS and POS. The proposed moderated mediation model was not supported, indicating that the effect of onboarding on tenure does not occur as a serial mediation process through PSS and POS, but rather directly, from fostering the variables of onboarding and PSS. Implications and future directions are discussed.