“No chemistry” could be the reason behind break-ups not only in personal relationships but in the workplace as well. And no perks of a fancy office, delicious cookies in the kitchen, extra days off, or work from home options can improve the state of things if something has already cracked. The question is: could we prevent the no-chemistry answer with the proper help from HR metrics?
For years, HR teams have repeated the mantra that the first three months define the lifetime value of a hire. Yet, in practice, onboarding is still often reduced to logistics: contracts signed, laptops delivered, and office tours scheduled.
The thing people frequently forget is that hiring is an investment, and the first 90 days must be treated as a product launch. It requires designing a journey, defining success metrics, and iterating with the same rigor that product managers apply to user growth.
From checklists to product thinking
Experience from inside large international tech companies shows how costly “no chemistry” can be. In exit interviews, employees who resigned after five to seven months often gave this vague explanation. There were no conflicts, no performance issues, no clear warning signs.
But behind the phrase lay a more profound truth: during onboarding, they had never found answers to the essential questions — why they were here, how their role mattered, and what the company honestly expected of them. Without that “sense-making” onboarding, motivation quietly drained away until the decision to leave became inevitable.
The difference between “housekeeping onboarding” and “sense-making onboarding” is critical. The first ensures a laptop works and accounts are ready; the second helps employees see how their role connects to the company’s mission. Without the latter, attrition may not happen immediately, but productivity remains low and engagement slips silently.
Looking at onboarding through a product lens reframes it entirely. In this model, activation, engagement, and retention become the guiding categories.
Activation means Day-1 readiness: do new hires have the tools, access, and at least one meaningful task in their first week? Engagement is evident through learning milestones, pulse surveys, and interactions with managers or buddies. Retention reveals itself at 30, 60, and 90 days, when goals are reached — or not — and decisions to stay become firm.
Turning onboarding into numbers that count
Among the most telling indicators is time-to-productivity: how long it takes for a newcomer to deliver their first valuable outcome, whether that is a closed customer ticket, a finished sprint deliverable, or a signed deal. This is the most precise measure of when the investment in hiring begins to return value.
Another key signal is the above-mentioned Day-1 readiness. Tracking how many employees are fully operational by the morning of their first day may sound trivial, but it strongly predicts their overall experience.
Learning outcomes are equally important. Completion and pass rates of training modules highlight design flaws when drop-off rates spike, much like product onboarding data shows where users churn.
Pulse surveys and sentiment checks at day 7, 30, and 60 provide a direct line into engagement. Combined with data on manager or buddy touchpoints, they reveal whether employees feel supported, confused, or already questioning their decision.
Finally, early retention is the hard truth. Monitoring who passes probation and who leaves within the first 90 days is not just about headcount; it is a measure of alignment. If there exists a cluster in month two, expectations or values were misaligned from the start.
Automation with a human in the loop
Automation can orchestrate workflows, send reminders, and handle simple FAQs. However, complex or emotionally charged questions require human intervention. Bots can confirm when payday is; they cannot address fairness concerns or career doubts. The right balance enables automation to free up time, allowing HR professionals and managers to invest that time in meaningful, empathetic conversations.
At this stage, emotional intelligence becomes indispensable. The ability to sense hesitation, listen carefully, and respond with empathy ensures that human touchpoints during onboarding create trust rather than add pressure. EI is becoming HR’s most valuable leadership asset, and onboarding is where this quality has its full impact.
Companies that ignore this balance often pay the price. Some paint a polished but unrealistic picture of culture, presenting work-life balance as perfect during probation and then revealing a 24/7 reality later. Unsurprisingly, attrition spikes. Long hours alone do not push people out — the gap between declared values and lived experience does.
Leadership’s role in the first 90 days
The responsibility does not rest with HR alone. CEOs who make themselves visible to newcomers — through lunches, Q&A sessions, or joining team calls — accelerate trust and context.
HR leaders, meanwhile, should adopt new tools not for novelty but for their ability to release time for genuine human connection. A team that believes in the process and has time for dialogue becomes the strongest advocate of company culture.
Onboarding measured with the right metrics protects the investment each hire represents. Combined with the human element of emotional intelligence, it becomes not just a workflow but a strategic driver of long-term growth and success. And when that happens, the risk of “no chemistry” explanations — in exit interviews or team conversations — becomes far less likely.
