Onboarding and Orientations: The First Steps in Successful Retention
With NAHB's spring membership drive coming to an end, home builder associations (HBAs) are welcoming new members and focusing on engagement. The May session of the Third Tuesday Townhall series covered the first of NAHB’s pillars of retention: onboarding and orientations.
Guest speaker Pauline Wilton, director of member services at BIA of Lancaster, kicked off the conversation by sharing her onboarding tactics to maintain her HBA’s stellar retention rates.
The Purpose of Onboarding
Because the first few months are crucial for retention, onboarding is your golden opportunity to introduce your association to new members, and ensure they understand the value you provide and challenges you can help them face.
During first quarter 2019, strong onboarding efforts increased average first-year retention from 56.3% to 56.9% for builders and 50.3% to 51% for associates. The national retention rate has risen slightly to 78%.
Communication is Key
Making sure new members are acquainted with someone in the association — staff, officers, established members, committees members — is important when it comes to the onboarding process.
"I always reach out first, through phone calls or emails. And I always invite them to orientation, or I offer to meet them directly," said Wilton. "It’s to see why they joined and what we can do to work together."
How to Motivate Membership Committees
- Provide incentives for retention calls or other forms of outreach.
- Make personal introductions or assign committee members to engage new members.
- Have a streamlined flow of communication.
- Make resources easily accessible.
- Give it a creative name.
- Hold it over breakfast, lunch, dinner or a happy hour.
- Come up with a fun theme or activity.