The Real Reason New Food Manufacturing Hires Leave Early – Fix Your Onboarding
Why New Starters Leave in the First 45 Days – and How to Stop It
When it comes to retention, many food manufacturing businesses focus on long-term engagement strategies. But often, the real risk is right at the beginning.
We recently spoke to a food manufacturer dealing with a 38% labour turnover. While that’s high, it’s sadly not unusual — especially when most of the loss happens in the first two months.
This early attrition often comes down to one key issue: poor onboarding.
Why onboarding matters more than you think
As a rule of thumb, up to 20% of new hires in the food industry will leave within the first 45 days. Not because the job isn’t right — but because the onboarding process is disorganised, confusing, or non-existent.
We frequently see scenarios like:
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No communication from the employer before day one
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Major business changes not shared with new hires
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Site teams unaware someone new is even joining
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No equipment set up — phone, laptop, vehicle, desk
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Email access not ready
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Induction plan missing or rushed
For candidates, especially in the technical, operations, or graduate spaces, this creates a poor first impression — and often a quick exit.
How to structure onboarding for better retention
At Corvin Fox, we break effective onboarding into three simple stages:
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Pre-start information:
What the employee needs to know before day one. This includes clear communication, welcome emails, team introductions, and expectations. -
Pre-start setup:
Ensuring equipment, logins, systems access, and site resources are ready in advance. The goal is for the employee to hit the ground running. -
Day one and beyond:
A structured induction, team integration, and check-ins throughout the first few weeks.
Getting these three steps right is proven to improve retention, boost early performance, and increase long-term engagement.
Want our best-practice onboarding checklist?
If you’re struggling with early turnover or want to benchmark your onboarding process, we can help.
Reach out to us directly, and we’ll send you our Onboarding Checklist – the same one we use with our food manufacturing clients to reduce early exits and increase new hire success.
