Workers in London take more than seven months to feel settled and productive, new research find

Workers in London say it takes more than seven months to feel fully settled and productive in a role, according to new research from AI-powered workforce management platform HBHR.

HBHR is marking the findings as Parliament returns to Westminster following the summer recess, highlighting the importance of effective onboarding, training and workforce support for UK employees.

The survey of 1,000 UK adults found that respondents in London took an average of 7.3 months to feel fully settled and productive in their current or most recent job role. One in ten (10%) took more than a year to reach that point, while 4% said they had never felt fully settled and productive in a role.

“The first few months of a role matter, and onboarding is a significant undertaking for both employer and employee”, said Callum Pennington, CEO and co-founder of HBHR. “Recruitment may end when someone accepts the job, but the research shows that becoming fully settled and productive is a much longer process. If that process takes longer than expected, it has implications not only for the individual but for workforce planning, operational capacity and the time teams spend supporting new starters.

“New employees interact with multiple processes from day one, across HR, payroll and workforce management. When those processes are fragmented, they can introduce avoidable friction into what is already a major transition.”

The research also found that almost one in ten respondents (8%) seriously considered leaving a job in the first month, while 12% said they had left a job within their first three months. One in eight (13%) London workers said they had received little or no formal training for their role, while one in ten (10%) said they had received no formal onboarding for a role.

The research highlights a serious challenge for businesses: while employers often make significant investments during the recruitment phase, onboarding must not become an overlooked part of the journey. When handled poorly, a meager onboarding can undermine that initial investment, leading to the loss of talented new hires and negatively affecting engagement, productivity and business performance.