"We hired diligently, only to receive a resignation notice in less than three months."
For any HR manager, this scenario is far from a simple recruitment failure. According to the 'Supplementary Survey on Youth in the Economically Active Population Survey for May 2025' officially released by Statistics Korea on July 24, 2025, dissatisfaction with working conditions—such as pay and working hours—accounted for 46.4% of the reasons for leaving a first job, marking a 0.9 percentage point increase from the previous year. The same survey showed that for those whose first job after graduation is as a wage earner, the average time required to secure initial employment was 11.3 months. This means that nearly half of young workers leave their first job—obtained after spending an average of over 11 months job hunting—due to dissatisfaction with working conditions.
According to the 'Employment Trend Brief' published by the Korea Employment Information Service in 2025, the average period required for youth to secure their first job in 2025 is 11 months, and the high proportion of youth leaving jobs due to unsatisfactory working conditions implies that the quality of jobs available to young people remains low.
According to the '2023 Second Half Corporate Recruitment Trend Survey' conducted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Employment Information Service targeting HR managers at the top 500 companies by revenue, 16.1% of new hires at large enterprises resign within one year, and three out of four companies reported that the resulting loss exceeds 20 million won per person. This structure directly translates time and money invested in recruitment into losses.
Onboarding refers to the entire process from when a new employee joins an organization until they understand the culture, work methods, and peer relationships, ultimately establishing themselves as active contributors.
It is not merely a program to aid adaptation, but the first signal of trust an organization extends to talent. Recruitment does not end with onboarding. Recruitment is truly completed only when new employees begin performing their roles.