In a world where technology is evolving at such a rapid pace to bring better efficiency to all areas of business and customer experience, it seems absurd that ineffective employee onboarding could be the one thing standing in the way of your HR digital strategy excelling in 2018.
January is the opportune time to kick-start the year, businesses are setting goals and the search for new recruits begins. Employee onboarding is described as the critical part of bringing a new starter into a business. This is at the point of moving from a preferred candidate to an employee. However, 2017 research found nearly four in ten (39%) of employees globally are having problems either between accepting or when they actually start a new job.
In today’s digital age, and whilst businesses look to move away from traditional manual processes, with the finance industry fully reaping the benefits, it appears that employee onboarding has been overlooked. But with the latest onboarding technology available, forward-thinking HR teams can now embed this critical area in their digital strategy.
Here’s a look at the 3 reasons employee onboarding is such an easy win for your 2018 digital strategy:
Automating your contracts
“No contract ready and as a result they didn’t pay me on time”
Taking the time to manually draft a contract, capturing personal details, incorporating all relevant information can be both a timely and error-prone task, even more so if you are onboarding a high volume of candidates. Errors within contracts and offer letters can bring substantial delays to start dates and In today’s competitive recruitment space, this could cost businesses the right candidate.
Streamlining this part of the process with contract templates, e-mail merge and full visibility of all completed and outstanding tasks quickly enables this to become a painless task for HR teams. As well as providing a quick and paperless experience for the new onboardee having the option to digitally sign their contract and complete it there and then without having to print a single form.
The first day checklist
“I didn’t have a computer for the first month, and then no internet for the first 3 months.”
The first day checklist can often be quite lengthy, making sure the new employee has everything from their login details to an adequate workspace. 42% of employees confessed to turning up on their first day to no basic equipment such as a computer or laptop. Failing to provide a good experience in the very premature stages of onboarding can quickly cascade into a lack of engagement and a new employee deciding to leave.
Technology can aid this process, enabling HR teams to set up and allocate tasks to relevant personnel ensuring every department is aware of what they need to prepare ahead of the new starter’s first day.
Pre-reading and training
“I was completely lost because I didn’t receive training”
Training is fundamental, as the saying goes ‘you get out what you put in’. If you want a confident employee ready to provide results, invest the time and resource to train and support them from the moment the offer had been made.
79% agreed they would have settled in quicker had there been a better onboarding process. Through an onboarding system, any documentation or pre-reading can be sent ahead of the first day so new starters and HR teams both know what tasks need to be completed and have a record as and when it has been carried out.
Employee onboarding going digital
With most areas of business leveraging technology for a more enhanced and efficient way of doing things, it seems onboarding should be the next area ready to take hold of the opportunity. Making use of a digital solution, improves the onboarding experience for a new employee as well as having tangible time saving benefits all while providing greater visibility of the HR function.
Technology can take away the administrative headache of creating and issuing high volume onboarding projects with the help of standard templates, automatic mail merge and digital signing reducing both time and errors. Having a centralised online portal with all relevant information, pre-reading, and welcome documentation can provide greater visibility for both the hiring teams and the new starter.
Look to improve your business’s brand and efficiency in 2018 and incorporate employee onboarding into your digital strategy.
Rebecca joined the HRreview editorial team in January 2016. After graduating from the University of Sheffield Hallam in 2013 with a BA in English Literature, Rebecca has spent five years working in print and online journalism in Manchester and London. In the past she has been part of the editorial teams at Sleeper and Dezeen and has founded her own arts collective.
