Do you remember the last first day you had on your new job? If your experience was like most, it was filled with excitement, maybe a little nervousness, and most certainly a lot of…paperwork. The typical onboarding process starts when a new hire enters the building for the first day. She spends her time filling out mounds of paperwork, signing her name, writing her birthdate and social security number on I-9s, insurance paperwork, new employee documents, and numerous other essential documents. She writes the same information over…and…over again. Then comes the office tour making sure she knows where the bathroom, coffee machine, and other important areas are located. She’s introduced to other employees, and then shown her desk/cubby/office. From here on out, she’s welcome to ask questions for anything she might need, and just like that…it’s practically over.
A 2014 Aberdeen Group study found that the shorter the onboarding process, the less likely a company is to keep a new hire beyond 1 year. In fact, A 2007 study from the Wynhurst Group found that newly hired employees are 58 percent more likely to still be at the company three years later if they had completed a structured onboarding process. Companies that employ an onboarding process over 1month, and ideally up to 6 months, show a much greater retention rate.
The key to effective onboarding is to develop a process that engages your employee from before day one, and helps guide them all the way to full productivity. On the surface, this sounds like a daunting, if not impossible, task for HR professionals who are already stretched to the max with their efforts to find qualified candidates. However, with 2017 being the breakout year for companies investing in digital onboarding platforms, there has never been a more opportune time to take advantage of the technology that can revolutionize your onboarding process, and ultimately your company.
Here are 4 benefits of cloud-based onboarding:
- Higher Productivity, Less Work
Quite simply, cloud-based, digital solutions allow for higher productivity with less work. While that sounds like a “too-good-to-be-true” scenario, it’s important to understand how this happens. Artificial intelligence allows you to leverage the use of automation through the power of robots. These intelligent bots can do everything from engaging your new employee via instant messaging, to I-9/E-VERIFY VERIFICATION, visa expiration management, and more.
Finding the right onboarding platform for your company can streamline the process into a single, integrated system. Instead of jumping from one system to the next, digital solutions can allow you to integrate your payroll, healthcare, background checks, and other features into one platform, while maintaining essential compliance.
The cloud-based systems allow for more efficient interaction, beginning a pre-onboarding process with your new hire before her start date. This communication can be handled remotely via mobile devices.
- It Puts the Human Back in Human Resources
Unleash a team of robots on the documentation portion of your onboarding process, and you will find time to engage in the human elements of a new hire’s introductory phase into the company’s culture. While automation takes care of your documents, your new employee needs the skills and strengths of human leadership and empathy.
Lindsey Pollak shared, “The Hartford’s Millennial Leadership Survey found that the number one thing employers can do to demonstrate their investment in a young person becoming a leader is to train and develop them, including coaching and mentoring.”
The human touch is the very thing that keeps new hires engaged and productive. Digital onboarding gives HR personnel an opportunity to devote critical time to their new hires, either by being or assigning a coach or mentor.
- Engaging
Digital onboarding allows a myriad of opportunities to engage a new hire. Chatbots can interact with her to answer questions. Various forms of training can be utilized, including remote video options. Gaming solutions to increase engagement and culture development can be implemented to reach employees. Cloud-based solutions can engage your new employees effectively, and they are also changeable. A good digital system can be adjusted relatively quickly to fit the needs of your company, without having to start over with an entirely new program.
- Compliance
The ability to adjust quickly through a cloud-based solution is incredibly important in the area of compliance. As state and federal laws continue to roll-out and are increasingly more stringent, compliance in your onboarding process is a non-negotiable. With the power of intelligent automation, you can remove the common mistakes caused by human error that lead to costly fines. As regulations adjust, the digital solutions that maintain these facets can be quickly and efficiently upgraded to maintain compliance.
There are many ways that cloud-based onboarding solutions can help. Finding the right system for your company will bring tremendous value to your team, and ultimately help increase the overall profitability of your company.
