(Newswire.net — September 9, 2021) — Onboarding a new joiner is a complicated process beyond a quick tour and creating a new email login. It’s also a key HR responsibility: nearly 60% of new employees are more likely to stay with an organization if offered a cheerful introduction. The connection between onboarding and retention becomes even more critical when you factor in that 20% of staff turnover happens within the first 45 days of employment.
As COVID-19 slowly begins to recede, the turnover problem for organizations will only become worse. In fact, according to a recent survey, more than a third of the workforce is very likely to quit their current job (despite high satisfaction levels) if they are forced to come back to the office five days a week as they used to. That not only means saying goodbye to employees but also bringing on new faces.
Implementing a successful onboarding process requires a serious commitment from an organization. That’s why more and more companies are using tailored HR software to automate onboarding. By contrast, many HR managers already understand what can happen if their organizations skimp on automation: a survey among HR professionals found that 36% of respondents believe that the inability to automate the onboarding process negatively impacts the new hire experience.
So, where can you start when it comes to automating onboarding? Below are five of the best ways to streamline your processes:
Preboarding: because it’s time to give paperwork the pink slip
Managers can use software to set up a preboarding workflow instead of overwhelming people who have just signed on the dotted line with reams of human resources forms on day one. By making it possible for new hires to upload documents digitally, people can take care of the paperwork faster. In addition, streamlining the onboarding process this way means that an organization’s newest members will be able to spend more time getting to know their colleagues and less time filling out forms on their very first day.
Tracking new hires’ progress
HR must also be empowered to track progress—and remove any friction points a new joiner may encounter during the onboarding process. For example, onboarding tools can quickly notify a manager if a new team member has veered off track and invite the new hire back to the onboarding process. In addition, creating automatic emails or text messages to let new joiners know that they need to complete a specified percentage more to reach the onboarding finish line will make them less likely to become frustrated and disengaged.
Connect new hires with their new team members asap
As soon as a contract is signed, an HR team can streamline the onboarding process by adding new employees to the company’s internal social network. Posting images and a welcome video to watch before they start is a great way to make an organization’s latest addition feel right at home. Taking it one step further, HR software can be utilized to specifically introduce new joiners to their co-workers, as well as their interests and hobbies. Automation can also harness an internal social network to communicate an organization’s structure, departments, teams, mission, vision, and values.
Want to get your new hires up and running? Time to get personal
New hires should only be presented with the orientation materials relevant to their specific roles in an organization. However, the average new joiner has54 activities to complete during the traditional onboarding experience. The right automation tools can personalize the onboarding process by creating an onboarding workflow tailored to a defined talent profile. Streamlining the process allows an organization’s new joiners to start contributing as quickly as possible by cutting out unnecessary tasks.
How’s HR doing? Feedback surveys point the way
The twin goals of an organization’s onboarding process are to prepare new hires for their role and make them feel like valued members of the company they have just joined. To this end, automated surveys ensure that HR managers get timely feedback and insights into the onboarding process. An HR team has to set up an email with a link to a study that new hires receive automatically after they have completed the onboarding process. The data from these evaluations will guarantee that an organization’s onboarding program only improves over time.
HR: combatting the turnover tide with data
Greater accuracy, savings, and retention are the primary benefits of implementing a streamlined onboarding process. In addition, for new hires, a digitized onboarding program boosts productivity, increases engagement, and helps them manage expectations, reducing those feelings of being overwhelmed early on.
But even though the advantages of an automated process are straightforward, only 12% of companies do well in onboarding. So when many experts predict a wave of voluntary employee departures and resignations as the working world starts to move past the pandemic, HR managers need to adopt a data-driven mindset to get the onboarding process right.
Adi Janowitz is VP of Customer Success at Hibob. Adi has vast experience in building and leading Customer Success organizations in SaaS companies. In her recent role, she re-built the EMEA CS department at WalkMe. Before that, she built the Idomoo global CS org from the ground up. Adi focuses on boosting retention by building a scalable KPI-driven CS organization while creating KPI coherency for the entire company.