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How to Effectively Onboard Employees Using Technology

When an employee starts at a new job, they feel a range of emotions. They’re excited about what’s to come, nervous about what might happen, ready to take on new challenges, and worried about what might go wrong.

Before they can make an impact, they need to be onboarded so that they can understand their role, meet key people in the organization, and learn more about benefits provided. Onboarding is your first opportunity to engage new hires, but often that comes second to the piles of paperwork required to stay compliant.

The right technology makes your existing process smoother, improving productivity from day one. Using onboarding tools will allow you to focus on managing people, not paper.

Why Employee Onboarding is So Important

Eventually employees will learn about your organization–whether you use technology or not. However, first impressions matter. You want your employee to feel good about their new job from day one. You also want it to be as painless as possible for you to bring someone on to your team.

Effective and efficient employee onboarding…

  • …sets new employees up for success. Rather than leaving a load of paperwork on an employees desk, you can collect much of the essential information before the employee begins. This sets employees up so that they can be successful from day one. It will also make them feel positively about their first week on the job.
  • …has the potential to increase retention. According to a study conducted by SHRM,employees who received a structured onboarding experience were 69% more likely to stay with the company for three or more years.
  • …increases productivity. Organizations with a standard onboarding process experience 50 percent greater new-hire productivity, according to the same study.

It’s clear that a well-thought out employee onboarding experience is worthwhile. Today’s technology makes it even more seamless.

How to Use Technology to Support Your Onboarding

Take Care of Paperwork Before Day One

When it comes to providing a great onboarding experience, your goal is to provide employees with the best first day possible. Good onboarding will reduce distractions and paper-chasing by allowing workers to complete new hire documents online before they start. This allows new hires can be more engaged with your culture and job responsibilities on the first day.

With the right technology, your process can progress from organizing stacks of paper to online documents and approvals, all in one central location. Your workers can easily fill-out government forms including I-9, W-4, and HC-5, as well as get access to compliance documents like Employee Handbooks and Company Policies.

Track Progress and Status in One Place

You want to provide your new hires with a good experience, but you also want to make sure the experience works well with your workflow. The best tools allow you to track each new hire in a dashboard as they move through the onboarding process. That way, you can easily filter and sort which new hires you want to view as you oversee the approvals.

The right technology will reduce back-and-forth communication with required fields and built-in guidance to ensure all information is completed. And, it will keep you in the loop as well, since you’ll receive a notification when your new hire has finished their onboarding and is ready for your approval.

Meet Employees Where They Are – On Mobile

Today’s employees access work information from more than their desktop computers. Onboarding platforms help you meet employees where they are by making documents and information accessible across desktop and mobile devices so new hires can easily follow instructions on the device that’s most convenient for them. Make sure your tool includes electronic signatures as well – the less paper, the better.

This post is part of a special blog series on ‘Get Fully Staffed: Finding and Keeping Great People' in support of ProService’s Growth Series event taking place on June 27, 2018. Offered exclusively to ProService clients and special guests, the Growth Series are interactive learning experiences that feature industry-leading speakers and networking opportunities that will inspire and provide tools for business leaders to take their organizations to the next level.

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