Automated Employee Onboarding: Everything You Need to Know
Employee onboarding looks different at every company. Some choose to have an onboarding process that only lasts a few days, while others spread out onboarding over a few months. Regardless of the length of your employee onboarding, automating this process is sure to help your HR department and increase the overall performance of your company.
We know that a great employee onboarding process takes some thought, so we’ve put together the ultimate guide to automating employee onboarding. We’ll cover what automated employee onboarding is and some of the dangers of manual onboarding. You’ll also learn about the benefits of automated onboarding and what that can look like in your company.
What is Automated Employee Onboarding?
Automated employee onboarding uses software to automate employee onboarding tasks and activities to free up your HR team. It includes repetitive tasks like sending emails, collecting signatures, or moving new hires through training modules.
With automated onboarding, you can set it and forget it. Automating your employee onboarding process frees up precious time for you to focus on rolling out the red carpet for your new hire. You have more times to help them connect with colleagues, learn the ins and out of their new position, and go through the training process.
Pitfalls of Manual Onboarding
Many companies still choose to follow a manual process of onboarding. As a result, the new hire’s first day is spent in a whirlwind of paperwork and training, often leaving them tired and overwhelmed.
Here are just a few of the drawbacks of manual onboarding:
- Time-consuming: New employees often waste time filling out documents on their first day. This steals time away from other crucial first-day activities, like getting to know their team or finding their way around the office.
- Lacks personal interest: Instead of engaging with your new hire, they’ll be stuck under a mountain of paperwork and modules to move through. An experience like this is hardly memorable, and it will set the tone for their time at the company.
- Higher chances of human error: All the documents employees fill out contain personal information. A simple error or mistype could cause trouble with employee benefits or pertinent IT usernames and passwords. With manual onboarding, this information may change hands and platforms several times, increasing the chances of error.
Why Your Company Should Make the Switch
1. Unify the onboarding process
Using a program to automate your employee onboarding allows you to have all of your new hire’s information in one central location. Eliminating the confusing onboarding process makes it possible to collect data about your new hire more efficiently without repetition. (ex. Information about employee snack preferences that go to HR but not to their team leader)
2. Increase employee retention
It’s no secret that employees who don’t feel valued tend to jump ship at the first sign of trouble. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, 50% of employee turnover occurs in the first 18 months. To combat this, companies should strive to implement proper onboarding for each employee to decrease the chances of turnover.
3. Save time & money
New employees can start from day one with all the tools they need (software logins, account passwords, training modules). In addition, HR managers can spend less time platform hopping to learn about the new hire and more time getting to know the new hire personally.
4. Standardize your onboarding process
Employee onboarding automation ensures that each new hire receives the same onboarding experience. You’ve put in time and effort to secure talent, and a consistent and structured process increases the chances of them sticking around.
5. New hire feels empowered and engaged
A manual onboarding process could make your new employee feel stressed and unappreciated. A streamlined onboarding process will move them from training to working much faster. They will feel empowered and ready to take on their role and work with their team.
How to Automate Your Onboarding Process
1. Simplify paperwork delivery
Instead of bombarding new hires with paperwork to view in different locations, you can include these as part of the onboarding flow. For example, Readii makes it possible to add PDFs or create documents to add to your onboarding process. New recruits will only see the paperwork relevant to their current module. Delivering paperwork in this manner lowers the chances of confusion for new employees. In addition, it makes it easier for them to find and reference documents during the onboarding process.
2. Automate and streamline the training process
Instead of manually taking each new hire through your training process, and unlocking modules one by one, create a self-paced training portal. Record the training process once with apps like Loom and make it possible for hires to watch again when they have questions. They can work through it independently and get feedback as they move through each section.
3. Connect and activate all software tools
Don’t have new employees waiting for software tools they need to settle into their role. Give employees access to all the logins and passwords they need to be productive from day 1. Readii makes it possible for you to easily sync new users’ accounts so they can hit the ground running.
4: Automatically connect employees with onboarding buddies.
You want new hires to feel a sense of camaraderie in the office right from the start. So automatically connect new employees with onboarding buddies to help them ease into their roles. Give employees the option to schedule lunches or coffee meetups. You might also choose to schedule announcements in Slack to announce their arrival to the company and team.
5: Collect and Sync information
Collect and sync information about your new hire. Automating information like benefits enrollment can put the minds of new employees and HR staff at ease. With this out of the way, they can focus on learning more about the new hire and forging new connections with other colleagues.
Takeaways
Automated onboarding decreases the chances of employee turnover and helps your company save precious time and money. While it may seem daunting, it doesn’t have to be. Making a move towards automated onboarding help companies rise to the demands of the modern-day workforce and avoid being left behind.
At Readii, we that any company can provide great onboarding. We can help you create engaging onboarding processes to make employees feel empowered from start to finish. See a demo to learn more.
