Research suggests that 88% of organizations have a poor onboarding process, and new hires are assigned 41 administrative tasks to complete on average. Unstructured, tedious onboarding tasks can lead to candidate abandonment and slow the hiring process, costing your company time and money.
Discover how to streamline onboarding and help new hires thrive in your organization.
Implement Pre-Boarding
Pre-boarding is the stage between hiring and starting, where the employer communicates with the new hire and prepares them for their first day. Pre-boarding can help reduce anxiety, build excitement, and establish trust between new hires and employers. Some of the pre-boarding activities that can streamline onboarding are:
- Send a welcome email or video introducing new hires to the company culture, values, mission, and goals.
- Provide a checklist of documents, compliance forms, and tasks the new hires must complete before their first day.
- Assign a buddy or mentor who can answer questions and offer guidance and support throughout onboarding.
- Invite new hires to join social media groups, online platforms, or virtual events where they can interact with their colleagues and managers.
Implementing effective pre-boarding activities can lay the foundation for a successful onboarding process. Once this is in place, you can seamlessly transition to enabling remote onboarding for new hires.
Enable Remote Onboarding
Remote onboarding software consists of welcoming and training new hires who work remotely or in different locations from their managers and teams. Remote onboarding can streamline the entire onboarding process by enabling candidate access to administrative paperwork, integrating document verification, and sending automatic reminders. You can implement remote onboarding by:
- Using HR software to digitize the onboarding process and foster an efficient and welcoming environment for new hires, including sending the onboarding paperwork to the new employee’s email, allowing them to access the paperwork comfortably from their own devices and sign it with their fingertips.
- Implementing video conferencing tools like Zoom, Skype, or Microsoft Teams to conduct live sessions where new hires can meet their managers, team members, and other key stakeholders.
- Employing collaboration tools such as Slack, Trello, or Asana to facilitate communication, feedback, project management, and task assignments among new hires and their team members.
- Using gamification techniques such as badges, points, leaderboards, or rewards to motivate and engage new hires in completing their onboarding activities.
Develop a Clear Training Program
A 2023 study by Zippia found that employees with a structured onboarding program were 69% more likely to stay with the same company for at least three years. A clear training program as part of a comprehensive onboarding process is essential for ensuring the new hire acquires the skills and knowledge needed to perform their job effectively. The program should:
- Define the learning objectives and outcomes the new hire should achieve by the end of the training period.
- Outline the curriculum and content covering all the relevant topics and skills the new hire needs to learn.
- Specify the duration and frequency of the training sessions and how they will be delivered (online or offline).
- Assign trainers or instructors who are qualified and experienced in teaching the subject matter.
- Evaluate the progress and performance of new hires using tests, surveys, or interviews.
Obtain Feedback
When candidates are offered several options to communicate goals and have their questions answered before their first day, they are 92% more willing to expand their relationship with the company. In addition to improving employee retention, feedback can help identify what works well and what needs improvement in the onboarding process. Feedback can also help measure the satisfaction and engagement of new hires and their managers.
The employer should regularly obtain feedback from both parties during and after the onboarding process. The feedback can be collected using various methods, such as:
- Online surveys or questionnaires that ask about the quality, relevance, effectiveness, and usefulness of the onboarding activities and resources.
- One-on-one meetings or calls that allow for more in-depth and personalized discussion and feedback.
- Focus groups or forums that enable new hires to share their experiences and opinions with other new hires or existing employees.
Create a More Efficient Onboarding Process
A thorough yet streamlined digital onboarding experience is linked to better employee and company professional outcomes. By following best practices for streamlining onboarding, employers can create a positive impression for new hires while reducing the time, cost, and effort involved in onboarding.
As onboarding experiences continue to improve, so does the future of employee retention, engagement, and performance, helping create a supportive work environment for employees and empowering employers to achieve their goals.
