Onboarding is an important part of the hiring process. It refers to the orientation, training, and goal-setting associated with a new employee starting at a company. For many companies, this might involve issuing an employee handbook and taking the new hire on a tour before passing them on to their manager for a systems training. Other employee onboarding processes are much more complicated, detailed, and long-term and many employees report higher satisfaction with their role and their company in situations where the onboarding process was more detailed and thorough.
How to build a better employee onboarding process
While onboarding will look different based on the industry and company, there are things that businesses can keep in mind across the board.
1. Communicate
Part of onboarding a new employee is helping them feel welcome, so you want to make sure you communicate news to your company, either by sending out an announcement email or sharing the news with managers who can pass it on to their teams. It’s also important to communicate to your new employee – once they’ve accepted an offer, you don’t want to drop communication until their first day. Setting the expectation of what an employee can plan for their first day or week, plus having them start any new hire paperwork, can give them both peace of mind and help start your employee-employer relationship positively.
2. Don’t shortchange the process
In addition to introducing a new employee to their new company, they need to be introduced to their new role. Even if it’s a position that they’ve done at another company or a role they’re familiar with, there should still be a process for helping establish goals and expectations for that employee. It should cover the first few days of work, as well as help guide what the coming weeks and months will look like.
3. Don’t just apply it to new employees
Onboarding is beneficial for anyone who is starting a new role – this includes existing employees who are getting promoted. It’s important that HR works with managers to develop onboarding materials for each position on each time.
List of HR onboarding tools
Modern HR often utilizes software systems to benefit their onboarding processes. Here are some of the best HR onboarding tools that may be available to help your business.
1. Zenefits
Zenefits software has a robust suite of HR-related tools, including onboarding functionality. It can help streamline the new hire paperwork and integrates with other employee HR records, such as payroll, deductions, title, salary, and more.
2. Talmundo
Talmundo helps your organization create a comprehensive onboarding experience. With features like onboarding maps for employees to understand the bigger picture and knowledge checks throughout the process, this onboarding solution can make a real impact with new hires and allow them to get involved in the day to day work of the business faster and more effectively.
3. Clickboarding
This automated onboarding solution helps to reduce paperwork and give you a safe, centralized storage option for new hire paperwork. Clickboarding also helps businesses set up to-do lists, organize tasks, and help keep all stakeholders involved in communication, creating a more engaging, informative, and thorough onboarding experience for employees.
4. ChiefOnboarding
ChiefOnboarding is a new take on onboarding, where an AI chatbot assistant walks new employees through the onboarding process. It can help employees find where to go for questions, give them easy access to critical information like an employee directory, and manage simple workflows to engage employees on their first days on the job.
Don’t overlook onboarding as a critical part of your recruitment and HR process. Onboarding can have a huge impact on your employee’s overall success in their position and their ability to integrate well into your corporate culture. Having a solid onboarding strategy is one of the best ways to support your employee’s and help them become successful, productive members of your team.
