In modern business, there are two opposing points of view. The first point of view indicates that a company is a separate unit that should exist in its own reality in terms of work organization and internal processes. The company is a self-sufficient and autonomous entity, and its employees are just ancillary elements aimed at maintaining the execution of successful and proven algorithms. At the same time, the employee is of secondary importance, and the processes of rearranging or changing employees do not critically impact the final result. Yes, this is the formula of the communists, which sounds like “there are no irreplaceable people.”
The second point of view is more correct and viable. The professionalism and competence of the employee are the basis for the global success of the enterprise. We adhere to this particular theory. In modern business's wild and predatory environment, you must be flexible and sensitive to the situation. The success of a prompt response to external challenges depends on how protected your flanks and rear areas are. This is what your team is responsible for.
From the janitor to the executive director, the entire business vertical must work as a single mechanism. Each element clearly knows its task and understands how to quickly and efficiently achieve it. It's straightforward. And here we enter the most dangerous territory, where the cost of a mistake can become prohibitive. Indeed, for such a vertical to work and become viable, you must carefully select a team. And this is the first challenge that most people will not be able to cope with for a long time. And even if you manage to assemble your dream team with your own LeBron James and Chris Bosh, this is just the beginning. After all, you need to keep these people and provide them with comfort and the desired working conditions. Having tried, it will not go bankrupt.
Thousands of diplomas and books have been written on this vital topic. People have been studying at universities for years and developing new algorithms for achieving goals. And, still, there is no guarantee that you will achieve success. Nevertheless, let's figure it all out; perhaps our advice, tested in practice, will give you knowledge that will allow you to reach a completely new level.
The modern world is such that if a problem arises, the best minds immediately begin to search for a solution. If we discuss the topic of the best onboarding experience, then the solution is automated employee onboarding.
But here, too, you will encounter certain problems, which lie in the choice of various methods and approaches to solving these problems and implementing solutions. That is why, in this article, we will try to deal with this topic in more detail.
And, it's really worth it to figure it out. One of the biggest mistakes employers make is misunderstanding priorities. Many people think that recruiting an employee is the most difficult thing. And, once you've hired a specialist, the task is complete, and you will soon begin to benefit from adding a new specialist. But, as statistics show, a quarter of hired workers leave the company during the first 180 days. And, young people are more and more inclined to change jobs and constant movement between employers. The devil is in the details, and seeing those details is critical.
Let's start by defining the basic concepts. Employee onboarding is a complex concept that includes many concepts, actions, and processes.
A clear and accessible explanation to the new employee of the key elements that make up his duties, his role in the company's hierarchy, expectations from work and results, a detailed explanation of the policy of the company and the corporate company. Accessible communication of these concepts to the employee will greatly simplify and accelerate the adaptation of a new person to the company. This means that they will quickly create comfortable conditions for him, which will lead to a quick and painless release of a person to the peak of his efficiency and creativity. Relatively speaking, the comfort of the employee is quickly transformed into the profit of the employer.
In addition, the bureaucratic part of employee onboarding should not be neglected. Internal instructions and clarifications of general regulations are an indispensable part of integrating a new employee. He is obliged to understand what the employer expects from him, the rules of the game, his rights, and obligations from the point of view of the legal field. Be not only honest and open but frank as well. This will affect the calm infiltration of a person into the team and eliminate potential issues in the future.
As we have already found out, the employee onboarding process, in a nutshell, is the quick and soft integration of a new employee into the realities, rules, and restrictions of the company. At the same time, the subtlety and skill of HR lie in striking a balance between the rapid introduction of an employee into the team and the personal comfort of this employee. For this reason, special attention should be paid to the process so that the result satisfies both the employer and the employee.
From the point of view of generally accepted concepts and algorithms, the employee onboarding process begins from the moment the employee accepts the conditions of a new position in the company and ends from the moment he becomes able to perform work for which he was hired autonomously.
The classical theory suggests five main stages in this process. It all starts with pre-hire, the stage when the company and the specialist understand that the conditions and requirements suit both parties, and the specialist accepts the offer.
First Day is a critical and one of the most important moments when an employee directly encounters and gets acquainted with the realities of a new job and paradigms of a new corporate culture. This day will be the starting point in building the right symbiosis between the employee and the company.
The Orientation Program is a phase before practical training and learning. During its implementation, the employee knows the company in practice and encounters its rules, delving into his work. This is followed by core and soft training. The employee undergoes various training and training programs, during which specific knowledge is integrated, working skills are developed, and strengths are identified.
All these stages end with performance and evaluation when it is possible to draw adequate conclusions about the skills of the employee, his communication skills, and the ability to integrate into the team. At the same time, the result of his work and the benefits he brings to the company are assessed. This will make it possible to objectively assess the capabilities of a new employee and adjust his role.
Such a process cannot last less than three months, and some companies extend the period up to a year.
You can be sure that the devil is always hidden in the details. If we are talking about hiring employees and organizing their interaction, you can be sure that there is a vast amount of more information here. And one of the most dangerous territories an employer inevitably gets into is the onboarding process.
Behind this capacious and straightforward phrase lies one of the main pillars of a successful business. If you do not believe in its importance, you better be in the dark and not even try to study statistics. An unregulated process will make your company just a transit station for employees. Who will feel unhappy, underestimated, and unnecessary for your company? As a result, in a short time, you will start to lose employees. They will leave your company and, rest assured, after retiring, they will describe in bright colors why they were unhappy not only to their friends and recruiters but also on social networks. And this is just the tip of the iceberg because generating profits and achieving success in the cruel business world is very problematic without having performers.
At first glance, it might seem that solving such a large-scale problem would require incredible effort and expense. But no. The main thing in this is correct planning and thoughtful decisions. You will be rewarded with a great result.
In addition, the introduction of even the most elementary algorithms will reduce the cost of finding and training new employees due to reduced rotation. At the same time, if you approach the task deliberately and implement employee onboarding automation, your capabilities will expand significantly. And not only thanks to the unified and accessible experience and the mechanism of its transfer to newcomers.
In addition to the objective, measurable benefits, there are significant benefits that are not measurable. For example, fast and practical training, coupled with a well-thought-out and short algorithm for introducing a new employee into the overall work process, will allow the newcomer to understand that the company values employees' time and can manage it competently.
In addition, any automation will inevitably lead you to minimize routine processes. Reducing monotonous, repetitive tasks translates into a tremendous amount of time savings, not only for management but also for employees. But, these achievements are preceded by a long work on organizing the adaptation process.
This needs to be done once, as manual management threatens to turn into an absolute nightmare that can paralyze the work of the entire office. Just imagine: routine preparation of documents of the same type, working with credentials, filling out forms, monitoring tasks, informing and delegating current and global missions. It is worthwhile to correctly configure this cumbersome bureaucratic machine to monitor its health in the future simply. What's more, saving time and resources isn't the only benefit. With an automated onboarding system, you can avoid many inevitable mistakes in a boring manual routine.
Do not forget that your relationship is not limited to direct relationships with employees because they were all once candidates. Working with candidates is just as important an adaptation point as all further links in the chain. The convenient and understandable application process, friendly interface for filling out the form - someone might argue that this is a waste of effort for the sake of people you may not even meet. But, we disagree with you.
Firstly, the person you hire will begin to integrate into the realities of your company from the very first steps, from the moment you submit documents and resume. Secondly, caring for candidates and job seekers works on your image and can make the company stand out in the eyes of potential employees. Well, and thirdly, organizing data on people ready to work in your company can help in the future.
Do you know the main curse of any company? Bureaucracy! Thanks to modern technology, we are gradually breaking free from the tight shackles of paperwork and unnecessary forms. Digitalization opens up completely new horizons for us. A responsible and intelligent leader has no right to limit his capabilities and the capabilities of his employees. Automatic onboarding eliminates unnecessary paperwork and allows employees to focus on their work. Needless to say, how much more comfortable will it make the integration of new employees? After all, they will focus on their work and not on filling out endless forms and documents.
A centralized online platform is also great at saving you money on stationery and paper. This is good not only for the environment but also for the company. You will be amazed at how much faster and more efficient work is.
Another advantage will inevitably be the accuracy and speed of information transfer. This will affect all levels of the functioning of the company in which the employees are employed. Automation of each stage eliminates possible errors that often arise due to the human factor. The right approach will eliminate unnecessary stress on the team and will comply with legal requirements.
The digital form of interaction will allow new employees to get acquainted with further information faster and more diversely. Videos, presentations, and digital documentation enable unification and enable a newcomer to quickly and comfortably get to know his new responsibilities, requirements, and corporate philosophy.
Indeed, you have already seen another significant advantage of employee onboarding automation. You will be able to objectively and quickly obtain accurate results of your employees' work. In this way, everyone benefits. The employer adequately understands employees' productivity, and employees get the opportunity to get quick access to their new job in a comfortable and calm environment.
Everything that we discussed earlier is undoubtedly correct and makes sense. But, a theory that has not been tested in practice has no value. Therefore, let's take a closer look at the most critical aspect: creating the perfect recipe for a good employee onboarding process flow. After all, this is the secret of relieving you of headaches and bringing the company to a new level.
We offer you a universal algorithm of the employee onboarding process. Of course, all of the below is not a universal answer to your requests, and any situation may require a personal approach. But when we talk about automating the process, these points will remain unchanged.
After your company goes through the difficult path of searching for candidates and all stages of interviews, you will finally choose the employee who will satisfy all the digging needs. You are ready to hire him, and he is prepared to work for you. Sounds like the beginning of a beautiful and long story. But, it needs to be kept and done at a reasonable price.
Having identified the right candidate, your HR manager will send a welcome letter on behalf of the company, to which will be attached some of the primary documents and digital onboarding forms that he will have to fill out. These documents will immediately introduce your new employee to the course, and the accompanying materials will familiarize him with your company's corporate culture and philosophy. This will make it easier for the beginner to move to a new location and reduce adaptation.
After the employee confirms his consent to accept the offer, it will be correct to make a personal call. This step is essential not only as a procedural step. In the course of the conversation, it is worth focusing on the thesis of the company policy, the procedure for filling out forms, the benefits of your company, and the expectations from cooperation. Do not underestimate his emotional component, as this conversation lays the foundations for future interaction.
But, it is worth remembering that acceptance of the offer does not guarantee that the employee will come to the company on the date of joining. Waiting periods can change the mind of your prospect. And he can accept an offer from another employer because he is still open to suggestions formally. At this moment, it is essential to start building good relationships and make the employee feel that they are waiting for him.
This is a significant and crucial period, especially if the vacancy is critical for the business. Therefore, when developing the process of adaptation of employees, this stage should be given special attention.
Discomfort is the main companion of a newbie on the day of joining the team. And this is the crucial point. Logically, the first day will be difficult. It depends on the management and HR manager how to make the adaptation process as comfortable and smooth as possible.
The impressions that a new employee will experience on the day of joining will, in many ways, lay the foundation for the prospects for his retention in the future. At this point, there are no trifles. And it would help if you thought about how to organize this process so that everyone is comfortable. Ideally, the end goal will be smooth and quick integration of the employee into the team and corporate culture.
To make the process productive and free from stress, we advise you to prepare a handy employee onboarding checklist. It should include the following items.
Develop an orientation schedule and keep it always available. Prepare workspace and inventory for the new employee. By working space, we mean not only a table and a chair. Digital elements of work (from work email to devices) are almost more important. At the same time, possessing an access card, keys, or your desk can emotionally connect an employee with the company right away. Such attributes speed up the adaptation process.
Being open and welcoming is very important to you as a host. Emphasize your openness by not hesitating to raise the main issue on the first day: Re-discuss the salary, the current salary of the newcomer, and their prospects. If you have the opportunity to attach a mentor to a new employee, consider that your task is completed.
What does it mean? It is the mentor and HR who will have to integrate the new work unit into the company's ecosystem. This means that the beginner must understand the levels of interaction within the framework of their tasks. He must understand how the company functions and the logic of interaction between departments and departments. This knowledge will make him more productive and make him feel like a part of something big and vital.
Often, even trained and qualified employees require some training before demonstrating 100 percent of their capabilities in a new position. That is why it is worth developing a training program for employees. Such a program should concern both collective aspects and involve groups of employees, and wear individual characteristics and be calculated for a specific person. For such programs to be valid and not become one of those corporate curses that everyone hates and makes fun of, special attention should be paid to assessing employees' skills.
Orientation sessions perform similar tasks, providing the employee with relevant and essential information about their teams, departments, interactions, and corporate mechanisms. By correctly assessing the chronology of the employee's stay in the company and correlating the data with the personal characteristics of the employee, you will not only achieve maximum results from him and make his stay in the company more comfortable. In addition, the emphasis on training and orientation gives a person the opportunity to develop and master new knowledge, which also positively affects the attitude towards the employer.
We deliberately highlight this period as a special one. The first quarter of cooperation is a golden time when you can already see the objective results of the collaboration. Still, at the same time, you have the opportunity to softly adjust some of the mechanisms of interaction with the employee.
Analyzing intermediate results and comparing these results with expectations is the main problem that should be solved after the expiration of this first timing milestone. An employee's progress and shortcomings are an essential element of the assessment. Still, one should not forget that it is necessary to assess the degree of his infiltration into the organization adequately.
If you want to keep an employee for a long time, your HR department must solve several vital tasks. There is nothing complicated about it. All these tasks are solved through dialogue and careful monitoring of work processes. Under such conditions, it will be pretty easy to understand how the employee's experience corresponds to his expectations, whether he has a problem and suggestions, how effective he is, and whether he is comfortable. This will help you understand if the adaptation process needs to be adjusted and additional training.
For the hr employee onboarding process can be stressful in a way. At the stage of its formation, a new employee onboarding plan can seem like a continuous headache and torture. For HR, employee onboarding can become a routine and controlled process. Moreover, an adequately configured onboarding of new employees algorithm simplifies everything, making the company's life easier and better.
The HR department usually does not sit idle. The main job entrusted to them is to find the ideal candidates for a position in the company. No matter how big your business is, this is a permanent process. It takes a lot of effort and resources to find a person who can fill a vacancy. And when the right person is hired and the time comes onboarding for new employees, the HR department is often no longer able to implement it properly.
Process automation, among all the other benefits, reduces the HR workload. By handing over this essential, routine, and monotonous procedure to the software, you will turn it into a common element of the company. With automated employee workflow, you achieve a transparent, understandable, and predictable streamlined and simplified workflow without sacrificing quality or imperative. This will also help identify problems at the initial stage when they can be solved with little effort.
Automated by software, the new hire onboarding process costs a lot of money, so it's easier to delegate all tasks to managers. This is a killer myth! The system requires your direct participation only in one case when it is faced with an insurmountable problem. And, at the same time, it will cost you much less than human labor, like decades ago. The only problem is that decades ago, the economy and modern business did not pose such challenges as they do today. Old solutions in the contemporary world do not solve the problem. They only create new ones.
Modern digital solutions for the new employee onboarding process not only do not drain your budget, but they also do not require special skills. You do not need to undergo special training, understand the program for a long time, or create a new department to work with an automated system. It is simple and graceful.
Automated systems for employee onboarding processes that the market offers usually have pre-installed templates, based on which you can configure the ideal algorithm for your business. The adaptive system, through simple manipulations, will turn into a unique tool designed for your specific company.
The leap that your company takes after such significant optimization will pleasantly surprise you. And the possibilities that you will have will seem endless for a long time.
New times pose new challenges for us. And, new challenges require modern solutions. This is the law of the cruel world of business. He does not forgive mistakes. Even slowing down or inattention can be fatal if you are running a company.
On the other hand, if you overcome your fear of the newness of the digital world and advanced management theories, nothing can stop you. Employee onboarding processes are one such example. The variability and creativity of this process already allow concrete benefits even before you start using it.
To finalize our long story on modern new employee onboarding, let's take a step-by-step plan to answer all of your questions if any.
The long journey starts with the first step, and defining the type of employee onboarding begins with analyzing your needs. If you are already in business or starting your startup, you have ample knowledge of internal processes. So choose two primary types: informal and formal. Even though the majority is increasingly choosing the second option, the first algorithm is also ubiquitous in the modern world.
What is informal type? Quite simply, it is chaos that replaces organized order. This type characterizes anything you can imagine as your worst first day at work. No clear instructions, no one cares about the fate of the beginner and his workplace, no one tells the rules and does not give a job. What could be worse?
It can only be worse than globally. Nothing will change either in a week, month, or year. In the end, there are two possibilities. The worker allows the current to catch him and carry him towards the seething waterfall in the first case. Suppose the employee is intelligent and ambitious after a reasonable period. In that case, he will decide to leave such a company and look for a place to realize himself, benefiting the employer.
Some companies do survive in the marketplace with this type of onboarding of employees. Some are allowed by the industry. Others take advantage of their luck. But, the lack of a structured approach will not lead to positive results in the long term.
Formal type is as different as chaos and order. Moreover, such a metaphor is as accurate as possible.
The best leader should be an empath. Understanding the feelings and concerns of other people will give you great benefits and open up new opportunities. An excellent onboarding plan should take into account the needs of your employee. Leading researchers such as Portland State University's Talya N. Bauer identify four main areas that cover employee inquiries, from large to small.
Compliance is a crucial aspect for hired personnel. It embodies compliance with basic rules, legal regulations, and policies. These are the main attributes, a kind of playbook that all participants in the game should understand.
Clarification - what is clear to you is not always clear to others. Ambiguity is the worst enemy of the participants in a relationship. To avoid it, you need to explain all the nuances and expectations clearly. Detailing the vertical, responsibility, and tasks is almost the central pillar of reliable work in the future.
Culture - all your company's values should be understood by everyone who wants to become a part of it. Corporate policy is vital as an element of bringing together everyone who cares about the brand. Culture can become one of the essential attributes that everyone understands.
Connection - isolation can only lead to depression, stress, and, as a result, to a drop in productivity. Nobody wants this, therefore, regardless of the business model and the interaction of employees. An adequately built chain of interaction will help avoid misunderstandings and limit your employees within their internal boundaries.
Of course, these aspects are not imperative. But, if you neglect them, then there is a possibility of lowering the level of efficiency, at which it is critical. There are three main types of companies for these indicators.
Passive adaptation characterizes a business model that takes Compliance and Clarification into account. Modern realities leave little room for ignoring these points, but the other two points can be ignored. The result of this adaptation process is passive and ineffective. However, according to research, more than 30% of companies use this model.
High Potential Onboarding is a characteristic of a business that embodies the first two aspects and uses elements from other elements. More than half of enterprises adopt this type of adaptation as a paradigm.
The other 20 percent effectively applies all 4 points. This is a characteristic of Proactive Onboarding. And, for today, this is the most effective but difficult to achieve a model that a business should strive for.
Proactive Adaptation - A business that effectively covers all four Cs has deliberately achieved bold adaptation. Approximately 20% of all companies reach this most efficient level. This is the level of transformation you should strive for.
There are no correct answers in this world. There are only thousands of ways to find them. According to the theory, you can achieve Pro-active Onboarding with the formula: Self-Efficacy + Role Clarity + Social Integration + Knowledge of Culture = Success.
Naturally, the sooner you start integrating a person into the structure and realities of the company, the better. So why not start doing this at the recruiting stage? Some people see this as a waste of money. But this is not the case. After all, even if you do not hire someone involved in the initial adaptation actions, you will increase awareness and positive perception of the company, which can pay dividends in the future.
Moreover, if your goal is Proactive Onboarding, you should start this process already at the stage of searching for candidates. Adaptation is a tricky activity that cannot be accomplished in one step. This is a complex set of actions that covers many nuances of the company's activities. That is why the involvement of a person in the corporate culture should begin as early as possible.
It is worth taking the process of starting an employee search as a wide funnel for the beginning of the adaptive period.
You must understand that there can be no empty spaces in the construction of the algorithm. So, you cannot go from the stage of finding an employee directly to his first day. It is a detailed and detailed plan that will fill this void and allow the newcomer to comfortably enter their first day prepared and familiar with the corporate structure.
This is a complex process that requires early planning and coordination at all levels of interaction between departments. It would help if you had a script for everyone involved in the direct adaptation of the beginner.
Planning is about everything, including the first day. This concerns a warm welcome and a clear explanation of the realities of the company and the distribution of the workload and plans for its progressive increase in the following days.
Hence the need to think through the first day in detail. In this case, it is essential to balance the employee's integration into work processes and joining the team. It will not be superfluous to voice even obvious things to the newcomer, focusing on their place in the general scheme of the company.
Remind the employee of the employee's expectations and prospects, preferably with his immediate new supervisor. Do it as warmly and in a personal way as possible. It would be appropriate to introduce the mentor to the employee, emphasizing that this is not an overseer but a person who will help in adaptation. Self-confidence is precisely the feeling you should give an employee on their first day.
Confidence is the main factor in successful adaptation. Your employee will receive all the attributes you and him need, including motivation, a desire to achieve high results, and a sense of belonging to your corporate cultu
