DIGITAL BY DEFAULT Increasingly, organizations are onboarding new hires who work outside of a traditional, set physical office location. According to the World Economic Forum, working remotely is “one of the biggest drivers of transformation” in the workplace. Last year, a Gallup survey revealed that nearly a third of Americans now work remotely four or five days a week. The changing nature of work as we know it has implications for the employee onboarding process. It must be Internet enabled and accessible at any time—digital by default. What’s more, Millennials’ ideas of how work is done differ vastly from those of previous generations. These so-called digital natives grew up playing electronic games and using mobile apps, and they expect a seamless user interface in all areas of their lives. They have little tolerance for processes that are arduous and time consuming. With this in mind, today’s business leaders are leveraging digital technologies to eliminate cumbersome paper-based processing and streamline the onboarding process. Digitizing content and processes is the first step to recrafting employee onboarding to be more efficient, accessible, and collaborative. Events that previously took days to process manually can be completed in minutes when they’re automated, and issues of redundant paperwork and repetition fall by the wayside. What’s more, organizations can eliminate errors due to manual data entry and issues of lost or misplaced paperwork. Best-practice employee onboarding involves having electronic processes and workflows in place to ensure that document-based and process-based steps are followed and that the full complement of activities that need to happen do so with the proper coordination and oversight. Expand your onboarding horizons. Recognize that onboarding takes place over time. Know what the markers for success are. Use milestones to map out what type of support (training and mentoring) and progress “checks” are needed at 30, 60, 90, and 120 days on the job, up to one year post-organizational entry. The planning will create a formalized process for engagement to ensure employees have the resources they need and that barriers to success are identified and mitigated. Put in place a process where new hires must complete all paperwork before Day One. According to Aberdeen, “best-in-class” companies are 53% more likely to begin the onboarding process before Day One. Leveraging automation, employers can build custom task lists for the new hire, recruiter, hiring manager, and other stakeholders, complete with due dates and email reminders. The recruiter or hiring manager can then track progress to ensure that key tasks are complete before the new hire’s first day. Don’t overlook additional aids. Be sure to include helpful guidelines in your employee onboarding process: a campus map and/or directions for parking, how to sign in at the
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security desk, policies regarding business casual dress and/ or working from home. Often it’s these “little things” that warrant the greatest number of questions from new hires. Tailor the experience. New hires, managers, and other key stakeholders should see only the fields, forms, and tasks that are relevant to them. Process flows and/or event triggers can be kicked off based on certain criteria and/or answers to specific questions. Keep it simple with one repository. As opposed to human resources management solutions—which are focused on talent acquisition and development—enterprise content management solutions ensure the articles of record involved in employee onboarding are maintained in a secure and compliant fashion with electronic signature functionality, and are both collected and disseminated at the exact right times to ensure the best onboarding experience right from the start. Recognize that integration is key. Look for a digital platform that will work well with other critical business systems and allow for a seamless routing of documents to numerous departments.
THE ROI OF EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING An investment in employee onboarding can go a long way. Research shows that a structured best-practice onboarding process can help stave off early turnover. The Society for Human Resource Management has found that employees who attended a structured orientation program were 69% more likely to stay with the company for three years. The faster new hires feel welcomed and prepared in their new workplace, the sooner they can contribute to achieving the organization’s goals. This proficiency can provide a critical business advantage. In a study by Boston Consulting Group, a significant correlation was found between proficiency/capability in onboarding of new hires and retention and economic performance. Companies that were “most capable” in this area were shown to have 2.5 times the revenue growth and 1.9 times the profit margin of companies deemed the “least capable” in this regard. Additional economic benefits can come from reducing administrative overhead, and companies often can realize a return on investment within the first year of digitizing employee onboarding. While cost savings are always welcome in the enterprise, optimal onboarding does more than save money, reduce administrative burden, and safeguard corporate liability. It sets clear expectations for employees and equips them for success, increasing job satisfaction and improving performance. Digital reengineering of employee onboarding is the change that’s needed to attract and empower the nextgeneration workforce. AQ Tom Franceski is vice president and general manager of DocStar, a division of Epicor Software Corporation.