Employee Onboarding Software: Make It Easy for Yourself and New Hires

With all the changes in the world in recent years, employers have struggled with filling open positions. Having a poorly constructed onboarding process can add to your hiring problems.

According to statistics compiled by Techjury, 58% of organizations say their onboarding program focuses on processes and paperwork. Also, new hires are expected to complete an average of 54 activities. This type of employee onboarding process may overwhelm new hires and contribute to a negative company culture.

What can businesses do to help ease the process? They can invest in a good onboarding software program. Onboarding programs go a long way toward helping HR teams overcome challenges while simplifying the onboarding experience for all parties.

What is onboarding software?

Onboarding software helps to automate onboarding tasks and combine them into one platform. A company can buy a software package or enroll with a Software as a Service company. Key onboarding features offered in the best employee onboarding software include:

• A new hire portal
• Welcome information (e.g. a knowledge base including videos and guides)
• Task management and reminders
• Integration with existing HR software
• Ability to track employee progress

In a nutshell, a digital dashboard creates a faster and more seamless experience for all involved because it eliminates the need for endless streams of paper. It’s all electronic and easy to follow.

The benefits of employee onboarding software

In 2018, Gallup reported that a mere 12% of organizations offered new employees a great onboarding experience. That same year a Harvard Business Review article suggested that to retain new hires, it is essential to standardize the onboarding process.

Integrating technology into the process can improve it for both employer and employee, creating a better onboarding experience. Here’s why.

Employee connection and engagement

Employee engagement is critical, and it starts by getting new hires off on the right foot. Helping new talent get acclimated encourages them to feel good about accepting the position and lets them know they are important to you.

Using an online portal, you can present a new hire with information about your company’s history, mission and goals, and other welcome information to increase new employee happiness factors. A thorough onboarding program increases retention rates by 82%, according to one study. On the other hand, a poor onboarding experience may catapult new hires into seeking greener pastures elsewhere.

Streamline the employee onboarding process

Remember, not all onboarding tasks fall strictly within the HR department. IT (e.g., email and other permissions) and payroll come into play, to name just 2. A good software program ticks all boxes on the onboarding checklist.

• Automates onboarding tasks for HR and new employees
• Electronically signs all documents
• Offers prompts and reminders through the various steps
• Provides an employee handbook

HR tasks can be completed efficiently and quickly when you leverage automated processes to hire new employees.

Tracking onboarding progress and effectiveness

Through technology, both you and your new employee can track onboarding progress on the software’s dashboard. This expedites the process because everyone can easily see if anything is missing or if a task is coming due. There is no need to chase down employees to complete essential paperwork — a big time saver.

HR compliance

Businesses cannot afford non-compliance. Good HR software for onboarding tasks makes it easy to complete legal, payroll, and tax documentation to stay compliant with employment laws. A huge benefit is that employee information automatically syncs to benefits and payroll information, so nothing is missed or overlooked.

Employee record keeping

Onboarding software helps employers keep their records organized and pull them up easily as needed. It tracks things like employee personal information, work history/background, payroll management, and benefits.

Standardized onboarding process

Establishing standardized employee onboarding processes that integrate all the components applied to new employees keeps things simple. That said, the best onboarding software allows you to customize as needed for individual new employees. In such cases, a good chunk of the work is already done and hiring managers can make adjustments for individual employees.

Better retention rates

A LinkedIn article says it costs an average of $3,000 to onboard new employees. That’s a big investment, and the early stages of the employer-employee relationship should support it. The list compiled by TechInjury includes some good stats about employee retention.

• Great onboarding experiences ensure roughly 70% of employees stay for 3 years.
• Standardizing the onboarding hiring experience increases new employee retention by 50%.

Since employee turnover is costly, creating the best employee experience possible for new team members can save you money. This even applies to your veteran team members, because an influx of negativity can upset your company culture, create lapses in productivity, and increase the unhappiness factor. Essentially, integrating a new employee onboarding solution can help with retention and talent management at all levels.

Investing in onboarding software is critical

As crucial as onboarding is, many businesses are unwilling to invest in automated processes to create a great hiring experience. In the long run, this is costly since thousands of dollars go into recruiting new hires. You want to make sure your retention rates justify this expense. Onboarding software easily solves this problem.

Want to learn more about onboarding and other important topics businesses need to know? We invite you to visit our Workest blog.