Onboarding is a crucial part of the operation of any business. There’s no point putting in place an excellent recruitment process if your new hires don’t have the training they need to hit the ground running.
Modern businesses have a varied suite of technological tools at their disposal, many of which can be used to ensure that the onboarding process for new employees is smooth and efficient.
What is onboarding and why is it important?
Onboarding is the initial training provided to an employee, including their early experience on the job. The aim of this particular form of induction is to bring the said employee up to speed with working practices, and to anticipate and deal with any problems they might have at the outset.
The onboarding phase can be hugely consequential. Get it right, and your new employee may well slot in seamlessly, and within a few weeks be indistinguishable from the rest of the workforce. Get it wrong, and you could drastically increase the rate of staff turnover.
A good onboarding process should help the employee to feel welcome, and allow them to reach their potential within the company as quickly as possible.
Given that many modern employees are going to be working remotely at least a portion of the time, it’s fitting that the early phases of onboarding be conducted in this way. If the employee is going to be coming into work, however, it’s vital that a face-to-face onboarding occurs sooner rather than later.
What kinds of technology can improve onboarding?
Let’s take a look at some of the technologies we have in mind, and what they’re able to do.
Automation for admin
Onboarding imposes an administrative burden. You’ll need to keep track of who is being onboarded, and how the process is going. HR software effectively lowers the demands on your HR staff and allows for things like orientation meetings to be scheduled automatically.
Online training
Video instruction has revolutionised education, allowing for information to be conveyed in a way that’s accessible and succinct. You can provide new recruits with short courses, assessments, and health and safety training in one central location, which can be regularly updated.
Online Portals
The advantage of having resources in a single place is that an employee never has to worry about where they have to go, and they can go back and clarify any points they were unsure of the first time. This simply isn’t feasible with traditional sit-down classroom environments. Through an online portal, new hires are also able to communicate with their new colleagues – which can be essential in integrating them into the social environment when they aren’t going to be present in the flesh.
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