4 Tips for Designing a Structured Onboarding Process with Limited Resources

SMBs spend up to 25% of their time on HR tasks and onboarding is a big part of this. Technology can mitigate onboarding challenges — shortening timelines, boosting engagement, and reducing your long-term spends. We discuss 4 tips for starting your onboarding program and the tools to do it right with limited resources.

For recruiters, hiring is a complex process with many moving parts. Importantly though, hiring doesn’t end when you extend a job offer it’s just as important to create a comprehensive onboarding program to help new hires transition into their new roles. A streamlined and intelligent onboarding initiative will also help employees positively contribute to a company’s larger business objectives.

Regardless of the kind of experience an employee comes with, everyone needs a little time to prepare themselves for the road ahead. In fact, there is empirical evidence to show that employees take up to 5 to 6 months to understand the requirements of their role and deliver value.

Interestingly, onboarding and training doesn’t have to be cost intensive. It requires minimal good planning and efficient use of technology. The big question then is how do you design a cost-optimized, timeline-friendly and well-structured employee onboardingOpens a new window program?  Here are four tips on cost-effective onboarding ideas:

Also read: Recruitment and Onboarding Technology in 2018Opens a new window

1. Employee Apps

Internal communication apps are great tools to help new hires get up to speed with training courses, company updates, notifications, trainings, and surveys. Apps like Slack are effective tools to keep new hires engaged and address new-hire concerns in real-time. These apps also allow employees to orient to their new workplace by reading training materials and then testing their knowledge.

Employee apps are a win-win for both employees and employers. Employers save on costs while personalizing the onboarding experienceOpens a new window , and new hires get a forum to communicate and familiarize themselves with the work culture and fellow team members.

.2. Get all the documentation ready

To get the new hire ready and up to speed is critical for an end-to-end framework for all necessary paperwork in compliance with necessary regulations. Freelancers will have different requirements, hiring foreign workers has its own set of complexities, and HR must take ownership for everything. Getting all of these documents in one place, from social security numbers to background verification and other forms in place will help streamline this process.

Today, most companies use a plethora of online solutions, tools, and software to allow a new employee to access the official job offer, sign-in on the employment contract or fill up all the relevant forms entirely digitally. One of the most popular apps out there is Zenefits, offering an attracted feature set at the industry standard rate of USD 6 per user. As a result, your recruits can start their first day having already shared all the relevant documentation.

“Zenefits is a modern people platform, purpose-built for small and medium businesses. The platform manages payroll, benefits and core HR needs in one place,” explainsOpens a new window  Lisa Reeves, SVP of Product at Zenefits. “Small and medium business owners spend up to 25% of their time on HR-related tasks and paperwork. This is a costly hassle for business leaders and for their employees. We use technology to remove the busy work, saving business leaders an average of one month’s worth of time per year while also improving the employee experience, culture, and productivity.”

Also read: Online onboarding – What HR should look forOpens a new window

3. Build an account and tools repository

To make the first day easier, simpler, and less tedious, it’s prudent to list out the set of tools and solutions an employee will require on the job. Whether it’s setting up a company email or creating accounts for all the software needed, by maintaining a unified roster of all these key elements, you can simplify the onboarding processOpens a new window . On the day of joining, all you need to do is to allow access to these tools, share quick guidelines and trainings, and let them submit all the data that’s required. Google Sheets is generally the go-to option if you’re looking for something inexpensive, allowing HR professionals to create comprehensive checklists that can be shared on any platform, and any device.

Not only will this strengthen the onboarding systems, but it also means that instead of being buried with complex joining formalities, the new entrant can dive into their role meeting line managers, beginning to know their team and gradually garner an understanding of the tasks at hand.

Also read: Tech-Enabled Smart OnboardingOpens a new window

4. Ensure a process document is readily available

Process documentation is a game changer; it will collate and unify all the many organizational necessities, reducing hire anxiety and ensuring onboarding is error-free and up to the mark. These detailed process papers can shrink training time and when available online through a cost-effective solution, will help standardize the system. At a later date, HR teams can glean vital metrics on onboarding hygiene, detect gaps, and conduct systematic reviews. Store process documents on Google Cloud to ensure ease of access and transparency, with stringent approval mechanisms in place.

Onboarding by the day and the week

Recruiters must establish a clear outline for the new employee’s first day, the first week and the month on the job. Guidance and support, a list of assignments, ready reckoners on organizational vision and culture and the concretization of short and long-term goals will help break down a job description into easily understandable parts. This should be segmented into clear and concise daily, weekly, monthly, bi-annual and annual task lists, setting up milestones and expectations. Tools like Trello can help you create checklists and track new-hire progress throughout the onboarding journey. Trello also offers easy integration with other tools like Slack and G-suite.   

…Also, start a training schedule

Training Opens a new window is now a must-have for any modern organization. No matter the level of experience or expertise, employees must be exposed to a variety of customized training programs, explaining the tools that they will use, relevant processes and the larger schematic of the business. While onboarding software is rarely completely free-of-cost, Learning Management Systems are a different story altogether. There are several free options to exploreOpens a new window .

Nowadays, most companies use comprehensive and easy-to-use tools like Google Suite to make the entire onboarding process integrated, collaborative and user-friendly. What’s great is that solutions like these are freely available, cutting down significantly on costs. If you are ready to spend a little more, check solutions like Employment Hero which starts at a highly competitive USD 6 per user. It covers all core onboarding requirements and users review it very high on the value-for-money quotientOpens a new window .

Well, there you have it. With a well-defined onboarding roadmap, one can improve time and effort spent on the process, setting up an employee for future success, enabling a stronger alignment with enterprise goals and targets.