Digital Employee Onboarding | DocTech

How would you feel if your first day at work looked like this?

You arrived at work and it became immediately obvious that there was no plan or process for you to be onboarded in a professional way. The first impression is key to how new staff members acclimatize to their new role. They should feel welcome and of value and most importantly that the business was ready for their arrival. 

1. Implement the basics prior to the first day on the job.

There is nothing worse than starting a new job, to spend the first day filling out paperwork. Get this activity out of the way before a new employee even walks in the door.

2. Make the first day on the job special.

The first day of employment should take the excitement of the original job offer and acceptance and push it to the next level. This means thinking about the details BEFORE the new employee arrives.

3. Use formal orientation programs.

“Formal” doesn’t mean overly “stiff.” But it does mean orientation should start by conveying the organisation values and how the new employee fits into these.

4. Develop a written employee onboarding plan.

The employee onboarding process is loaded with a set of repetitive processes that are not individually complex but are often overlooked. Like creating email accounts, getting phone numbers, gaining access to company social accounts, identifying key training resources and even configuring the physical workspace

5. Make onboarding participatory. 

“Orientation” should not be something that is done to a new employee but with the new employee.

6. Be sure your program is consistently implemented. 

The key to making an activity consistent is to have it clearly documented and to automate it as much as possible.

7. Ensure that the program is monitored over time.

Make sure that confidential evaluations of the orientation process itself are done by new employees

8. Use technology to facilitate the process. 

HR is usually imagined as a paper-dominated place. Releasing both HR and new employees from the paper processes will give time to focus on what’s really important, setting clear objectives and expectations. Digital Forms can play a huge role for the entire onboarding process as well as throughout all HR document based processes. 

9. Use milestones, such as 30, 60, 90 and 120 days on the job —to check in on employee progress. 

This should be transparent, simple, easy to complete and paperless.

10. Engage stakeholders in planning. 

HR processes, included onboarding, cannot be done in isolation.

11. Include key stakeholder meetings as part of the program. 

Constant repetition in small chunks, is the key to a more agile and responsive processes. The real work begins once the initial automation is done.

12. Be clear with the new employees

All departments should be on same page concerning onboarding requirements.

There are two common elements on his 12 tips

• Digital – Paperless - automation allows managers to speak to the new team member rather than chasing up paperwork
• Automated and Digital Processes

Automated HR and employee onboarding solutions allows your HR team to digitise nearly all of the necessary onboarding paperwork.  Your staff no longer need to waste paper or copying and organising packets for your new hires.

As you think through the best way to automate all of the above make sure to consider that HR information and HR processes do not exist in isolation.

Which means that the digital documents and digital processes critical to HR onboarding need to connect and be integrated with the other core business processes of the organisation.

Original Text by John Mancini

Learn about automating onboarding solutions contact DocTech on info@doctech.co.uk or on 0161 647 7040