Employee onboarding is a crucial process. After all, to maintain a happy and productive workforce, you need to provide a positive first impression. Your onboarding process is going to set the tone for how the employees are going to view your company and how well they will fit in.
That’s why having a fast and streamlined onboarding system that doesn’t cut any corners is necessary. The better the onboarding, the faster the employees will adapt to the company’s workflows and systems. This not only boosts their confidence but also makes them a productive part of your crew as soon as possible.
So, how can you improve your onboarding process? Well, here is a step-by-step breakdown to help you with that.
1. Start Before Day One
Many employers think that onboarding is a process that starts on the first day of the new hire’s job. That’s not true. It actually starts right from the moment they sign your offer letter.
After they have signed it, you need to provide them with some much-needed deliverables that teach them what they have to do on the first day. Common things that you should include in these deliverables are as follows.
- A first-day logistics breakdown. Things like their schedule, dress code, where they can park, and other things of this nature.
- Provide access to their paperwork. That can be done through a digital portal, or you can simply email it to them.
- Provide a short video on the company culture, office space, amenities, and maybe even a brief breakdown of their job responsibilities.
Providing such information beforehand ensures that your new hires show up on time, don’t make a fool out of themselves by accident, and feel confident. After all, going to a new place without knowing much about it can be daunting, and nerves can make people act unpredictably. So, just avoid all of that by reaching out in a timely manner and providing the discussed information.
2. Standardize Your Onboarding Workflow
Onboarding doesn’t have to be difficult. It can be largely standardized and simplified. For example, no matter what kind of role you are hiring for, some things will not change. These can include the usage of the attendance portal, leave application system, and even how to report on your tasks.
The specifics of each role can be easily added to a standardized procedure with ease. The trick is to make the whole system segmented/compartmentalized so that you can add or remove knowledge as you see fit.
So, stop using scattered Google Docs files that have different parts of the employee training and onboarding manual. Instead, consolidate everything into an internal knowledge base (KB). Make sure it has knowledge of the following things about your company.
- IT and systems setup
- HR documentation and compliance
- Department-specific training
- First-week goals and check-ins
A KB can be very beneficial for both old and new employees, but more on that later.
3. Leverage AI and Automation
Onboarding is usually difficult to keep up with because there is so much reliance on manually doing things. The trainer has to manually provide all the documentation and training. This can lead to delays and can even sour the onboarding experience for the new hire.
The solution is to automate this stuff. Here’s what you can do.
- Create tutorials with the help of AI applications to reduce the workload.
- Use a management solution that gives timely reminders to check the tutorials.
- An AI chatbot integration that can access the KB and answer common questions related to it.
In this way, you don’t have to assign older employees to babysit the newer ones and ensure that everyone remains productive.
4. Centralize Knowledge With a Robust Knowledge Base
A knowledge base is a type of software that can store and manage documents, videos, and images. These can include your tutorials and other onboarding materials that your new hires can access on their own.
This ties in nicely with your automation processes as well. Because it is much easier to integrate an automator in your knowledge base than it is to automate the delivery of disjointed documents stored in different databases.
You may have seen this kind of thing in customer-facing knowledge bases that can be created by the likes of Zendesk and other help desk software. Except in this case, you need to use software for an internal knowledge base that is “employee-facing.”
You can check out Zendesk alternatives to find something like that. But wahtever you choose, make sure it includes the following features.
- Advanced searching capabilities based on keywords and context.
- Contextual suggestions. I.e., it suggests “How to apply for leave” if you have already searched “leave policy.”
- Decision trees. Decision trees show more specific and relevant search results based on your inputs.
Also, make sure the knowledge base has data on the following:
- Company policies
- “How-to” tutorials for common platforms
- Role-specific workflows
- Onboarding FAQs
An employee shouldn’t have to ask different people about various policies. An intelligent knowledge base allows them to self-serve and learn whatever they need to without getting in anyone’s way.
5. Measure and Improve Continuously
Onboarding isn’t “set it and forget it.” You have to keep tabs on new processes that you should add or improvements to old ones that can enhance the experience.
Generally, it is a good idea to survey the new hires after 30 days and then 90 days. The idea is to check what worked, what didn’t work, and what worked partially.
Some common metrics that you can track to gauge the success of the onboarding process are as follows.
- Time to productivity (how fast they hit key milestones)
- Onboarding task completion rates
- First-month retention rates
- New hire satisfaction scores
Then use this data to improve your processes. Even small things like making your tutorials a few 10s of seconds shorter can yield great results.
Final Thoughts
Manual onboarding processes are not effective. They slow everyone down and are easy to mismanage. By using technology and a proactive approach, you can enhance your onboarding with ease.
Use powerful tools to create tutorials, host them on an internal knowledge base, and automate reminders and suggestions so that new hires proceed with ease.
Just make sure to take the feedback in stride, and you will have a system that cuts the time to productivity by magnitudes.
Guest writer
