This article outlines the three main benefits of using digital solutions to onboard new employees.
In human resources, onboarding represents the process of welcoming and introducing new employees into the organization. The process helps new hires adjust to their role and the company culture so they can quickly become productive members of the organization.
Research shows that companies with a strong onboarding process improve new employee retention by 82% and productivity by 70%. On the other hand, organizations with weak onboarding processes are more likely to lose new hires in the first year.
A high turnover rate takes a heavy toll on all businesses regardless of their size. According to the Work Institute 2017 Retention Report, the cost of replacing an employee is 33% of their annual salary. On top of that, employees leaving the organization can hurt employer branding, affect productivity, and negatively impact the bottom line.
Providing a well-designed onboarding process helps new hires feel engaged and welcomed. It also creates a sense of belonging in the workplace that, in turn, improves employee retention.
Despite the clear benefits, creating and implementing a successful onboarding program poses some challenges to HR professionals. These challenges include:
To tackle these challenges, more and more companies are making the shift to digital onboarding solutions.
What are the benefits of digital onboarding?
Digital onboarding benefits businesses in a variety of ways. The three key benefits are:
1. It reduces paperwork and time-consuming manual processes.
According to an HCI survey, 58% of organizations say their onboarding program focuses on manual processes and paperwork. This translates into hours of administrative work for HR professionals and a poor onboarding experience for the new employee.
Digital onboarding helps shift the focus away from paperwork and manual processes to people. By using digital tools to automate repetitive tasks, HR professionals will reduce their workload and be able to spend more time improving the employee journey.
Onboarding software allows HR departments to set up custom document routes to make sure that the employment contract gets signed in the right order by the right people. The digital signing feature speeds up the signature collection process and eliminates the hassle of paperwork and postage. On top of that, automatic reminders ensure that employment contracts and other documents get signed on time.
2. It protects the personal data of employees and ensures GDPR compliance.
HR departments collect and process a lot of personal data on employees and candidates. Therefore, they need to dedicate time and resources to ensure GDPR compliance.
Far too often, we see companies collecting sensitive candidate data via insecure communication channels (e.g. email). This represents a huge security risk since the personal data of employees can easily fall into the wrong hands.
Digital onboarding tools provide end-to-end encrypted online forms to collect sensitive data from candidates in a secure and GDPR compliant way. The data and documents are then safely stored in the cloud so they can easily be accessed and retrieved. For extra security, role-based access control can be set up to make sure that only authorized people can access the data. Last but not least, automatic data deletion ensures that sensitive employee information is not kept for longer than necessary.
As a result, digital onboarding helps HR departments achieve effortless GDPR compliance.
3. It meets rising candidate expectations.
In today's highly competitive marketplace, attracting and retaining top-notch talent is a challenging task.
Candidate expectations have been steadily increasing over the past years. Talented candidates expect a convenient and informative onboarding process. Delays, lack of regular updates, and cumbersome processes can make new hires reconsider and leave the company right away.
Digital onboarding tools help HR departments create seamless onboarding programs and provide a superior experience to new hires.
Candidates can easily read onboarding material, fill in new hire forms, and sign employment contracts at any time and from any device. On the other hand, HR managers get an overview of the status of each candidate and can take action accordingly. If a candidate has failed to sign the employment contract, the HR manager can reach out to see if there are additional questions or concerns.
In conclusion, digital onboarding not only helps HR departments become more efficient and compliant but also provides a competitive advantage to the organization.
