Why Digitization Is Changing Onboarding and Engagement

Onboarding is much more than starting new team members. In fact, proper onboarding sets the tone for an employee's first day of work, their first impression of an organization, and plays a key part in employee retention metrics. It is also a great way of introducing employees to the work environment and organizational values.

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Statistics from KPMG show more than 80% of new recruits decide whether to stay at a new company within the first six months and that more than half of new hires who go through an effective onboarding process are likely to be at the company after three years. [1] However, a Gallup study found that only 12% of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job onboarding new employees. [2]

With this in mind, it's easy to see why optimizing onboarding processes is crucial to maximize initial employee engagement and keep great employees around or avoid scaring them off in the first place. These days, digital onboarding software, digital onboarding tools and techniques are reinventing the way modern companies can onboard.

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The Traditional Onboarding Process – Why Change?

Employee Onboarding in the past was simple, but paper-heavy for new starters and involved multiple in-person meetings that were time-consuming and potentially nerve-wracking for new hires. Additionally, it usually involved signing on the dotted line and being shuffled from training seminar to training seminar, or otherwise being plopped at their desk and told to “give it their best shot”. This is not an optimal way to present your company to a new employee, but a good way to limit their productivity at the beginning of their careers.

From an organizational efficiency perspective, manually onboarding new employees take much more time than is now necessary, with the average organization spending $4000 and 24 days to hire a new worker. [3]

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Onboarding Trends 2022: Digitalization – Fast, Fun, and Effective

According to Deloitte, 56% of companies are redesigning their HR programs to leverage digital and mobile tools. [4] With the help of digital onboarding solutions, reinventing employee onboarding process can become much more streamlined, fun for the employee, and enable more effective integration into the organization and new employee orientation.

The average new hire digital onboarding experience consists of 54 activities. [5] Platforms and other digital tools, such as PandaDoc, make presenting and signing contracts simpler and almost instantaneous. No longer do employees need to come to the office once for an interview, again to sign a contract, and then finally one more time for their first day at work. This is where digitization can play a huge role in improving the "first-day" experience of employees. With up to 4% of new hires leaving a job on just the first day, it is essential organizations take action. [6]

Solutions like Qualee, a digital onboarding and engagement platform, can now provide step-by-step guidance through the days leading up to the first day of work for any new employee. Company guidelines, videos, safety packets, and even instructional or training videos can all be put on Qualee's platform by the company's human resources or talent acquisition department and perused at a new employee's convenience.

Once in the office, employees can revisit guidelines or rules whenever they like. This is much better for both parties as:

1. Employees will be actively engaged rather than being subjected to a process that moves too slowly for comfort.
2. Hiring organizations benefit from new employees preparedness to jump right into work from feeling comfortable and confident with their position on the first day.

Additionally, as well as engaging employees prior to their first day to ensure a smooth transition, Human Capital Institute (HCI) found that most organizations stop their commonly structured onboarding process after the first week, leaving new hires feeling confused, discouraged, and lacking resources. Therefore, it is no surprise new hire retention rate and organizational commitment suffer as organizations aren't doing a great job with onboarding when all activities are completed so quickly. A week is hardly enough time for a new hire to become acclimated to their company, culture, and role. The implementation of digital technology enables onboarding programs to extend throughout the employee's first 90 days, some may even extend out for a full year to ensure new hires are fully supported as they ramp-up to full productivity.

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Benefits of Digital Onboarding Process

As previously mentioned, your company's entire onboarding process is incredibly important in influencing any first impressions new employees might have of your company. Creating an effective onboarding program and ensuring that new hires receive training sessions and communication tools even before they begin can go a long way in ensuring that they stay with the company for years to come.

Below are a handful of other reasons why digital solutions just make sense during the onboarding process.

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Digital Onboarding Ensures Far-Flung Employees Are Reached

Having a digital learning management systems in place ensures that your company can easily host an employee orientation, as well as hand out the employee handbook, to a global workforce or remote workers. For organizations with workers around the globe, the digital onboarding process makes work-related information and electronic documents easily accessible for a new hire.

In this day and age, more employees will appreciate being able to access any info they need from their own devices or through mobile apps.

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Preboarding Boosts Employee Confidence at Early Stages

Giving your new hire access to an employee portal ensures they are virtually "ready to go" before they even begin. A good onboarding program allows them to arrive at their new job confident and comfortable, leading to greater efficiency at work. Poor onboarding experience may lead to less productive employees, which can drastically affect employee performance.

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Digital Employee Onboarding Process Ensures Consistency of Message

Without a digital and formal onboarding process, employers risk sending out inconsistent messages and values to their team. The digital transformation of learning platforms has now allowed HR professionals and employers to send out consistent messaging to all its organizations across the globe in a timely manner. The messages may come in the form of a short video from the CEO welcoming the hiring of top talent or an online "how to answer customers" course.

Digital onboarding also gives employers the opportunity to create immersive experiences for new employees. This could be done by hosting quizzes or games.

Get Social

Remote work can sometimes make employees feel isolated within an organization. Fortunately, digital channels such as Slack and Whatsapp allow workers to connect with other people in the organization and get a sense of being part of the organizational culture.

Digital social channels also make it easier for new joiners to share their experiences. Additionally, digital social channels make providing support easier for other members who want to help those who may be struggling with their tasks. Think of it as a company-wide FAQ section.

Top Employee Onboarding Programs and Trends for 2022

Remote Onboarding Technology and Processes Will Continue to Evolve

A Toggl survey [8] found that 60% of HR professionals had to adapt to conducting onboarding activities and programs remotely in recent years to meet two of the four C's of traditional onboarding - culture and connection.

To adapt to the changing times, many have turned to other best practices to promote the company's values and make new hires feel welcome and heard. Some turned to using internal blogs, Slack channel discussions and one-on-one chats to get an insight on how a new hire feels in their new position.

Reboarding Employees during and Post-Pandemic

Reboarding or re-onboarding employees allows to company to re-familiarize their workers with the organization's culture and team through altered onboarding processes designed for remote work.

Creating onboarding programs suited for a remote work model would also allow the company to support their employees and address any health concerns before they go back to the office full-time or part-time.

Creating Inclusive Onboarding Programs

Diversity makes employees smarter, more creative and diligent. [9] An inclusive onboarding program is an excellent way to achieve diversity in the workplace.

Some programs may focus on:

• Taking new hires through a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion session
• Sharing the company's vocabulary. This may include jargons and acronyms
• Personalize the onboarding experience through regular check-ins

Longer Onboarding Processes

The longer a company spends onboarding its workers, the higher the chance it will retain employees. Instead of ending the onboarding experience after a couple of weeks, try to extend it for at least a year to create a continuous experience.

Create a Guided Onboarding Program

Giving your employees an onboarding buddy can significantly increase the productivity, job satisfaction, and retention rates of new hires. Additionally, they will likely learn the required skills faster through a more personalized and engaging buddy program.

Employee Onboarding Statistics You Should Know In 2022

Strategic employee onboarding still holds importance in companies that want to create a great onboarding experience. Organizations that invest in their onboarding systems are more likely to see increased engagement levels and proficiency.

Building an effective onboarding program is a continuous process. Whether you are just starting out with your program or looking for a room for improvement, here are employee onboarding statistics you should know. [10]

• Great employee onboarding experience improves employee retention rates by up to 82%
• Only 12% of companies have effective onboarding programs
• The average onboarding experience for new hires involves 54 activities
• A new hire's productivity is approximately at 25% during their first month
• Getting feedback from new hires before their start date can improve your relationship by 91%
  

Conclusion

Employee turnover can be as high as 50% within the first 18 months of employment according to Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). [7] This is both costly and puts pressure on highly burdened resources as well as a company's financial bottom line. Digitization puts organizations in a strong position to ensure employees are integrated into the organization smoothly to facilitate attracting talent, engaging new employees and subsequently retaining employees in the long term.

Want to learn more about Qualee and how it can help your teams stay engaged, or make it easier to onboard new employees? Check out www.qualee.com and download Qualee for free today!

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[1]https://advisory.kpmg.us/content/dam/advisory/en/services/spectrum/pdfs/onboardwebsitewhitepaper.pdf

[2] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/235121/why-onboarding-experience-key-retention.aspx

[3] https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/calculate-cost-per-hire/

[4] https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/human-capital-trends/2017/digital-transformation-in-hr.html

[5] https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/reinventing-employee-onboarding/

[6] https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/talent-solutions/global/en_us/c/pdfs/onboarding-in-a-box-v03-06.pdf

[7] https://www.shrm.org/foundation/ourwork/initiatives/resources-from-past-initiatives/Documents/Onboarding%20New%20Employees.pdf?utm_source=link_wwwv9&utm_campaign=item_235121&utm_medium=copy

‍[8] https://toggl.com/blog/recruitment-industry-trends-2021?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

[9] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter/

‍[10] https://www.saplinghr.com/10-employee-onboarding-statistics-you-must-know-in-2022

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