In today’s article, we will talk about candidate onboarding. The goal is to explore the impact of good practices on the business. We will also provide tips on developing an effective onboarding process and how digital timekeeping software software can enhance it.
Congratulations! After reviewing hundreds of CVs and conducting a few interview rounds, you found the right hire. However, there are still a couple of hoops to jump through. And they all fall under the umbrella term known as onboarding.
You must have a process in place for every new starter to go through. For each company, it is going to look different. But ultimately it’s all about collecting the legal documents and introducing new workers to your company’s processes. Some believe this is all you need and stick to the minimum. But we think there are 5 reasons why you should make this process smoother using digital solutions. Come explore them with us.
What Makes Candidate Onboarding Important?
Onboarding helps bring your new hires up to speed. It is also a legal obligation for the employer to ensure they have sufficient documentation of their workers. As simple and self-explanatory as it sounds, onboarding is a lot deeper and has a much bigger impact on businesses.
1. It Enhances Candidate Experience
Employers often don’t see building a positive candidate experience as part of a strategy. Nor do they recognise it as something hugely dependent on onboarding. This negligence can sour further development of a relationship with the new hire and have a direct impact on the reputation of your business.
Research shows that candidates are very likely to share their onboarding experiences within their inner circles. 81% of candidates have told their friends and families about positive contact, whereas 66% would share experiences that were not pleasant. These numbers are vastly bigger than the feedback candidates provide on social media, where the business can respond. Which goes to show how powerful the word of mouth is.
What it means to you is that the experience you provide through onboarding reaches audiences you wouldn’t normally tap into. And shapes the image of your brand to them. A single instance of the onboarding process being described as stressful and unpleasant can affect your future ability to attract new talents.
Tip: The key to building a positive candidate experience lies in making the onboarding process hassle-free. For starters, reduce the amount of paperwork required and centralise the submission and storage of documentation. A digital onboarding solution will do the job.
It allows the employee to upload, review and update relevant information in one place. Additionally, it will always be easily accessible for you to review. This is one of the features we offer as part of our Project software.
2. It Ensures Quick Results and Boosts Team Productivity
The purpose of onboarding is to get your new hire up to speed as quickly as possible. The sooner they start actively contributing, the quicker your company’s productivity grows.
Effective onboarding allows new starters to adjust to your processes at a gradual yet quick pace. Not having a procedure in place throws them at the deep end to figure things out on their own. This will reflect negatively on their overall experience, the dangers of which we’ve already discussed. Additionally, this can cause severe delays in their readiness to start executing their duties effectively.
All this affects your current team too. The lesser number of vacant positions means they don’t need to spread thin in attempts to cover several roles at once. To back that up, the statistics show that good onboarding practices lead to a 50% increase in productivity.
Tip: The quickest and most efficient way of successful onboarding involves automation. For example, Mastercard sends every new hire an automated email with a set of videos explaining the company's values and operational systems. The email also includes an invitation to the onboarding platform where they can upload their documentation.
3. It Enriches the Company’s Culture
Onboarding isn’t limited to document submission and compliance. It is an opportunity to lay out the foundation of employee retention.
The process gives candidates a taste of the company’s culture, values, and mission. It also enables them to envision their personal and professional growth moving forward. Through onboarding, your new hires can discover touchpoints of their personal goals with those of the business.
It’s a great way to give them a clear understanding of the overall atmosphere within the company. As well as show them how they will contribute to nurturing and developing the culture moving on.
Tip: Are there any essential documents such as brand guidelines, style guides or other similar that the employee needs to familiarise themselves with? If yes, ensure it is all stored in a centralised data library and easily accessible. Additionally, introduce and arrange training sessions for any digital tools such as online timesheets or a CRM to ensure they are being used correctly.
4. It Enables Relationship Building
Good onboarding creates a rapport between the new hire and the management. And it can turn into a strong, trust-based connection moving forward. Being attentive, personal and genuinely trying to help plants seeds of loyalty in your new hires from the get-go. It’s not an opportunity to be missed.
In our previous article, we’ve spoken about how even small things like expense management can play a huge role in building a relationship. Onboarding is when they should start being introduced.
Tip: Be honest, transparent and empathetic. You must communicate and manage the expectations of both parties during the onboarding stage. Put yourself into their shoes and identify what’s the key information they need. Then provide it before you’re asked. Show them you want them to learn every aspect of the business, not just the ones directly tied to their duties.
5. It Sets Them Up For Success
Effective onboarding is the cornerstone of long-term success. It gives the first impression to the employee, sets expectations and boundaries and provides growth opportunities.
When done right, onboarding creates loyal, result-driven and company-orientated employees. A smooth, gradual process helps them start applying their skills as soon as possible. With that, they start contributing to business goals and get motivated to grow together with the company.
Tip: Onboarding is a two-way street. It allows you and the candidate to determine whether you’re a good match. Don’t feel discouraged to let the candidate go during onboarding if it becomes clear they’re not a good fit. Ultimately, you are doing them a favour by letting them find a better environment to strive in.
Summary
The importance of onboarding must not be underestimated. It fills in a gap in your team with someone with the right skill set and gets them up to speed faster. And it also contributes towards your long-term goals.
Employee retention builds loyalty, good publicity and accelerated growth. The founding stone of that is an effective and smooth onboarding process. The technology of today can streamline itthrough automation, centralisation and tailoring of individual approaches.
At Anfold Software, we have gone above and beyond to create a hassle-free onboarding system. We’ve put so much thought into it that we couldn’t keep it to ourselves. Hence why we have integrated it into our products, so you can benefit from it too.
Curious to learn what our onboarding process looks like? Book a demo and we will walk you through it.
