Onboarding is the process of integrating new employees into your organisation and introducing them to your culture. Onboarding is such critical phase of the employee journey because it shapes new starters’ early perceptions of the business. A positive onboarding experience will increase employee confidence and enthusiasm while a negative experience will leave them wondering if joining your team was a mistake.

ALIGN by Proaptus can help you design, implement, and manage your entire employee onboarding journey, using the latest digital solutions to ensure that your onboarding process consistently delivers positive outcomes for all new starters.  Our onboarding solutions enable your line managers and HR team to focus more time on engaging positively with new hires and less time on repetitive admin tasks and data security/quality issues.

The ALIGN by Proaptus digital onboarding service includes but is not limited to:

  1. Onboarding process design;
  2. Creation of digital contracts;
  3. Securely collecting and storing employee information and documents;
  4. Setting up IT, business systems and payroll profiles;
  5. Developing new starter introduction and training schedules; and
  6. Collecting feedback and implementing continuous improvement.

If your company is considering creating a new onboarding program, here are some top tips from Proaptus that may be helpful:

Have a plan

Fail to plan, plan to fail. The very first part of your digital onboarding journey should start with the employee journey for your recruits, covering all aspects of both the selection and onboarding processes, and milestones to help them measure how they are progressing through their journey. This will help to set expectations for both the new hire and your business. Creating an onboarding flow chart is a great way for recruits to visualise their journey. It is important for the plan to include tasks that need to be completed and who is responsible for them.

Leverage Technology

With many of us working from home now, we are all far more comfortable with tools like Teams, Zoom, and Skype. Take advantage of these tools in your onboarding process to help your recruits feel part of the business. Create a high quality and easy to navigate employee portal and implement self-service digital capabilities for common tasks like holiday bookings and expenses. Encourage 1-2-1 meetings via video conferencing, and pair your recruits with a buddy so they have ongoing support and someone to turn to should questions arise. Getting to see another face during these remote work times will help a new hire feel supported and connected with the business.

Create a communication culture

Communication is key to any relationship and vital to the success of remote working. Checking in regularly with new team recruits will help to get to know them better and be supported in their role. Be sure to ask them for their preferred communication methods, when they preferred to be contacted, agree on a regular time to catch up. Hold team meetings and company-wide updates via video call, arrange for the sessions to be recorded so those who are not able to attend can catch up.  A digital and searchable employee handbook is a great way to help new starters find information they need and understand the culture of your business.

Manage expectations

One of the biggest benefits of working from home is the increased flexibility, especially during such challenging times. Staff have the flexibility to exercise during their lunch breaks, home school, and put a load of laundry on, all of which would not be possible they were in the office.

However, it is important to manage your expectations with your team so they feel that they can take care of personal matters without compromising work quality. Encourage people to step away from their computers and go for a walk or run an errand to split their work and life day. By setting hours and expectations and scheduling calls in advance you will ensure that your team is available during certain hours of the day and have a clear understanding of what is expected. Pass this information on to new recruits so they are always aware of expectations.

Get feedback

Constructive feedback provides a great opportunity to improve the onboarding process. New recruits are a mine of information and they can provide an insight into what they find useful, frustrating, and lacking.  Ensure that your onboarding process has an active feedback mechanism that enables continuous improvement and rapid evolution to meet the changing needs of your business.

If you are interested in creating an ALIGN Ecosystem for your whole employee journey or digital solutions to effectively onboard new staff remotely, please contact a member of the team to arrange a free consultation: info@proaptus.co.uk.