Manual, paper-based onboarding methods can cause issues with data inaccuracy, “Day One” overwhelm (for employee and employer), productivity lags, and even compliance issues. Whether it’s delivering company policy, sharing contact information, providing technical training, or preparing for a hybrid-at-will work arrangement, all of these tasks are made infinitely easier through electronic onboarding.
In this article, we’ll explore how using an HR platform to electronically onboard can help you improve your company culture, productivity, security, data accuracy, and cut costs in the process.
Overview
Electronic onboarding empowers your new hires to directly enter their employee information into your HR platform while receiving orientation materials, access to training modules, and other company collateral in a faster and more organized way. For employers, electronic onboarding simplifies employee data collection, the monitoring of key onboarding steps, and helps employees progress to full productivity at a faster rate.
Electronic onboarding consolidates all essential employee information and employer resources into a single digital location with shared access for all necessary company personnel. Importantly, electronic onboarding also makes preboarding a breeze. If you’d like your employee to complete training before their first official day of work, or have a chance to review the employee handbook and other company resources with plenty of breathing room, the digital delivery of these resources in advance supports this approach.
For more tips on how to support new hires in the first 90 days to improve first-year productivity, explore our related article on “How to Get Your New Employees Up to Speed.”
Strengthening Company Culture
In a competitive job market, electronic onboarding demonstrates your organization’s investment in making the hiring process as hassle-free and supportive as possible for new employees. Through electronic onboarding, new employees can easily access a digital platform where they can submit their essential employee information in just a few minutes.
Meanwhile, the ability to quickly share key company documents and resources spares employer and employee the familiar Day One (or Week One) overwhelm of filling out a variety of forms by hand, reviewing company policies, etc. Instead, electronic onboarding allows your new employees to complete required paperwork and training well in advance of their first day and at a pace that promotes attentive completion of each step of the process.
Day One Improvements
When you give a new employee the advanced opportunity to review important company documents, complete required training, and finalize other important HR steps, their official first day is much more likely to be pleasant and constructive. Instead of mulling over paper forms, they can focus on getting better acquainted with fellow team members, their department, on-site workspace, or simply have productive conversations about individual goals for the first month of employment.
This is one of the core benefits of switching to electronic onboarding. It transforms a once-stressful, condensed, and negatively “tone-setting” process into gradual preparation for the first official day of work. When an employee finally arrives in office, their first day will feel like a natural next step in the employment process rather than paperwork overload. More importantly, they’ll begin work more informed, more prepared, and more likely to become productive within a reasonable timeline.
Monitor Employee Progress
Once onboarding is upgraded into an entirely electronic process, it’s easier to leverage the tools and analytics within an HR platform to track which key onboarding steps a new employee has completed. With access to this information, managers can stay attuned to each employee’s onboarding progress, offer reminders about outstanding forms, training modules, or other requirements. The built-in capacity to monitor onboarding progress ensures that employees are fully prepared and productive on their first official day of work.
Prevents Errors and Increases Security
Whereas a paper-based onboarding process almost guarantees lost, misplaced, or disorganized documents, using one consolidated platform to house employee data provides much-needed peace of mind about access and accuracy.
Most HR platforms include automation features that detect errors and inconsistencies in submitted employee data, whether it’s personal information, tax information, or otherwise. Being alerted to these issues in a timely way protects your business against audits or penalties for noncompliance.
On a security level, an HR platform includes encrypted software that protects I-9 data and other sensitive information. It’s a significant improvement over a paper-based system, where paperwork with sensitive employee and employer information could be stored in multiple locations that are vulnerable to security breaches.
Reduces Costs
The cost of office supplies to manually process onboarding is expensive by itself; and that’s without calculating the number of hours spent by your HR or payroll staff to type, print, approve, transfer, and organize a wide range of documents. Switching to an HR platform with electronic onboarding capacity can save your business a significant amount of money, especially on a per-employee basis.
Supports Dynamic Work Configurations
Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses were forced to adopt new (or varied) work configurations ranging from fully remote to hybrid or hybrid-at-will. Although some businesses have transitioned back to fully on-site work, many have offered at least partially remote work configurations. For any business in this category, electronic onboarding is a must. It expedites the hiring process, helps new employees get acquainted (albeit remotely) with their colleagues, and establishes accountability practices that can be sustained throughout the employee’s tenure with your company.
Seamless Electronic Onboarding with Payday
With an optimized HR platform and expert support, onboarding can promote a positive company culture and improve productivity and compliance. That’s why Payday’s recruiting and onboarding solutions blend personal consultation with tailor-made technologies designed to streamline your hiring and onboarding processes. Enjoy all the tools and software your company needs to launch electronic onboarding successfully, including preboarding, training, and employee progress tracking.
Ready to improve your company’s hiring and onboarding processes to bring new hires up to speed in record time? Contact us today to let us know how we can support your goals.