The last time you started a job, do you remember that mixed feeling of excitement and anxiety? You were eager to start your new adventure, but at the same time nervous to whether the company would be a cultural fit.
You were waiting weeks to start, and while the excitement of embarking on a new journey was still alive, the apprehension of the unknown was slowly taking over. Would the team be supportive? Would you fit in with the company’s mission and values? Every concern and thought ran through your head, making the run up to your first day a rollercoaster of emotions.
And if you thought you were the only person that felt like this – you’re not alone. In fact, according to LinkedIn 80% of professionals feel nervous before starting a job.
Interestingly, according to research conducted by Indeed, nearly 60% of companies surveyed report candidates disappearing after accepting a verbal offer. And a shocking 65% of employers report candidate no-shows on their agreed first day of work.
Now, there could be many factors contributing to these alarming figures, such as:
– Feeling unprepared for the role
– Lack of communication from the employer
– Not having enough information about what to expect on their first day
– Another job offer
But one way we can eliminate these causes, is to ensure that our onboarding plan and processes are effective in engaging new employees from the moment they accept the job offer.
Why is it important to get an onboarding plan for new hires right?
Onboarding is an essential part of setting the tone for a new employees journey with your organisation. It’s about creating a positive onboarding experience that starts from the moment they are offered the position, to the first day of the job and beyond.
When a new hire is offered a job, they are filled with excitement and joy. You want to keep that momentum flowing so their doubts and nerves don’t get the better of them and jump ship. That’s why your onboarding process needs to start from the moment they accept that job offer.
But don’t worry, this doesn’t have to take a huge amount of time and effort. All you have to do is unleash the power of digital onboarding.
5 Ways To Use Digital Onboarding To Convert Excited New Hires To Engaged Employees
1. Automate onboarding paperwork:
The onboarding process begins the moment new employees accept their job offer. So don’t wait a week after acceptance, before giving them access to sign their contract – show you are committed and send it out straight away.
If you have a HR software that has an inbuilt signature feature (like elementsuite), send the contract out by giving them controlled access to your software, so your new hire can sign their contract, add in their personal details and bank info etc. In a few clicks all the onboarding paperwork done and dusted! And you don’t have to think about the hassle of sieving through your desktop files or paying for DocuSign. Everything is there, ready to be updated and stored in one single source of truth.
2. Send out a welcome email:
Onboarding is more than just paperwork. It’s about creating an employee experience that engages them from the moment they accept the job offer. And what better way to make a new hire feel welcome with a personalised, branded (and, automated) welcome email.
This could come from HR, their line manager, or even CEO. It could be as simple as “Hello, Congratulations on joining the team. We are really excited to have you onboard.”
It could even include a personalised onboarding plan of what their first few weeks will look like, including onboarding meeting with relevant departments or a work buddy to help them when they start.
Or, you could even follow in McDonald’s footsteps and include ‘help and support’ videos from crew members, you could do the same with members of your staff.
The idea is to give them a sense of belonging, and ease their anxieties before arriving on the first day.
3. Give them secure access to your companies communications channels:
To really keep that momentum going and give your new hires an idea of what working for your company will be like, give them access to your communications platform.
But before you go and give your employees access to Slack, think twice.
”A common problem our customers have, is that when an employee leaves their organisation and HR want to shut down their access to accounts, Slack often gets forgotten. Which of course, is a major security concern.
That’s why we created a Facebook like platform in our software so that employees can have access to the company’s internal communications channel, without risking any security breaches”, says Angela Moyle, Chief of Staff at elementsuite.
And no need to worry about oversharing at such an early stage of their employee lifestyle. You can filter what information your onboardees can access, so you don’t have to worry about them stumbling on confidential conversations or projects.
4. Show you care about their development with access to your learning platform
Millennial’s are taking over the workforce. And they expect more than just a job from the companies they work for. They want development opportunities.
So while they are waiting to start their job, giving them access to your learning platform is the perfect time to show them that you are committed to investing in their growth.
At elementsuite, we have a comprehensive learning module where you can create and manage training plans and courses. Or you may even have an existing learning platform and want to integrate it with your HR software, so that you don’t have to bombard your new recruits with different log-in credentials.
Either way, onboarding is the perfect time to introduce them to your learning and development programme and give them a taste of what’s to come.
5. Give them a voice by asking for feedback on the onboarding process
So now your new recruits are one week into the job and have fully completed their onboarding and induction, what better way to find out how onboarding went for them than by asking for their feedback.
This will give you an insight into potential recruitment and onboarding improvements, and also set a tone of openness and transparency from the very beginning.
All you have to do is click on button, and voila! Your HR software will provide them access to an online survey to your new employees, and all the responses will be stored safely in your HR system.
Your one shop stop to onboarding success
At elementsuite we believe that onboarding new employees doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out process. For our customers, this means having access to a full suite of onboarding tools, such as e-signature for contracts, personalised welcome emails, secure comms channels, a learning platform and feedback surveys all in one place.
We want you to unleash the power onboarding and create onboarding plans that will keep your new hires engaged throughout their pre-start journey.
So why not give it a try today and start onboarding with confidence!
Book a demo and find out more about how we can help you onboard new employees and keep them engaged.
Happy onboarding!
