The initial few days of joining a new organization would be overwhelming for most of us. Employee onboarding is a crucial step for the employee as well as the organization. An effective Onboarding process introduces the employee to the organization’s work culture. Onboarding is also called organizational socialization where the employee gets an overview of their team and also their new position.
An automated onboarding process can help in clear communication, motivating the employee, and can also help to retain the employee for a long time along with increased productivity. The first impression is the last impression, and since onboarding is the first step for an employee to get to know their new workplace, a bad experience can scar the overall impression of the organization.
The HR team has many tasks that have to be done on a daily basis. With these tasks come challenges. Recruiting and onboarding are one of the most intense tasks they have to face. Onboarding is the key responsibility of HR. A successful recruitment management system demands a well-documented, systematic, and smooth operation from the HR’s end. But a successful onboarding is a tedious process that involves a lot of resources as well as time.
With the ongoing pandemic, the traditional way of work has been affected and so are the recruiting and onboarding process. Organizations are in a tight spot trying to welcome, engage and train new employees. Some organizations are already used to the new normal but some are still getting a hang of it.
Using the right technology to overcome this situation is what most organizations are aiming at. This is when automated onboarding Software comes to good use. The human resource team has to face a lot of challenges during the manual onboarding process.
Table of Contents
Some of the challenges include
- Ceaseless Paperwork – When an organization hires an employee, the employee has to fill in many paper-based questionnaires. The employee has to send the details either via email or submit the paper. The HR has to then manually enter each detail into the system or keep each document safely. This becomes very tedious and time-consuming.
- Poor coordination among various departments – During the initial days of an employee, he/she is required to co-ordinate with various departments like IT (for all software related queries), finance (for all financial assistance), HR (any other queries related to leave management system, salary, etc.). The HR finds it very difficult to have coordination between all these departments which results in delayed work.
- Inaccuracy due to human error- There are some mistakes bound to happen while manually entering the data. Though such errors are avoidable, there are chances of missing data or adding extra data as human errors are bound to happen. Due to such mistakes, there will be inaccuracy in the overall data. To add to it, finding the error also has to be done manually which can be very tedious.
- Missing out important information- An HR has a lot of tasks in hand. Due to multiple tasks at hand, they might miss out on important information. Due to this, they have to repeat the entire process. This can be a small mistake or a big one that can cause a lot of trouble for the organization.
- Time-consuming- Most of the employees do not enjoy filling multiple documents with the same information. The overall onboarding process becomes very time-consuming as each work has to be done manually.
Manual onboarding makes it difficult to track the progress of each step. During such a situation, an automated onboarding process comes to their rescue. Automated Onboarding is the answer to a consistent and efficient onboarding process. Providing a wonderful onboarding process speaks a lot about your organization. The onboarding process differs in different organizations.
The onboarding process that most organizations follow are:
- Selection of the right candidate
- Salary negotiation
- Getting the job offer letter ready
- Ensuring whether all documents are ready
- Policy and work culture training
- Introduce them to the team
- Walk them through the internal processes
To follow all these steps without any flaw each organization should have a strong onboarding system. This is when modern software comes as a relief for most organizations. More and more organizations are shifting to automated onboarding systemsdue to obvious reasons that they help to increase the efficiency and performance of the company. By automating the onboarding process, the human resource team saves a lot of time which can be used for other tasks. This in turn helps in more productivity.
To show each employee that you value them and their time, it is very important to switch to automated onboarding Software.Using automated onboarding software allows every organization to bring forth an organized and close-knit experience for each employee where they can complete all that they want from a single window.
With the use of automation for onboarding, new employees can communicate better with their team and work faster. This results in a successful onboarding experience.
Some of the benefits of using automation for onboarding are:
- Saves time – Managing the onboarding process manually can be a mundane task. Preparing all documents, check for all errors, get the forms filled by the employee, check for any errors, explaining the company policies, etc. can be very daunting for HR. With the use of an automated onboarding system, one doesn’t have to worry about these issues. Each step is systematic which creates a pleasant experience for the company as well as the employee.
- Saves Money- This is one thing that everyone loves to do. By using automated onboarding systems, the cost of all paperwork can be eliminated.
- Efficiently collect data – All the information can be efficiently gathered about the employee and can be stored securely.
- Reduce errors – Humans are bound to make errors. This can be reduced by using automated onboarding systems.
- More secure- While onboarding an employee, several sensitive data are collected. With the use of automated onboarding systems, we can provide a sense of security to the employee that each data collected is integrated and secured.
- Provides complete information about the organization- Knowing more about the organization and their policies are something that every employee looks forward to. With the help of automated onboarding systems, this work can be done easily rather than doing it manually.
- Set goals for the employee- It is easy to set goals and objectives for the employee’s role. By doing this the employee gets a clear picture of what is expected from him/ her. This helps them to be more engaged in their job right from the beginning.
- Reduces workload of the HR team – The HR team has many tasks to perform on daily basis. Onboarding is one of the most daunting jobs for them which requires a lot of time and patience. With the help of an automated onboarding system, these tasks can be reduced to a great extent.
- Improves employee retention- When a newly hired employee is not handled or engaged properly within the new organization their chance of changing the job is high. So it is very important to keep the newly hired employee engaged. Automated onboarding helps the onboarding process to be seamless and creates a good first impression among newly hired employees.
- Increases Productivity- By getting an effective onboarding, new employees are much likely to feel more confident and perform better in their tasks. Thus it helps to increase the productivity of new employees.
Takeaway
After reading all the above benefits of using an automated onboarding system it is obvious that for a successful onboarding process switching to automation is the key factor. The time used for burying the new employee’s head into tedious paperwork can be utilised towards understanding the organization’s value, culture and getting to know the team. Automation is the answer for a consistent, efficient, quality, and successful organization. It would be every employee’s dream to work in such an organization.
Shilpi Kanungo is a prolific wordsmith in Pocket HRMS smHRt Tech PVT LTD with a passion for weaving blogs that transport readers to the world of knowledge and Technicality. With a background in Journalism and mass communication, her love for writing dates back to her childhood. Shilpi’s articles and guides cover a wide spectrum of topics, from HRMS solutions and cybersecurity to the latest tech trends in the corporate realm. With a knack for turning jargon into understandable language, Shilpi’s writing empowers readers to harness the potential of the digital world. When she’s not typing away at her keyboard, you’ll find her exploring new gadgets, travelling, or learning new technical advancements in trend. Dive into Shilpi’s work for an insightful journey into the digital HRMS realm.
