Onboarding Technologies: What They Can Do For You?
Onboarding is a period of time that varies by company but provides new employees with the necessary information and training to be successful in their new roles in an organization. As I pointed out last week, the average company loses 25% of new hires each year.
The onboarding process should be simple, repeatable, and interesting. In general, goals for the onboarding process should be set at 30 days, 90 days, 6 months, and one year. In this time new employees learn about the culture of the organization, the company mission, personal and organizational goals.
Statistics show that 80% of all organizations have some type of orientation process. Unfortunately, the majority of them do not effectively set up and manage the process. Over time, technology has changed and improved the recruiting process, while onboarding has been virtually the same for the past 10 to 20 years.
Recently, there has been a surge in advanced technology supporting onboarding systems. Many organizations are making use of technology to ensure that new employees are properly assimilated. The resources used should mesh well with other HRIS software which in turn should require nominal data entry–a key pain point for anyone that’s ever hired staff members.
Why Care About Onboarding Technology?
There are many advantages to the use of onboarding technology. Some include enhanced knowledge about the organization, increased networking and social interaction, better tracking, efficiency, and increased employee engagement. The use of technology resources in the onboarding process is growing exponentially and greatly assists with decreasing the amount of paperwork collected with the arrival of a new hire.
Allowing new hires to fill out forms online prior to their first day is what is known as preboarding. To better assist in this process of preboarding, employer HR, IT, and other stakeholders should come together and create a well-structured process to be used over and over as new hires enter the organization.
Where Can I Go For Onboarding Technology?
Below is a sampling of onboarding technology providers in no particular order.
Talmundo: Talmundo is an HR tech company founded in 2012 by Stijn De Groef. The company recently raised $1.4M from angel investors and TIIN Capital for employee onboarding software. The Talmundo system goes into effect as soon as a prospective employee accepts the job offer. They are given access to the onboarding software to begin learning about their future teammates, manager, and role. They will have the ability to read testimonials from current employees, fill out administration forms, and take company specific training courses. All this takes place in the weeks or months prior to their start date. The software is also used after they have started to track progress on the job and get thoughts on the process to improve it in the future.
Personably: Personably is a relatively new onboarding company founded by Katerina Pascoulis and Lewis Blackwood in 2016. The organization recently raised approximately $656k in startup funding. The Personably software acts as an interactive schedule and calendar for new hires. It allows the hiring manager to setup daily or weekly tasks and reminders for the new hire. They can be assigned a buddy that they can communicate with via the software to ensure that they have the assistance they need to begin their journey with the company.
Appical: Appical is an onboarding platform that was founding by Gerrit Brouwer and Gerwald van den Oetelaar of the European Union in 2012. They are one of the unique onboarding companies because they encompass preboarding, onboarding, and offboarding. They have applications that allow prospective employees to take quizzes, handle interactive assignments, or solve virtual reality problems before even starting their assignment. They also handle knowledge transfers and the collecting of feedback from employees as they prepare to leave. This allows the company to improve from knowledge gained by departing employees.
HROnboard: HROnboard was founded by Peter Forbes in Ringwood, Victoria in 2013. They offer a cloud-based onboarding software that specializes in onboarding, induction, and new hire engagement. Their objective is to provide a seamless digital experience to streamline the onboarding process. The expectation is that their software will provide a smooth transition from candidate experience to new hire experience to departing employee, if and when the time comes.
What Does This Mean For Me?
It is clear that there is a need for improved onboarding processes to appeal to and maintain talent recruited by an organization. As technology increases, the ability to streamline the onboarding process can be improved. This includes utilizing preboarding to handle menial tasks like standard training courses or administrative tasks such as setting up direct deposit. There are several companies breaking into the onboarding platform market, so there is no shortage of choices to choose from. The only question left to answer is which one is right for you. If you need help with your own unique needs Lighthouse Research & Advisory can help.
About the author: Shiree is a research intern at Lighthouse Research & Advisory. She is interested in building a better candidate experience from sourcing to interviewing to onboarding and her research reflects that focus.
Ben Eubanks is the Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory. He is an author, speaker, and researcher with a passion for telling stories and making complex topics easy to understand.
His latest book Talent Scarcity answers the question every business leader has asked in recent years: “Where are all the people, and how do we get them back to work?” It shares practical and strategic recruiting and retention ideas and case studies for every employer.
His first book, Artificial Intelligence for HR, is the world’s most-cited resource on AI applications for hiring, development, and employee experience.
Ben has more than 10 years of experience both as an HR/recruiting executive as well as a researcher on workplace topics. His work is practical, relevant, and valued by practitioners from F100 firms to SMB organizations across the globe.
He has spoken to tens of thousands of HR professionals across the globe and enjoys sharing about technology, talent practices, and more. His speaking credits include the SHRM Annual Conference, Seminarium International, PeopleMatters Dubai and India, and over 100 other notable events.