The call for efficiency in HR onboarding

A sound employee onboarding program can help individuals achieve job satisfaction, improve engagement and increase productivity. To a veteran HR professional, however, ‘Onboarding’ traditionally means piles of paperwork and hours of form-filling.

The global workforce is now more dynamic and fast-paced, resourceful and tech-driven. If businesses want to target and retain the best of what’s on offer, it’s time they reassess how they manage their people from the very beginning.

People vs process

New hires typically have 41 administrative tasks to complete, framed in a way that erodes their optimism and energy. Payroll, tax and insurance forms, computer/email/desk setup, company policies, procedures, and on it goes.

Employee turnover is the rate at which employees leave an organisation. It represents a failure to build engagement from the outset of an employment relationship. The Work Institute reported an 88% increase in turnover between 2010 and 2017, and an 8.3% rise in 2017 alone. Another study shows that 70 percent of employees do not feel engaged in the workplace. The current state of onboarding requires a fundamental shift in HR practice — more efficiency, less effort.

A brave new world

Spawned by a young, agile generation, the trend of freelancing or contingent labour, has had widespread acceptance. By 2027, more than 50 percent of the U.S. workforce is expected to be made up of this working class. Further, 83% of executives acknowledge the increasing, ongoing use of contingent workers. Remote work, due to its flexibility and convenience, is gaining popularity as well; by 2028, 73% of all teams will have people working remotely.

In a freelance, work-from-home culture, there’s typically a higher number of data transactions between employers and employees. More and more people will need to be onboarded, and in new, improved ways. Outdated methods can undermine this ability.

In their efforts to improve the quality of their onboarding, businesses are beginning to adopt preboarding — a practice, where an individual completes administrative duties prior to their first day of work.

Preboarding saves time and cost, and enables people to engage in meaningful activity from day one. It also opens up a line of communication between HR and the employer as soon as the contract is accepted, creating room for better interactions in the future.

With existing HR onboarding, there’s work to be done; but we know what success should look like:

Data delivery

A high-performing onboarding solution is one that guarantees the delivery of clean, complete data. This means that IDs, documents, registration numbers, etc. are transferred once, in full, so the need for any back and forth is eliminated.

The use of a sound data collection system is key. The fewer the steps to share data, the better. Employers need to opt for single-click document transfer solutions.

Data quality

The quality of the employee data is pivotal to successful onboarding. Just as with complete document transfers, clean data makes room for connecting with people rather than closing their gaps.

With Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, identity vendors can eliminate the occurrence of errors. Data is automatically fed into backend systems, and employees won’t have to be hassled for the same thing twice.

Employee consent

The concept of ‘consent’ in data sharing reinforces one’s confidence in the organisation they’re soon going to be a part of. Employers clearly define the type of data they need, the purpose, and create a record of consent for future reference.

HR teams worldwide have started to take note of the changes in times, trends and tech.

The days of form-filling, bad data and cumbersome onboarding are soon to be over. By gathering complete, error-free, data, supported by strong consent standards, HR teams will be able to further prioritise employee engagement and weave it into organisational culture.