Seamless onboarding enables new joiners to smoothly integrate into the workplace. With ‘Onboarding Automation,’ organizations can streamline the process, helping new employees adapt, settle in, and become productive faster.
In this blog, let’s explore some critical onboarding tasks your company can automate to transform its HR workflows. Also learn how ‘Automation Digital Workers‘ execute them, saving you time and effort!
Overview of [Non-Automated] Employee Onboarding
Businesses and organizations strive to implement the best HR practices, including a proper onboarding process for new hires.
Interestingly, in many cases, the internal HR department manages the entire hiring cycle—job posting, interview process, hiring, onboarding, and subsequent administration.
However, automated or not, employee onboarding typically spans four key stages:
1. Pre-Onboarding
Involves formalizing the employment contract, paperwork, and collecting documentation from the selected new hire. Plus, setting up their workstation and sanctioning necessary equipment. Team and department introductions complete ‘Stage One’ of the onboarding.
2. Day One Onboarding
Broadly covers the welcome and orientation, briefing new employees about their role, expectations, and performance metrics. Notably, it includes providing information about available benefits, policies, procedures, and so on. Typically done in-person for onsite staff and virtually for remote workers.
Explore real-world use cases and tested strategies in HR automation! Grab our free guide to learn how your company can transform its HR processes. Download now!
3. First Week / First Month Onboarding
HR ensures the new joiner has access to essential systems and processes. A mentor or buddy may be assigned, or training on job-specific skills scheduled if needed. Feedback and check-ins are set up to assess progress and/or probation.
4. Ongoing Onboarding for Continuous Growth
Throughout the employee’s tenure, the HR team has many more tasks at hand: regular performance reviews, team-building activities, career development programs, employee engagement, recognition and rewards, grievance redressal, regular feedback, etc.
Here you will notice that many of these tasks are repetitive, rule-driven, and mundane. For example, data handling, documentation, report generation, and scheduling.
But they are also time-consuming and error-prone when handled manually. Even when HRM software is in use, many still require manual input and configuration.
Now think how many hours each week your HR staff spends (or burns) on tasks that could be easily automated.
Surely, there can be a much better use of your people’s time, effort, and skills! Right?
Onboarding Automation: Simplify, Streamline, and Speed Up
Onboarding can be complex, regardless of the scale and size of operations. The progression from candidate search and interviews to signing a contract and a new hire’s actual start date is often long and disjointed.
This is especially true for entities with multiple departments, units, branches, locations, and a sizeable workforce. Onboarding automation helps tackle such inherent challenges.
Here are the core pillars that drive its impact:
- Simplify: Manual onboarding can be riddled with numerous touchpoints and pit stops that require frequent communication, leading to back-and-forth and delays. Automation allows HR teams and new hires to complete their tasks at their own pace without disrupting each other.
- Streamline: Automation eliminates unnecessary steps and bottlenecks, making workflows more accurate and efficient. This creates cohesive and optimized onboarding pathways.
- Speed Up: Onboarding can take anywhere from a few days to several months. Automation speeds up the tasks and workflows where it’s deployed, enabling fast-tracked completion.
A whopping 89% of respondents said a good onboarding experience made them feel highly engaged at work, a study says.
Significantly, automation also frees up HR staff to focus on more strategic initiatives such as:
- Talent management and development
- Employee experience and engagement
- Attracting, hiring, and retaining top talent
- Fostering a more skilled and productive workforce
- Promoting a positive, growth-oriented environment
Consequently, HR professionals can contribute more effectively to a business or organization’s employer brand and long-term success.
Automating New Hire Onboarding with Digital Workers
Digital Workers, also known as software robots or bots, can automate a range of individual and interconnected tasks, as well as end-to-end processes, freeing up human staff.
We have already discussed some ways HR teams can be better utilized, rather than entangling them in mundane tasks.
Centelli’s result-oriented and value-driven Intelligent Automation and RPA solutions help businesses and workplaces align with digitalization and technological evolution.
Here’s how our custom-built HR Automation and Digital Workers can help with employee onboarding:
1. Pre-Boarding Task Automation
- Pre-Filled Forms: Customized pre-filled online forms minimize manual data entry.
- Digital Signatures: Eliminate physical paperwork, with employees signing documents electronically, even remotely.
- Document Verification: Automate verification of documents like employment records, address proof, utility bills, passports, etc., using OCR, pattern recognition, and data validation.
- Benefits Enrolment: Digital Workers (bots) manage the enrolment process for new hires in applicable benefits packages with the greatest accuracy.
2. Orientation Program Automation
- Virtual Presentation: New hires can access pre-recorded videos or slideshows about company culture and values at their convenience.
- Digital Manuals: Online manuals or knowledge resources can be accessed anywhere, anytime.
- Interactive Quizzes: Digital Worker-administered quizzes are a more engaging and effective way to assess the orientation journey of new employees.
- Chatbots: Provide quick answers to frequently asked questions about company and departmental policies.
- E-Learning: Interactive modules deliver protocol training with videos, quizzes, and simulations.
- Compliance Tracking: Bots ensure consistent tracking of new hires’ training progress and compliance with safety regulations.
Explore real-world use cases and tested strategies in HR automation! Grab our free guide to learn how your company can transform its HR processes. Download now!
3. Goal Setting via Onboarding Automation
- SMART Goals: Digital Workers’ data-backed intelligent recommendations help organizations clearly define Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals for new joiners.
- Performance Monitoring: Real-time data and analytics, predictive insights, and personalized feedback make performance measurement almost effortless and impeccable.
4. HR Support with AI Digital Workers
- Virtual Assistants: AI-enabled bots as virtual assistants offer initial support and answer common HR-related questions to new staff. They are accessible 24/7.
- Ticketing Automation: Digital Assistants direct inquiries to the appropriate HR representative for efficient follow-up, helping reduce the HR workload.
5. Training and Onboarding Automation
- Online Technical Training: While online modules allow self-paced learning, the Digital Worker provides the employee with access to virtual labs for hands-on practice.
- Online Soft Skills Training: Bots deliver simulated and gamified problem-solving and interpersonal skills training, offering highly interactive and engaging sessions.
6. Post-Onboarding Follow-Up Automation
- Automated Surveys: Collect feedback from new hires through online surveys to improve the onboarding experience.
- Feedback Analysis: Bots can analyse survey data in detail and more accurately to uncover key insights and areas for improvement.
- Performance Tracking: Automated monitoring ensures seamless employee performance tracking and helps identify skill gaps and further training needs.
The Human Touch Besides Onboarding Automation
As digital workers handle repetitive, rule-based tasks, HR teams can greatly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the onboarding process, ensuring a better experience for both new hires and the organization.
That said, it’s important to note that Human Resource Management is a people-centred function.
While technology reduces manual effort and improves efficiency and quality, automation and AI cannot replace the human touch in HR. Human intervention remains essential for complex workflows, exceptions handling, and ensuring regulatory compliance.
In short, automated onboarding processes should complement and augment your HR team, maximizing overall results and impact!
Talk to our experts for more info about onboarding automation within our HR Automation Solutions and schedule a free consultation.