Why onboarding shouldn’t be overlooked

What is onboarding, and why is so important?

Onboarding is the process of welcoming a new recruit into your business, be it providing the correct resources, making sure they are introduced to key people within the organisation or ensuring that they feel comfortable and have received ample training in areas needed. Onboarding, as well as being practical, is vital for the overall culture of the company – if you advocate an open and inclusive culture you need to demonstrate this throughout your onboarding process, it’s the perfect time to showcase your company’s best qualities.

It’s important not to underestimate the power of great onboarding, as it’s during these first few weeks that a candidate decides whether to stay within the organisation or not. According to The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for up to three years if they experienced a good onboarding programme. Learning new tools and systems in a new organisation can be daunting and it’s important to ensure that your new workforce feel confident using the technology they need to carry out their role, be it in the office or remotely. With the future of work becoming increasingly artificial intelligence (AI) based we need to ensure that experts in these fields are training new recruits and empowering them to adapt to efficient workplace technology.

Innovative onboarding

Some companies have entirely understood and embraced the power that great onboarding can provide. Take the shoe company Zappos for example, they offer a fully immersive four-week onboarding process. The new recruits get heavily involved in the company strategy, culture and their customers. In an unusual turn, during the onboarding process if a new recruit decides to quit, Zappos offers them $1,000 as well as paying them their salary up until the moment they quit. This is because they are incredibly confident about their onboarding programme, and results show that very few take the money and quit – only 10%. Zappos wants to discover early on who is a cultural fit and are willing to pay those who aren’t.

Once a company has designed a smooth onboarding process the company should see immediate results. Google has found that something as simple as putting a diary reminder in the hiring manager’s calendar with a checklist the Sunday before a new employee starts can make all the difference.  The checklist focuses on 5 simple actions: ensure the new starter has a ‘peer buddy’ to answer any work or culture questions; have a responsibilities conversation ensuring the new starter knows exactly what’s expected; help and develop new hire’s network; set up regular informal meetings with the new starter; and finally be open and honest at all times with them.

How to onboard correctly

In an additional SHRM report, it was revealed that 17% of new starters leave in the first three months. How can your business create an onboarding system that ensures new and key talent is staying in the company rather than taking valuable skills elsewhere?

Join ASG Technologies for a webinar on May 29^th entitled ‘Jumpstart Workforce Productivity with Digital Workspaces’ to find out how digital workspaces can help your onboarding process. The panel consists of digital workspace expert, Michael Collins, and ASG Technologies’ Head of HR, Licia Williams. They’ll be discussing how as a business you can quickly onboard new staff – employees, contractors, or consultants – with the help of digital workspaces. Effective onboarding can mean 50% greater new-hire productivity, and with talent acquisition costs at 1/3 an employee’s compensation that’s a fact that can’t be ignored.

During this innovative webinar, you’ll learn how digital workspaces:

• Support any device, anywhere – so you can engage the best talent regardless of location
• Embed IT policies regarding security, governance, and regulatory compliance
• Support personalisation to suit individual work styles
• Offer a single point of control to facilitate a secure offboarding process

For more information, and to register, click here.

ASG Technologies provides global organisations with a modern approach to Digital Transformation to succeed in the Information Economy. ASG is the only solutions provider for both Information Management and IT Systems. ASG is proud to serve more than 3,000 customers worldwide in 60 countries and in top vertical markets including Healthcare, Financial Services, Insurance and Government.  For more information on ASG please visit www.asg.com.

Emily Sexton-Brown