HR Automation: Onboarding accelerated

 Nov 22, 2016

We’ve all seen the social media posts from someone starting a new job – the photo of their new desk, with a PC, a Surface tablet and a new phone… a company t-shirt nicely folded on the left and a personalised coffee mug on the right. The caption reads “onboarding done right”. We all know first impressions count. But what happens next?

I’ve seen some excellent onboarding processes, and the occasional terrible one. Much like most other HR processes, there is much to be gained from a digital approach to onboarding.

Why is a digital approach needed?

  • Onboarding is often highly paper-intensive, and many organisations struggle to manage cumbersome paper forms and satisfy compliance requirements.
  • Manual provisioning and de-provisioning of user accounts wastes time for IT, and delays the experience for the new hire.
  • Unnecessary (or worse, incorrect) software licences issued to new users add confusion and expense.
  • Bottlenecks in approval processes cause frustration and lost productivity, as a new employee waits for hardware, or training content.
  • Once all the approvals have been completed, more time and money is spent on copying, filing, and securely storing hard copies of approved documents.

How can a digital, automated approach help?

  • Workflow automation can link IT systems (email, staff directories, user groups, and other business systems) to eliminate double-handling.
  • Software provision can be automated based on pre-defined criteria, reducing IT support requests.
  • Automatic reminders ensure no part of the process is forgotten, or delayed without cause.
  • Approvals and other documentation can be signed electronically, helping speed up response times.
  • Induction and other training can be automatically booked and/or scheduled.
  • Details of the entire process, including documents and timings, are stored in a digital repository, making the process highly auditable.

Given the potential cost of employee turnover, the level of compliance required, and the potential savings due to productivity, automating the onboarding process typically generates a solid ROI quite quickly.

Also, once the onboarding process is complete, don’t forget to automate your performance reviews as well!

Check out the below video by Nintex for some ideas on automating employee onboarding:

Transcript



If you’re yet to experience Nintex Forms or Nintex Workflow, feel free to contact me to ask questions or see a demo.

If you already have Nintex licensing and can’t wait to get stuck into some workflow automation, check out some of our upcoming dates for Nintex training.

How do your Excel skills stack up?   

Test Now  

About the Author:

Tom Hudson  

Tom leads New Horizons' business solutions arm, providing consulting, software licensing and training that is focused on helping our clients transform the way they work. The key goals of this work are to increase efficiency, maximise productivity, and create space for innovation (and of course to play with some exciting technology in the process!).

Read full bio
top
Back to top