The pandemic scenario led to a global revamp of business practices. No matter what industry, most of the corporate staff is working from home for a much longer duration than expected. In such a scenario, companies are feeling the need to move all their processes to the ‘online’ world and that includes the digital onboarding of new hires.
In a typical scenario, upon hiring a recruit, the management would spend time with the person and provide orientation support. Welcoming them into the premises, providing the work facilities, introducing to colleagues and training them about the organisation alongside completing the administrative formalities was all a part of the onboarding process. Now, these tasks have been moved onto the virtual world through top-of-the-line human resource information systems. Let’s look at the key things that successful digital onboarding of new employees necessitates:
Ensuring system availability
Ahead of the joining date, the HR personnel should create a checklist of all systems and facilities they need for their work and get things set up and ready to run. While this is something that any experienced HR professional would be familiar with, the urgency is greater because of the remote working processes. Any glitches upon joining or non-availability of systems can result in wastage of precious time and additional cost for the organisation.
HR & payroll set-up
People freshly appointed won’t be thinking about HR and payroll until it is informed that they have been integrated into the payroll system, and would get the salaries as per the schedule. In many of the companies, new employees are asked to fill in their personal details manually, but, for a web-based onboarding process, they need to enter the details online. That’s where a GDPR compliant and secure global payroll software can make things smooth for the organisation and the employees.
Safely sharing company policies
The same digital security and compliance considerations are required while exchanging company policies and employment terms with the new recruits online. The simple and prevalent process is to email the document to the employees, ask them to get the same printed, signed and returned. However, modern technology enables companies to make the whole process paper-free by asking the employees to sign electronic documents digitally and email them back. Thus, the documents can be stored electronically with no printing hassles.
Regular communication
Communication is of utmost essence. Remote working often entails the feeling of being left out and lonely. Employees start feeling that the management is not focusing on them, and such thoughts can lead to insecurities related to the job. Hence, regular communication related to not only reporting but the wellness of employees and addressing their challenges is critical. Leading digital HR solutions facilitate integrated communication tools to simplify the interactions on one-on-one and team formats.
Digital collaboration
Training is an essential part of the onboarding process, but it can often be a significant challenge for employees working remotely. Thus, a good digital training system has to be in place which allows free flow of information, queries and feedback between the management and the employees. Online conversations, discussions with management, sharing of documents and all such tools can ensure seamless and inclusive digital collaboration, which is crucial in the current scenario.
Through an efficient and seamless human resource information system, companies can smoothen the process of digital onboarding. Even when new joinees are working remotely, HR personnel can ensure that nobody feels left out, unimportant or without objective.
