Editorial
The world is becoming more digital, with workspaces and the workforce evolving and artificial intelligence fundamentally altering the experience of work. Most organizations now operate in digital workspaces (hybrid or remote), while employees expect their work experience to reflect the digital world in which they operate.
This can make integrating into their new roles and the organization challenging for new employees while creating complexity for organizations in effectively onboarding new joiners. Digital onboarding (including artificial intelligence) offers a solution that enhances the overall experience of new employees and reduces the organization's administrative burden.
But what is digital onboarding, and is it as simple as using technology? Let’s explore the concept of digital onboarding, how it is revolutionizing the new employee experience and what to consider, beyond the technology.
The End of an Era
Onboarding has traditionally been a time-consuming and resource-intensive process, often involving stacks of paperwork, face-to-face meetings and lengthy orientation sessions. This approach has limitations, including delays in getting new employees up to speed, potential paperwork errors and scheduling challenges. Digitalization enables a more efficient and streamlined onboarding process while providing an engaging experience that helps new employees integrate into the organization faster. In fact, over two-thirds of US organizations have already adopted digital onboarding and incorporated AI into their onboarding processes.
Related Article: How to Onboard New Employees to Your Asynchronous Team
What Is Digital Onboarding?
Digital onboarding involves using various digital tools and platforms to facilitate the integration of new employees into an organization. This could include completing paperwork online using document management systems; participating in virtual orientation sessions via videoconferencing; accessing digital resources and training materials through learning management systems; and using artificial intelligence as a co-pilot within the onboarding process.
However, a seamless digital onboarding experience is about knowing where and how to use technology where it matters most. When implementing digital onboarding, it is crucial to consider the technology and processes involved by considering its relative impact on the employee experience and the need for scalability within the organization.
The type of digital experience may vary depending on the desired outcomes:
- Standardization: Technology enables a standardized, efficient, cost-effective and cost-effective experience. For the onboarding process to deliver a positive employee experience, some parts simply have to be the same for everyone. For example, having access to a digital employee handbook or policies and procedures that can be accessed and referenced as required is sufficient. Access to a digital portal or a chatbot to answer specific questions can facilitate this.
- Automation: Automation is a powerful way to use technology to enable high-volume transactional processing that saves time and frees capacity. For example, in the onboarding process, straight-through payroll processing creates a frictionless employee experience and creates efficiencies for HR, which reduce errors.
- Personalization: Technology can enable a highly personalized experience by tailoring the onboarding process to the new joiner's role, team and other unique needs. For example, facilitating a personalized 30-6-90 day plan with predefined team touchpoints and individual engagements through an onboarding platform can create a customized experience for leaders. This creates a scalable, personal experience that creates connection and engagement.
- Individualization: Using technology such as AI, the onboarding process can also be tailored and customized based on the preferences, progress and input of new employees. For example, by monitoring a new joiner's progress through learning milestones and performance feedback, an individual learning path can be recommended to fast-track their performance and address any gaps proactively.
Making the Business Case for Digital Onboarding
The shift towards digital onboarding necessitates investing in technology and redesigning the onboarding experience. Although it may seem like a significant undertaking, the long-term benefits far outweigh the initial costs. There are five main benefits of implementing digital onboarding that support the business case:
1. Increased efficiency and reduced costs: Digital onboarding streamlines the onboarding process, which reduces the time and resources required to get new employees up to speed. By automating administrative tasks and leveraging digital tools, organizations can accelerate the onboarding timeline and ensure that new hires can quickly become productive members of the team.
2. Higher engagement and increased productivity: Digital onboarding aims to create a more engaging and interactive experience for new employees. Organizations can immediately keep new hires engaged and invested in their roles by leveraging technology to deliver personalized content, facilitate virtual interactions and provide access to resources and training materials.
This approach boosts productivity and makes new employees feel welcomed and supported, enhancing their overall experience and increasing their commitment to the organization.
3. Faster time-to-contribution: Digital onboarding ensures new employees have the knowledge, skills and resources to succeed. By providing targeted training and development opportunities, facilitating mentorship and peer support, and offering ongoing feedback and guidance, organizations can set new hires up for success and promote long-term retention.
4. Better integration for sustained performance: Digital onboarding integrates new employees seamlessly into the organization's culture, processes and systems. By leveraging digital platforms to connect new hires with critical stakeholders, facilitate communication and collaboration, and provide access to relevant information and resources, organizations can ensure that new employees feel like valued members of the team from day one.
5. Data-driven insights to inform decisions: Digital onboarding enables organizations to collect data and gather insights into the effectiveness of their onboarding processes. By tracking metrics such as time to productivity, engagement levels and retention rates, organizations can identify areas for improvement and continuously optimize their onboarding strategies to better meet the needs of new employees and the organization.
Related Article: Inclusive Onboarding Can Cut Turnover and Boost Belonging
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Getting Started
Digital onboarding requires more than just technology platforms for it to be successful. It's also not a one-size-fits-all solution or a once-off implementation. Start by clearly defining the desired onboarding experience, the relevant touchpoints and the intended outcomes. This will help to choose digital tools and platforms that align with the organization's requirements and needs.
Then, make the business case for adopting digital onboarding and invest in the appropriate technology to bring the desired experience to life. Ensure all role players and participants (line managers, HR teams, employees) are adequately enabled to utilize the technology. And lastly, gather feedback to understand the experience that is being delivered and where there are potential gaps to address.
In the onboarding process, digital technologies have the potential to enhance the experience of employees, drive greater efficiencies and enhance productivity. However, technology on its own will not deliver the intended outcomes. It requires clarity around the experiences that it needs to enable and thoughtful decision-making and enablement.
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