60% of companies don’t realise they can improve their HR processes with automation. 

It comes from the unknown and uncertainty of the new digital transformation trend, many have raised in the past few years. However, how to educate your employer on this topic? What should you know? And what are the main steps to improve your workflow?

In this blog post, we will cover the HR onboarding process and show you three main steps to help you improve your work in no time.

Start By Asking Questions

Did you know that more than 20% of newcomers usually struggle to understand what they need to do during the onboarding process? Team members might not be aware of the initial steps, HR can be busy, and it all affects the first impression on the company.

Those who received a poor onboarding process are more likely to leave the business in the next few months. Therefore, leading companies focus twice as much as on this process than those who have problems with employee retention.

So if your company wants to improve the onboarding process, start by asking the next questions:

• Which activities consume most of the time?
• Where are candidates confused?
• What procedures make it difficult to customise the process?

With the hold-ups in the process determined, next focus is on the individual procedures.

Analyse Your Existing Process

When you identify the bottlenecks of the Onboarding process, you need to analyse all procedures and the potential for automation or ultimately removing these now unnecessary steps that consume time.

You shall keep in mind the essential processes that cannot be erased but can be easily improved with modern technologies. This is where the improvement strategy comes along.

The Improvement Strategy

It’s comprehensible that not every HR team has enough time to conduct the mentioned research due to the lack of time. However, that is exactly where the Allsop team can help you!

We have worked with a range of clients to improve their HR Onboarding processes. For example, you can see on the graphic down below our HR automation solution. It helps teams to automate all essential and time-consuming steps in their HR hiring procedure.

In a highly competitive world companies must attract potential employees by various methods. Although many succeed by standing out with their benefits package and salary rate, only a third of these businesses have a high retention rate.

You might wonder why? The answer is simple, they lack an intact HR system when it comes to employee orientation in the company.

Global analytics organisation Gallup found that 88% of businesses don’t onboard well, and 12% that do enjoy a more productive team, high morale and higher retention rates.

Studies also suggest that those who engage with newcomers right from the start have some kind of HR automation software. We also believe that automation can help companies to improve their processes. For example, the best part about our solutions is that they can be integrated into existing software that doesn’t replace an employee but improves their work.

So how can your company thrive for success by correctly onboarding new personnel in the digital era?

At Allsop, identify three main steps that you need to automate onboarding of personnel:

1. Automate Induction
2. Internal Readiness
3. Electronic Control

Automate Induction

When it comes to the initial information of the new person in the company, you need to collect information from different documents and files that take not only time but the accuracy. With an automation solution, you can forget about this issue as it collects personal information in no time with 100% precision. Apart from it, the programme also includes a voice process you can see below.

For example, a letter of offer is sent if accepted the candidate receives their contract of employment. Once all required documentation is uploaded by the employee, all new-start information is automatically sent to them.

Internal Readiness

As soon as the information is collected and the process of employment began, you need to notify several departments regarding new employees. However, this process can become difficult when you can contact others only via email. This way information can be lost, forgotten or even deleted by mistake. Therefore, to have no trouble with the internal onboarding processes, our software automatically notify each department with the new start details and required tasks to start the onboarding process.

Electronic Control

The last step is to have all onboarding information in one place. With the HR Automation solution, you record and show all steps in the process to successfully onboard. You will have no issues with delegating tasks or finding specific data.

Why Allsop?

Our solution covers all onboarding procedures through the platform with seamless interaction with your HR software. Here are also some of the benefits that will be achieved with HR Automation:

The past few years have completely changed our workplace, which led to HR rethinking many processes in a business.

In 2022 vast majority of companies tried to come back to the pre-covid norms. However, many studies showed it was impossible to return to what we had before. This means we must adapt to the new reality.

Therefore, in 2023 companies will continue finding new ways of working with these top 5 areas on a rise in HR:

1. Hybrid Work
2. Employee Well-being
3. Skills Hiring
4. Automation of Manual HR Processes
5. Up-Skilling HR

1. Hybrid Work Is Ideal For Many Workers

One of the continuous trends of 2023 is hybrid working. Accenture’s survey found out 83% of workers prefer a hybrid work model and 63% of high-growth companies have already adopted a “productivity anywhere” workforce model.

Therefore, many companies might consider the next models for workers in the following year:

• Fully remote scheme to allow employees to work from the comfort of their home
• Hybrid work with several days a week in the office 
• Return to the office on a full-time basis

This shift in work culture will drive transformation in 2023, and the HR Department is the leader to support employees in it.

2. Employee Well-being Is Crucial For HR Department

Having various workplace models at work in 2023, HR professionals have to be ready to prioritise employees’ well-being. 

For example, Gartner identified ‘workforce health’ term that includes the health of employees, the state of trust between individuals, teams and leadership, and the work environment. 

This approach will improve workforce performance and lead businesses to a new level of success.

3. Skills Hiring Is Vital For Business Transformation

The market for skilled workers is evolving year after year. What was the ideal skillset 5 years ago is not applicable anymore. For example, the total number of skills required for a single job is increasing by 6.3% annually, which leads to a need for a hiring process transformation.

4. Automation of Manual HR Processes Is On The Rise

Many specialists in the field spend double of time manually collecting all information from candidates as they don’t have any tools that could help them. Thus, at Allsop, we have HR Automation Software that collects all information from the candidates automatically. Apart from it, the programme also includes a voice process you can see below.

5. Up-Skilling HR Is Essential For Business

The mentioned business transformation is vital for companies. However, it also means that the HR department must be up-skilled to the required level. Therefore, to have a great workplace in 2023, businesses should consider budgeting for employee training. 

Introducing technology into your HR department is moving up the business agenda. The digital solutions that are available can alleviate the admin burden on your HR team allowing them to focus less on processes and more on people. With people being the most important asset in any company, this blog highlights three key areas where the employee experience can be improved with the introduction of digital technologies.

The Recruitment Process 

Currently, we are operating in a candidate marketplace, where demand for employees outstrips supply. In light of this now more than ever it is important that you make it as easy and accessible to apply for the vacant roles in your company.

HR technology can support this by ensuring that online applications are as simple as uploading a CV.

Or why not offer an even more accessible experience and allow candidates to apply by voice. Our HR solution uses the latest voice technology to allow initial applications to be managed via a chatbot. Suddenly applying for your company becomes as easy as asking Alexa what the weather is like.

Following on from this, using a digital solution to sieve candidates’ applications allows for automated emails to be set up. This means that candidates are contacted promptly regarding their progression in the application process. By automating these updates, you save your recruitment team time whilst still ensuring effective communication with your candidates.

Onboarding

Getting your onboarding right is crucial, it builds a good first and hopefully lasting impression of what working in your company is like.

Great onboarding is thought to dramatically improve staff retention by as much as 82%. Although it is recognised as important it is still overlooked in some companies, a recent Gallup survey found that 88% of employees surveyed didn’t believe their organisation did a great job of employee onboarding.

When it comes to delivering a great employee onboarding experience one of the most difficult elements is coordinating all the departments in your business that need to be involved.  This is where we can help, our digital HR solution allows you to create a central environment for collaboration, ensuring every department is aware of new employees and the designated tasks they need to complete. For example, this is could be the IT department ordering a laptop and setting up access to software packages or ensuring Payroll has all the correct banking details and the new employee is added to the next pay run.

Other ways you can streamline your onboarding is by introducing a pre-boarding phase, setting up automated emails that can send forms to your new employees before they start to get all the boring paperwork out of the way before the first day. This can also be used as an opportunity for you to share information about your company culture and reassure your new start that they have made the right choice in joining your company.

Want to learn more about onboarding? check out our webinar with HeadsTogether – Effective Employee Onboarding – Top Tips

Training and Development

Training and personal development is vital in all roles and can help towards employee retention.

Many HR solutions offer digital training plans, this ensures there is a record of initial training completed, as well as offering you the opportunity to set up reminders to make sure upcoming training isn’t forgotten.

Training and development plans can naturally follow on from onboarding, as the onboarding process can last up to three months. These may include planned check-ins and one to one meetings to ensure your employee is settling in, has all the tools to be productive in their role and can communicate any additional training needs that may be required. These can easily be managed and recorded within our digital solution, with automated reminders to prompt managers to arrange these meetings.

These are just a few of the areas that can be improved with HR tech. Employee experience remains high on the business agenda as we continue to work in a hybrid environment, if you would like to discuss how technology can support improving your employee experience, drop us a message or call us on 028 9018 3250.

Employee onboarding refers to the process of integrating your new team member with your company and its culture. Successful onboarding should set up your new start with all the tools and information that they require to become a productive member of the team.

Onboarding new employees at your organisation should be a strategic process that lasts at least one year. It is recognised by HR experts that how employers handle the first few days and months of a new employee’s experience is crucial to ensuring high retention.

Supporting this, recent research reveals that 90% of people who decide to leave a new job, make that decision in their first month. This startling statistic highlights the importance of making a great first, and hopefully lasting impression, on your new employee.

A great onboarding experience sets your employee up for success – to be productive, to feel valued and ultimately to become a loyal team member within your company. Employee turnover can be expensive, with Glassdoor estimating that the average company spends £3,000 recruiting each new hire. Your onboarding experience is the first step to helping improve your staff turnover and avoiding costly mistakes.

Onboarding has always been high up the HR agenda, but as we have seen the shift to wide-spread working from home in the last year, onboarding has become even more important. HR experts are working hard to ensure that they come up with innovative ways to co-ordinate and deliver their onboarding process, so it remains as successful when completed remotely.

The infographic below details our Top Tips for Employee Onboarding, continue reading to understand how we adopt these at Allsop and how we have adapted these to onboarding entirely remotely. We were in the fortunate position to still be able to hire during the pandemic and have now successfully onboarded ten new team members remotely.

Pre-Onboarding

Pre-Onboarding refers to the period of time between an employee accepting a job offer and their first official day.

It’s an exciting time for your new team member getting ready to join your company. This is the time to make a great first impression, relieve some new starter nerves, and introduce other team members before their first official workday.

Here at Allsop we use this time to communicate regularly with our new start. We have several email touchpoints from both HR and their line manager. Emails from HR introduce our culture and allow new starts to ask any company-related questions. Line managers welcome the new employee to their team and send them their first day agenda a week before they start. We also where appropriate invite employees to social occasions prior to their start date, albeit these have all been virtual in the past year.

In the background we also use this time to order the relevant equipment and ensure all teams members are informed of the new arrival.  Regular contact during this time with your new employee sets to reassure them that they have made the right decision and helps them to build a rapport with their colleagues before they have even started.

Using a Roadmap

Having a well-equipped staff who have a visible onboarding roadmap to follow and automated reminders; helps the journey to run smoothly when welcoming new team members. Line management and coaching alongside your project tasks aren’t overwhelming when using automation within your onboarding.

Our approach to seamless onboarding obviously involves the use of technology. Onboarding a new team member involves a lot of different people and departments, so by setting up the onboarding workflow in a central solution, everyone has access and gets automated reminders for the tasks that they are required to complete. This has been especially important as we have adapted to working remotely, as being held in the cloud, everyone can access the software from anywhere and collaborate effectively.

Getting to Know You

Introduce the newest employee to your HR platform, to complete some simple tasks, why not ask some fun questions to break the ice before their first day? As a Line Manager to the new employee get in touch the week before for a friendly chat.

As we have already mentioned we have several points of communication before an employee joins us, this also includes an introduction to our HR software. Which means some of the first day paperwork can be completed before they start.

Another part of ‘Getting to Know You’ are some ice-breaker questions for our new team member to complete. The answers to these are automatically emailed company-wide on their first day. This allows other members of the teams to reach out and perhaps engage in a conversation on a mutual interest that they may have picked up on.

To overcome the lack of office introductions, new employees are encouraged to set up Microsoft Teams calls with people within Allsop on their first week. This ensures that they meet people outside of their immediate team and get to know the different people and personalities throughout the business.

Empowering your New Team Members

With energies high as well as nerves for your newest team member, make sure you have provided them with their next steps for the next few weeks, what to learn, whom to meet etc. and outline expectations. No one wants to have to ask what do I do? give the power back to your employee with a helpful guide.

Again, a lot of this is managed with our HR software, line managers outline plans for new employees, automated reminders are scheduled to ensure that one to one check-ins happen regularly as our new team member settles in and new starts have access to all HR documentation on demand via our intranet.

As onboarding continues learning goals and training requirements are discussed leading up to their first performance review around the ninety-day mark. Keeping on top of all the onboarding tasks is straightforward as reminders are constantly sent throughout the workflow as the employee progresses through the onboarding journey.

In conclusion, we have found that remote onboarding can be just as successful. Using automation has ensured that we are all able to collaborate effectively to ensure the best possible start for our new employees.

These are just some of the key areas we focus on here at Allsop, you can learn more about onboarding by watching our recent webinar with our HR partner HeadsTogther.

Or if you would like to find out more about the onboarding software, we use drop us a message or call us on 028 9018 3250.

Ian Topping, Director here at Allsop was delighted to be invited to take part in the Listening Lounge with Nick Day.

The Listening Lounge podcast creates 10-minute interviews discussing topical issues in the world of HR and Payroll. Ian was invited on to talk about how voice technology can be incorporated into the recruitment process.

Watch the short recording below to understand the bright future of voice technology, how it can reduce bias and improve inclusivity and discover a couple of real-life business examples.

If you would be interested in finding out more, send us a message or connect with Ian directly on LinkedIn.