How investing in onboarding tech can improve engagement

Onboarding is a critical first impression for businesses. Getting it right is essential if you want to attract and retain good talent.

According to a MYOB study from late last year, messing up this stage can hurt employers’ chances of hiring dramatically. In fact, poor onboarding at a company is a “deal breaker” for 71 per cent of candidates, while 79 per cent believe it is essential to get right.

The pressure placed on this process can make it seem daunting. However, there are ways to assist, especially when tech is involved.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the latest business craze, and it’s worked its way into onboarding, making the lives of hiring managers easier.

According to Userpilot, AI can assist onboarding through:

• Personalisation: AI is able to give you insights into product usage so you can personalise the onboarding flows to unique user needs and help them integrate your product into their existing workflows.
• Microcopy: With AI copywriting, you can test different copy formats and phrasing or voice tones to increase your adoption goals.
• Complexity: With AI, teams can optimise the onboarding flows to eliminate unnecessary steps.
• Time constraints: Chatbots and other AI-based tech can offer instant guidance to users.
• Limited resources: AI can take the pressure off your customer support and success teams and reduce the cost of onboarding and supporting users.

There are also various aspects of onboarding that make up the experience as a whole. It’s important to note these as businesses should be making sure they’re addressing all areas that a candidate needs to be aware of before commencing work.

These areas are:

• Organisational onboarding: General information about the organisation.
• Technical onboarding: To help them excel in their position – information such as performance metrics and responsibilities.
• Social onboarding: Meet and get to know colleagues.

In the new world of hybrid and remote work, onboarding has had a dramatic shift. Through the pandemic, many could not come onsite to complete inductions, and those who could may not have got the full experience due to things like lockdowns.

This amplified the need for tech when onboarding, as many were forced to remotely conduct the process. While remote onboarding may not be ideal, it is necessary to get it right as it is still an onboarding process in many situations.

While it is a different process from face-to-face onboarding, the same three principles apply: organisational, technical, and social.

Hibob listed the top areas to include in the remote onboarding process:

• Welcome video call with their manager to introduce the new employee to the team, explain their methods of communication, and assign a work buddy.
• Introduction to and training on IT systems.
• HR induction to ensure all necessary paperwork is completed and the new employee is enrolled in all benefits plans.
• Introduction to co-workers outside the direct team who the new employee will need to interact with.
• Regular check-ins from both the direct manager and HR throughout the first 90 days of employment.
• Employee surveys during and at the end of the first 90 days to give feedback on the onboarding process.

Online learning modules can be a great way to provide organisational and technical information for a candidate. Investing in efficient programs can help to make this process as comfortable as possible for new hires and keep them engaged and prepared for their position.

As discussed by Hibob, the social aspect of onboarding should not be ignored. Introductory video calls can help to replicate the social side of work, and a work buddy can help to not only provide some level of comfort but also assist in any issues that a candidate may run into.

The social dimension is important, not only for employee wellbeing but also for building connections that will help them to excel in their role.

Tech can further assist in the onboarding process by helping to conduct surveys. Asking for candidate feedback post-onboard can help to curate and improve an organisation’s process. Building a more effective onboarding process will keep candidates happy and engaged and will assist in retention, attraction, productivity, and engagement.

Keeping contact is important too. Whether the new hire is fully remote, hybrid, or onsite, hiring and forgetting can break down the progress made through the onboarding period.

For remote and hybrid workers, video calls can be a great way to stay connected and provide that social interaction that will keep new hires engaged.

Employers should understand the importance tech has during onboarding if they’re to get it right. Researching and implementing systems can help to automate the time-consuming, manual processes and focus on creating a captivating experience. Furthermore, without the right tech, remote onboarding will suffer.