The COVID-19 pandemic caused businesses to change many of their processes to accommodate a remote workforce. This includes implementing digital employee onboarding to recruit new hires remotely.
Do you know if you have an effective employee onboarding process, digital or otherwise? You can use our Onboarding Worksheet Kit to see the strengths and weaknesses of your current flow.
Let’s explore more about what digital onboarding entails and why it’s important for the future of your business’s success.
What is digital employee onboarding?
Digital onboarding is a process that has been around for decades as a way to acquire new customers. But in the last few years, the process of digital employee onboarding has become a beneficial tool for hiring managers to use to improve the onboarding experience for employees.
Essentially, digital employee onboarding is when organizations use digital solutions and technologies to onboard new hires. From sending an offer letter to proper identity verification and sending financial information, digital onboarding solutions can create a seamless process for welcoming new employees to the company.
A digital employee onboarding experience often provides new hires with access to all the documents and information they need online. This makes it easy for them to access it 24/7 and complete the onboarding process remotely. At the same time, this also helps hiring managers stay organized and track employee engagement with the process in the long term. Your digital employee onboarding process keeps everyone in your organization on the same page.
Benefits of digital onboarding
Digital onboarding provides more than simply a good onboarding experience. A digital employee onboarding process from the right HR software can enhance your company culture.
Digital onboarding tools show that you value your employees’ time and help them to get started so their work is much easier. Here are just a handful of the benefits of this process:
Faster onboarding time
When you need to make a hire quickly, convoluted onboarding processes can often be a roadblock. There’s nothing worse than emailing or playing phone tag to get the documents you need from a new hire or to answer simple questions. The solution to this is an electronic onboarding process.
A digital onboarding system shows users everything they need to complete from one convenient place. You can even include other onboarding documents, online forms, and product tours for employees to review. This speeds up the entire process and makes it easy for new hires to finish the important papers your business needs.
Having an online employee portal also helps your HR keep track of where employees are in the digital employee onboarding process. They can easily send reminders and automatic requests for information when needed during an electronic employee onboarding program.
Securely share information
According to Forbes, digital identity verification is the key to secure online transactions, including those that occur during the onboarding process. Security is key since new hires will be sharing confidential information with an electronic onboarding system.
The best digital onboarding experience is also a secure one. The solution you choose should have advanced security features while still allowing documents to be viewed by authorized parties. You can even opt for tech with added features like E-Verify that can help you confirm the identity and employment eligibility of new employees with the electronic onboarding.
Easily sign up for key services
Offering benefits and perks is a great way to improve employee engagement. Onboarding digitally makes it much easier for new hires to transition into their roles. However, it’s also essential to make it as easy as possible for your hires to sign up and use them.
A digital onboarding portal can make it a breeze for employees to sign up for efficient services like direct deposit and pay cards. In short, employee onboarding services can help alleviate unnecessary friction that may cause confusion.
No more missing data
Missing or illegible documents can make the hiring process come to an abrupt halt. Switching to electronic documents eliminates these issues. With everything submitted online using electronic signatures, you don’t have to worry about missing data or decoding signatures and dates for your records.
By digitizing forms and documents, you can reduce the amount of physical paperwork required for digital employee onboarding, reducing the potential for errors and streamlining the entire process. Going paperless also helps reduce the environmental footprint of your company.
This is one of the best ways to streamline the process and help keep your HR functions more organized for years to come.
Consistency and fairness for new hires
Consistency is essential for any successful digital employee onboarding process. That’s why a standardized digital onboarding process is so important: It ensures all employees receive the same information, resources, and training, and the electronic onboarding process promotes fairness and consistency across the organization.
The future with digital employee onboarding
Digital solutions make for a more effective onboarding process in a remote workforce. Working from home is here to stay for the foreseeable future. According to the Pew Research Center, almost 60% of U.S. workers who say their job can be done from home are working remotely all or most of the time.
Offering a seamless digital onboarding experience is essential for attracting and retaining employees regardless of where they’re located. You can become location independent and hire the best with a digital employee onboarding process.
This can benefit your business with the ability to cast a wider recruiting net for top talent. Employee onboarding software has a place in nearly all industries, from banking to restaurants and anything in between.
About AllianceHCM’s talent acquisition solutions
With AllianceHCM’s solutions, recruiting and onboarding are both streamlined and paperless to easily deliver the best employees to your team. From an applicant tracking system to E-Verify, we make it easy to initiate the employee life cycle. Now, you never have to manually key new hire data into Payroll, HR, or benefits again.
Enhance your business for the remote workforce with AllianceHCM. Schedule a demo today.
