4human

Sustainability has, time and again, proven to be the mantra for success in any venture. As a result, reducing employee turnover is one of the first steps to achieving such organisational sustainability, when success is measured over a long period. For instance, consider the number of resources expended by an organisation in training an employee for optimal performance returns with one year. From paying an employee’s annual salary, an organisation has to shoulder recruitment and training costs, equipment costs incurred by providing mobile phones and computers, internal management costs, and additional human resource overheads. The compounded expenditure associated with these operational overheads is quite substantial; businesses need to ensure these costs translate into profitable revenue streams.

However, the reality is far from this ideal scenario. The Allied Workforce Mobility Survey indicated that employee turnover in the first 12 months is extremely high, with as much as 25 per cent of all new employees leaving the organisation in this period. As a result, organisations incurring such turnover rates are bound to expend a significant amount of capital toward replenishing this lost workforce, decreasing their return on investments.

At this juncture, it is almost a no-brainer that enterprises need to focus heavily on the sustainability of their workforce through digital onboarding solutions that engage new arrivals from the start and induct them into the organisation, effectively deriving a sense of belonging within the employees. “New hires are extremely eager to start as soon as they sign the contract. Because there are several reasons to why they choose a particular company to work for,” begins Bjornar T. Andersen, Group CEO of 4Human. True to Andersen’s words, it is essential to engage new hires right from the start, with modern HCM solutions that can offer digital support for employees and managers within the entire HR value chain.” This is what we live for every day at 4human – to simplify and improve the working day for managers and employees with our market-leading digital HCM systems,” adds Andersen.

In an interview with HR Tech Outlook Europe, Andersen breaks down ten reasons for why one must ensure successful employee onboarding and how clients can benefit from the full continuum of modern-day HR solutions that are geared to achieve sustainable business practices. The company tailors a multitude of solutions under its 4human HRM platform to address diversified human resource requirements, intending to make the everyday life of employees easier, empowering them to achieve exceptional levels of productivity within an enterprise.

Here are ten reasons Andersen provides as to why successful employee onboarding is a necessity, along with best implementation practices that ensure sustainability:

“Employee onboarding shall start immediately when the work agreement is signed”

Andersen says that employees can achieve a sense of belonging to the workplace if they choose to involve the employee within the enterprise structure as soon as they sign the contract. Effectively, the employee transitions through a preboarding phase, which breeds their enthusiasm to begin work in the right spirit. New hires, in turn, become an integral part of the company even before they start their first day at work.

And, despite legacy systems barricading these developments, modern SaaS (Software as a Service) based solutions have ensured a smoother transition to much more modern, performance-driven solutions. Onboarding has been viewed as the first day in a new job across many organizations. Contrary to this public perception, the Group CEO says that this is one of the main reasons businesses find it challenging to induct the employee into the enterprise structure sooner. Onboarding is therefore not only about having a PC, keys, and flowers on the desk the first day. Onboarding must start earlier to be successful.

“Personalise your digital onboarding experience.”

Since every individual is different in their inherent qualities and skillsets, it is vital to ensure that they are not overburdened with responsibilities. Instead, new hires should feel at ease through microlearning activities suitable from the day they pen down their signatures.

Personalising their digital onboarding processes as an alternative to traditional practices can result in fruitful and memorable experiences for new hires, inspiring them to start their tenure with the right motivation and encouragement.

“Your onboarding system has to be integrated with your HCM/HRM system.”

Equally crucial to the preboarding phase is the digital onboarding process, which works well when integrated with HCM/HRM systems. This ensures zero data redundancy while documenting employee information. More importantly, these HCM systems are equipped to aggregate information from multiple systems within an enterprise to streamline processes such as onboarding, time & attendance, payroll management, and more through advanced APIs. 4human precisely crafts the tools required to achieve discrete functions for each client.

“The preboarding phase is essential to address the complete employee onboarding process.”

In congruence with the first reason, the preboarding phase of the onboarding process is designed to bring the new employee closer to the company. These prerequisites align employees’ growth objectives with the organisational goals and milestones; new hires are acknowledged to choose the company in question for their career progression. These best practices are likely to future enhance the eagerness to adopt and grow amongst new hires.

“LMS and Microlearning are ideal for an employee onboarding process.”

To bolster the HR function with the utility of digital onboarding solutions, decision-makers could employ LMS and microlearning avenues to induct new hires into the business structure. While microlearning opens learning channels to create, distribute and follow up and learning topics, LMS plays the active role of digitally engaging the employees. More importantly, microlearning is easy to use and quick to implement, and comparatively affordable. It’s an important tool to effectively learn and upskill employees instantaneously.

“Employees choose companies that are digitally mature – and it will increase in the years to come.”

Enterprise Sustainability Through Invigorated Employee Onboarding

A popular trend that has catalysed enterprise growth is the inclination or preference toward a digital work ethic per the skills of the millennial talent pool. Candidates from this age group tend to be tech-savvy and opt to work for companies that have a sustainability strategy in place. More importantly, a digitally-aligned posture represents progress in the current day and age – the most attractive feature for any aspirant today.

“Make the employee onboarding process be a motivational and fun start for new colleagues.”

4human also employs gamification as a vital component of its onboarding process. This strategy enables a new hire to have fun while learning through incentivised programs that reward individuals. Engaging these employees in trivia, scavenger hunts, and icebreaker games has nurtured a prosperous community of co-works motivated to achieve organisational objectives.

“Define your company culture strategy – then build your employee onboarding to adhere to it.”

In addition to building a harmonious work ethic, employers are required to uphold a value-driven and robust work ethic, which rests on the mission and motto of the company. These cultural attributes need to resonate with the company’s branding, website, work culture, and HR function while ensuring that the workforce grows into the brand ambassadors of the business.

“Be engaged – from top management and down.”

Andersen also emphasises the engagement between top management and the new hires, particularly in the pre-and onboarding processes, highlighting the management’s interest and commitment in recruiting the hiring process. Especially in the current day and age, when the lines between top management and employees are growing thinner by the day, with each employee contributing to a vital piece of the organisational puzzle, communication is critical. And, ensuring that the employees are in constant dialogues with the decision-makers has proven to realise higher levels of productivity.

“Smart communication, chatbots, and AI – it will be a reality also within employee onboarding.”

As crucial as effective engagement is, the mode by which such engagements are carried out also plays an essential role in inspiring the workforce. The millennials, in particular, are motivated by digital engagement channels such as chatbots and AI assistance that automate and streamline a fair share of redundant tasks, which would otherwise consume precious productive hours. While technologies such as VR have opened a new paradigm for interactive learning, virtual assistance and intelligent communication tools have emerged as the more efficient alternative to mundane, repetitive data aggregation functions.

Collectively, these ten principles constitute a comprehensive, pre- and onboarding process for employees, solidified by 4human’s ideal HRM solutions portfolio. They are designed to overhaul the effectiveness of employee onboarding and ensure long-term sustainability for enterprises.