Best Employee Onboarding Software

What Is Employee Onboarding Software?

Small and large enterprises require a competent and dedicated workforce. Their HR team is responsible for ensuring the supply and retention of sufficient human capital. The process of hiring new employees is arduous, and they have to be appropriately inducted into the regular workforce. Onboarding is a systematic process to induct recruits and manage their complete employee lifecycle.

HR managers rely on employee onboarding software to make this process efficient. They plan and implement a systematic program to onboard the new hires. The trainees, interns, and recruits are first oriented towards the company's ethos, vision, and overall work culture. They are also introduced to the various social, administrative, and information workflows within the company.

The induction process involves familiarizing the new employees with the company's policies. The talent co-ordinators and HR personnel rely on employee onboarding tools for this purpose. They use automated software, mobile apps, and web portals for instantly sharing various documents. The recruits are also introduced to all the compliance mechanisms of the organization.

The new employees have to work as part of a larger team. So, they are acclimatized to the social culture of the workplace. The employee onboarding system provides communication tools and dashboards to assist in this effort. Once the recruits feel welcome, their real training begins.

During training, the staff members' skills are brushed up. The trainers focus on professional, technical, and interpersonal abilities. They use high-quality HR onboarding software to facilitate superior learning patterns. The sessions are scheduled to achieve time-bound results without flaws.

The new employee has to complete some formalities for proper induction. He or she has to submit personal details, documents, certificates, and tax forms for administrative and legal purposes. Besides, the transition from trainee to full-fledged employee has to be safe, measurable, and efficient. The software supports this stage of onboarding through databases and digital files.

As the employees settle down into daily routines, they have to be monitored. The onboarding software provides valuable tools to facilitate periodic monitoring, performance assessments, and report generation.

HR co-ordinator can accurately evaluate new employees' talent and productivity. He or she can gather intelligence from insightful reports to decide on worker retention. This ongoing phase of onboarding is also crucial for charting a rewarding career plan for the deserving personnel.

Benefits Of Using Employee Onboarding Software

1. Timely Outcome

First and foremost, the employee onboarding software eliminates manual tedium. Most of the induction phases are automated to implement result-oriented strategies within a timeframe. The recruits co-operate enthusiastically and improve their key performance indicators by 11% if the company can incorporate an effective onboarding process.

2. Early Engagement

The employee onboarding tools speed-up the induction process. HR managers leverage mobile apps, software tools, and web apps to engage the recruits even before the first personal meeting. The satisfied workforce displays long-term loyalty, which in turn increases the retention rate by 25%.

3. Efficient Communication

The software streamlines workflows and simplifies file sharing, storage, and retrieval. Managers can securely update tasks continuously and communicate via multiple platforms. They not only ensure real-time access but also carry out reliable, accountable, and compliant operations. Thus, the incidences of miscommunication and errors reduce.

4. Productivity Gains

The employee onboarding system offers transparent training and performance evolution. Thus, the recruits have better quantifiable growth due to the reliable onboarding process. An efficient employee saves time, resources, and brings in revenue. It is proven that utilizing onboarding software can improve new-hire productivity by as much as 54%.

5. Paperless Office

The top-rated HR onboarding software is a sustainable alternative for modern companies. It reduces the usage of tonnes of sheets, copy papers, and other stationery. It is easier to track documents and data in a paperless office. Moreover, the company saves in expenses related to the physical storage of data, data management, and loss of data.

Common Features Of Top Employee Onboarding Software

1. Dashboard

The top employee onboarding software packages offer a comprehensive dashboard. It helps the user to manage and supervise back-office operations, employee activity, and more. Multiple workflows can be set-up using a single dashboard to define employee roles, departmental procedures, training goals, hiring, and firing targets. 

2. Data Management

Job applications, scorecards, timesheets, and tax forms in paper format are inefficient. The software system relies on a centralized repository for data. It digitizes all the documents and creates necessary employee profiles and databases. Tools are provided to search, organize, retrieve, delete quickly, and process all these electronic files. They also ensure secure, accurate, and rapid data sharing and information exchange. Consequently, tax compliance, background checking, company logs, attendance, and progress reports become streamlined and reliable.

3. Remote Access

The employee onboarding tools should be available for remote access via multiple devices. Moreover, the entire workforce might not be desk-oriented. It should incorporate remote workers too. Remote access and data security go hand-in-hand. When the number of access points for data increases, security becomes questionable. Thus, a good onboarding tool should have better security features too.

4. Reliable API

Scalable software supports flexible and rapid onboarding at low costs. It provides integration and API features for superior compliance. The application integrates with HR's information, management, legal, financial, and accounting systems. It facilitates personalized reviews, accurate background checks, and scheduled orientation tasks. 

5. Multimedia Support

The employee onboarding system must have a versatile training module or feature. A company's training program may rely on the in-house course material, training programs, third-party training materials, and more. So, the software should enable access to the public as well as private audio and video resources. Also, the learning system should support text, presentations, and infographics.

6. Feedback Process

It is not wise to believe that an onboarding process was successful without feedback from the recruits. Face-to-face communication for feedback might not encourage the new recruits to open. Thus, the platform should offer a multitude of communication and feedback tools. They include email feeds, chat forums, online forms, informal surveys, and robust chatbots.

7. Resource Allocation

The best HR onboarding software has dynamic and mobile features. It includes mobile apps with data collection and in-built metrics. It also includes GPS, employee location tracking, and automated progress reports. They strengthen the employee-trainer relationship and ensure efficient task delegation and completion.

8. Goal-Oriented Workflows

Group and individual orientation include daily or weekly targets. The managers also have expectations and productivity concerns. The best onboarding software offers tools to create measurable objectives and carry out timely assessments. They effectively manage the key performance indicators (KPI) for a smooth transition from probation to full-time employment. Since the appraisal is transparent, the new employees can take the initiative to improve their performance.

Factors To Consider While Buying A Good Employee Onboarding Software

The employee onboarding software is offered as a cloud-based solution or on-premise system. Any company has to choose the correct software based on its specific needs. For example, a start-up with 10 or 20 workers does not need an enterprise solution. It can opt for a starter/basic SaaS package with limited users and features. Look out for these significant factors while buying a system:

1. Requirements Analysis

Onboarding tasks involve paperwork, management, technical, and communication activities. A proficient manager has to perform a thorough analysis of the company's requirements. They have to look at the pros and cons of employee onboarding tools. A solution that facilitates paperless office, digital compliance, and quick background checks is desirable. And it should be able to maintain digital employee records and generate timely performance or progress reports.

2. Trial Version

HR management and learning systems can be very complex. Reading the manual for installation procedures and features is not enough. The software should be conducive for free testing in a practical set-up. Vendors who offer a trial version or demo are a better option. Please do not overlook the free trial period because of the vendor's brand reputation. Even the top onboarding tool might not be perfect for your requirements. The trial runs are necessary to resolve expectations, doubts, and concerns.

3. Fix A Budget

The vendors offer HR onboarding software and solutions at different rates. So, affix a budget based on business needs and choose an appropriate pricing model. The various options include one-time license fees, monthly or annual subscriptions, pay-per-user, and feature-specific pricing plans.

4. User-friendliness

The new system will be used by managers, executives, and new employees of varying age groups and tech-savviness. So, the mobile apps, web portals, and user interfaces have to be familiar. Their look and feel and ease-of-use are critical selection criteria. Choose software that offers an attractive, engaging, and productive experience.

5. Compatibility Issues

The employee onboarding tools should be accessible on multiple platforms. They should be compatible with multiple devices like mobile phones, PCs, laptops, and tablets. Also, check for the operating system, processor, and hardware compatibility.

6. Data Analytics

Performance evaluation is critical in ongoing onboarding development. Software that generates periodic and insightful reports with accurate data analysis is very much desirable. The reports should deliver intelligence about objectives, improvements, and successful strategies.

7. Customer Support

The top onboarding software vendors provide customer services to facilitate customization and system installation. They ensure 24X7 support over phone, email, or web chat forms. They also offer security upgrades and maintenance services with scalability options.

8. Miscellaneous

The best onboarding software has exciting gamification features. It also ensures integration with HRMS, accounting, CRM, ERP, and payroll software. It, in turn, simplifies transport schedules, file up/downloads, attendance, email reviews, company assets, and performance management.

Relevant Onboarding Software Trends

Innovative and practical onboarding programs create a happy workforce. But they have to be contemporary and sophisticated enough to satisfy all types of users. So, relevancy becomes an essential factor in determining the quality of a software product. Let us look at the popular trends that gained prominence in the last couple of years:

1. Preboarding

New onboarding software now has tools to facilitate preboarding processes. This new phase relies on email communications to do initial orientation and preliminary paperwork. The recruits receive news, views, updates, invites, and tips via email, SMS, and various social media channels. The managers and team become familiar with each other even before their first meeting.

2. Personalization

The modern employee onboarding software delivers a personalized experience. The documents, activities, strategies, and messages are designed based on the recruit's interests, preferences, and tastes. For instance, two software coding recruits can have different onboarding processes based on their requirements, even though the job description for both the recruits is the same.

3. Microlearning

The traditional training methods are becoming obsolete. The new employee onboarding tools offer microlearning, where the training schedule is broken into smaller blocks for easy management. Thus, companies need not bombard every piece of information within a week or two. Microlearning increases the speed and efficiency of the induction process. Moreover, microlearning includes micro-assessment, which enables the identification of lags at an earlier stage.

4. Remote Engagement

The HR onboarding software creates an integrated and interconnected ecosystem. HR is no longer restricted to one building. The workforce includes part-time workers, freelancers, WFH, and more. Companies expect the software to offer collaboration tools to unify the workforce with no regard to the geographical location

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