Choosing your Onboarding Software

If you’re someone who’s still contemplating on whether or not you need an employee onboarding software, your reasons could be anyone the following:

• Intimidated by the fact that onboarding software might replace your value or role in your company
• Stuck not knowing what are the steps to evaluate an onboarding software, what features you need and scalability
• Concerned about the budget constraints

Remember, an employee onboarding solution can only catalyze the whole process, it can’t simply replace an HR or any equivalent roles for that matter. Also, With the advent of HR tech, there are a plethora of affordable employee onboarding solutions in the market. This page will help you understand if you really need one for your organization. If yes, then you will understand how and what you should be looking for during the evaluation of choosing your employee onboarding software, etc..

People might ask what’s the challenge in employee onboarding as it’s seen as one of the underrated/monotonous tasks in a hiring workflow. But, employee onboarding as such is a process by itself. Your employee onboarding program can make or break your employer branding based on how you optimize it. Yes, your new hires are going to feel disengaged and leave without clarity on where they are heading thus spreading bad word-of-mouth about your employer brand. Subsequently, the goal for which you hired someone is going to be at risk as this person can turn out to be less productive or provide mediocre output. Optimizing comes with a lot of planning and organization. Given that your onboarding is meant to be time-bound, you only have a considerable amount of time to win your new hires’ heart.

Here are some of the questions you might have aka the steps you need to follow when you realize your company needs an employee onboarding software too.

#1: Why are you looking for an Employee Onboarding Software?

Step1: Setting goals for your Employee Onboarding program

The key to identifying the right onboarding solution for your company is to first write down two things in terms of your onboarding program.

• "What does the employee onboarding workflow solve today"
• "What do you require to set up that perfect employee onboarding workflow in your mind?"

By doing this, you’re listing down all the downsides and potential pitfalls to your existing onboarding workflow. 
Let’s make this easier for you. Answer this question:

Remember, your employee onboarding software should substantiate your reasons to start using one. The following could be some of the reasons why you’re looking for an employee onboarding software:

• Reduce <6 months attrition
• Make communication easier
• Need for a central repository to store all useful information/documents about company
• Enhance inter-team collaboration who are involved in onboarding
• Create, re-use & customize an effective onboarding checklist
• Leverage digital functionalities such as e-signing
• Set out on an onboarding drip email campaign to spread out information over a period of time

And the list goes on.

The key is to BRAINSTORM. As much as you can. Seek help from your Business leaders, Finance specialists, IT operations manager, and whoever you think can help you identify the roadblocks in your existing onboarding workflow. 

And hey, don’t forget your existing employees, okay? 

Because they need an Employee Self-service portal, they’d know it better :) After all, you’re shelling out money on an onboarding solution just to make them happy.

You could have various reasons to purchase an onboarding software, but, remember, the crux of all of these ideas is to streamline the onboarding process for better retention and human resource utilization. 

If you have reasons beyond what we discuss in this article, feel free to contact us. We’d be happy to help you figure things out :)

Step2: Rethink your onboarding workflow

Where exactly have you faced difficulties until today? What’s the list of things that got you furious when you had to juggle every time there was a new hire onboarding? Understand the drawbacks of the existing system and jot down your existing onboarding workflow. 

Done?

Now, sit back and recollect your moments of frustration and circle back to them to understand what exactly do you need to get them fixed. Once you identify this, you can now bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

Now, this brings us to the third step.

#Question2: What are the things that you should first lookout for in an employee onboarding solution?

Step3: Essential features

• A simple intuitive interface: Nobody needs an onboarding solution that’s intricate. If you can’t navigate through your interface like you walk from your living room to the bedroom, like a boss, then it’s not your thing. Drop it and move on.
   
• Mobile Optimization: A simple intuitive interface that demands you to sit, eat, and sleep in front of your computer 24/7 is of no use either. Life gets easier when you can do things from your mobile as efficiently, laying on your sofa or bed relaxed. Even when you are away from work enjoying your vacation.
   
• Digital functionalities: Sending out documents to sign, getting them back signed, nudging new hires with gentle reminders to sign or information, creating an onboarding checklist, collaborating with teams internally, and what not! These are some of the automatable tasks in an onboarding workflow that any company would have irrespective of their shapes and sizes. Identify, and keep identifying the other important parts of onboarding that you want to automate. 

Note: This Is exactly why we asked you to follow the steps under question 2.

• Advanced reporting: In this data-driven age, you don’t want to look dumb in front of your managers with the decisions that you make. You should be able to figure out the reason for offer declines, source of candidates that decline the most and hence improve employee onboarding experience through data. 
• Workflow Customizations:  So, ask yourself: Which aspects of your onboarding process should be consistent for everyone and which should be customizable by department, location, or manager. Make sure your onboarding solution gives in for all your needs. Because one size rarely fits all.
   
• Employee Self-service (ESS): This is one quick hack to avoid human error while entering the candidate details to update their profile. ESS also saves a ton of time as candidates can update their profiles to their convenience. 
   
• Capacity for Single Sign-on(SSO):  You should be able to do multiple logins so that you can access your onboarding software interface from anywhere, anytime. This enables employees to use the platform to log into multiple other tools and software within your organization, with just one login. This can reduce the volume of passwords required and, in turn, vulnerability or risk to the business.
   
• Centralized access to peer information: Employee onboarding software should allow your employees to learn about their peers by themselves without requiring much hand-holding. Org charts, employee profiles, roles, and responsibilities are some of the things that employees should be able to access from within their onboarding HR software.

#Question3: How do you narrow down the right employee onboarding solution for you?

You can go ahead and approach the vendors if all the below mentioned boxes are checked.

Step4: Your potential onboarding solution supports Integration

Your employee onboarding software should also be compatible with other applications and platforms for you to enable your employees to perform other tasks post joining. Some of these include e-signing documents, integration with Gsuite, online survey/feedback platforms, calendar, notes, etc,. If your onboarding software isn’t flexible enough, your process can’t be either. Make sure you invest in just one right tool to avoid confusion that might otherwise be caused due to the usage of multiple tools.

If your onboarding software isn’t flexible enough, your process can’t be either. Make sure you invest in just one right tool to avoid confusion that might otherwise be caused due to the usage of multiple tools.

Step5: Check for reviews on third party sites and read customer testimonials

Before demoing the products that made it to your vendors-of-interest list, check for all the review sites namely Software Advice, Capterra, Pcmag, etc.. , customer testimonials on the websites, and other forums like Quora, Reddit, Spiceworks, etc. Check for the comments below. Check their social presence to see how actively are they responding to customer queries. 

Step6: Demo them all your heart out

Yes, check with every possible solution that satisfies all your criteria. Gain a complete understanding of how the solution works and don’t forget to explain the Pre-sales person on the other end about what you want to accomplish. Ask them how you’d benefit from the solution and how it will help you bridge the gap.

In the pursuit of selecting an employee onboarding software, don’t let the Pre-RFPs intervene as this might hinder you from doing some deep analysis and might as well confine your thought process.

Step7: Send out an RFP

Ideally, your RFP is a detailed employee onboarding software requirements document. Send this to your ‘vendors of interest’ and tell them the functionalities and features you’re looking for and why. Explain to them the roadblocks that you’re facing right now with your current system. 

Some questions you can ask yourself before writing down an RFP:

• What is your budget?

• Why are you looking for a new onboarding solution? What prompted your decision?

• Will your Onboarding solution need to include any external features?

• What technical platform will the Onboarding solution be on?

• Do you have an implementation plan? Do you have a team in place?

• What training is included, security controls, and what reports can be generated from the system?

• Differentiate your “must have’s” vs “nice to have’s.” 

• Mention a deadline given for vendor responses. 

Here’s an outline that captures everything you need to describe to your potential suppliers:

• Overview of your organization and need for an employee onboarding software

• IT and system specifications

• Required or desired system features

• Information required from vendors:

• Company overview, including financial viability, market share, strategic partnerships, industry leadership, number of employees, years in the business

• Description of the solution, including standard and optional features, functions, and modules

• Other talent solutions offered and any benefits of bundling those solutions

• The product roadmap for the next 1-2 years

• Customer base and retention rate

• Representative clients within your industry

• Integration capabilities with your HCM, HRIS System, or other softwares

• Customer Support model - Is it email only or do they have live phone support?

• Solution architecture

• Technology security and data protection

• Customer references

• Implementation approach and timeline

• Cost proposal, including all licensing fees, training, customer support, and implementation

• Instructions and deadline for submitting proposals

• Point of contact for questions.

#Question4: How would you describe your success/ROI?

Step8: Three important onboarding metrics

Successful onboarding is not just about the new recruits; the current workforce should be satisfied with the speed of hiring, the quality of candidates, and how informed they are on Day 1. After all, you’re doing all of this to keep them happy and keep them with you. So, watch out for:

Positive feedback from new hires: Are your new hires happy with how they’re onboarded? If yes, then it should be reflecting on the surveys that you conduct. Happy employees always leave positive feedback. Hear them out carefully. Especially the negative ones. This also ties back directly to your employee retention rates. From your analysis you can verify the following:

• Are new hires raising queries on topics or items that you thought were built into the program design?

• Do they have access to all the platforms needed on a day-on-day basis?

• Are recruits making errors in essential tasks such as compliance, disturbing workflows as a result?

Initial Productivity: Percentage of new employees who meet their first performance goal. Check with their respective managers to know how they are performing and getting up to speed. Track their learning curve.

Saved labor cost and staff hours: Compare the number of hours and human resources you’ve been utilizing previously to what you’re doing now. Automation means saved time and resources. So watch out for that. Now tell me, Is your employee onboarding software helping? 

Or do you need us? Happy to help :)