Providing your people with a successful onboarding experience is essential for employee satisfaction and retention, as research by the Brandon Hall Group shows. In fact, they found that organizations with a strong onboarding process increase their retention of new hires by 82 percent and productivity by an incredible 70 percent.
However, many companies are not hitting the mark. A Gallup poll revealed that only 12 percent of employees strongly agree that their company does a great job of onboarding. With a statistic like this, many companies will see high employee turnover rates, which leads to low morale and is a drain on resources.
While there’s no proven formula for what you should include in your onboarding program, there’s no doubt that this crucial period presents a golden opportunity for making a meaningful first impression on your people, whether they are working on-site, hybrid, or remote.
Show your new hires that they’ve made the right choice by giving them a positive onboarding experience that they won’t forget. Stand out from the crowd with meaningful, authentic, and welcoming touches that help them feel a sense of belonging while navigating the unchartered waters of your company. Investing in your onboarding program will positively impact retention and contribute to your employee value proposition (EVP), attracting more people to work at your company.
Read on for some great tips on how to use Bob to build a comprehensive and personalized onboarding process that delights and engages your people.
Get ahead of the game with preboarding
The preboarding period is the time between when a candidate accepts your offer and their first day, which can be several weeks or even months. During this time, it’s crucial that you keep the momentum going so they don’t feel deserted or start having second thoughts. Make preboarding part of your company culture, and your people won’t forget it.
Use Bob for preboarding new employees
You can use Bob to start engaging your new hires before their first day. Once you’ve signed a new hire (Yay! Congrats!), seamlessly sync their data from your ATS to Bob (check out the ATS platforms we integrate with) and save tons of time in data entry.
Then, a week or so before their start date, invite your new hires to start filling out their employee profile in Bob. Send them an invitation to connect to Bob and set up a preboarding task list that includes all the tasks involved in starting at a new workplace. Invite them to sign their employment contract using eSign, fill out their bank details, and confirm their contact information. This way, you can get all those mundane tasks out of the way.
Using their details in Bob, you can give them a warm welcome by sending a package of company swag direct to their homes, providing them with a fun surprise and helping them feel part of your company. Because who doesn’t love some swag?
Use the preboarding period as an opportune time to help new hires get to know your company and for you to get to know them. Send them a link to a welcome video that introduces your unique company culture and ask them to fill out additional fields in Bob, such as their preferred pronouns, food preferences, hobbies, and superpowers.
Bob is so flexible that you can even add your own personalized fields. For example, our customer Novatti created fields that ask their people about their favorite holiday destination and favorite hot drink. This way, when a new hire starts, their manager can order them coffee the way they like it on their first day, helping them feel welcome and part of the team.
Cover all your bases with a personalized onboarding process
Onboarding new employees can be complex and time-consuming, especially when you have numerous new starters. How do you manage the process and ensure that each new hire receives the training, mentoring, and introduction to the company culture they need to be successful in their new role?
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Use Bob’s onboarding workflows for a smooth start
Bob’s automated workflows and task lists enable you to manage onboarding for multiple employees simultaneously, without breaking a sweat. Whether your people work on-site or remote, you can ensure they have a positive onboarding experience that includes everything they need to get started and feel part of the team.
Bob’s workflows are completely customizable, so you can tailor them according to your company’s unique needs and culture and personalize them to any group, such as per job title, seniority, department, or site. For example, as part of onboarding, you can assign new hires in the United States a task to fill out an I-9 form showing they’re eligible for employment, while new hires in the UK can be tasked with attending a Health and Safety training session.
Bob also supports multiple languages (currently 13), so you can help your people in different sites feel at home by creating workflows in their mother tongue.
To help you get started, Bob provides a choice of workflow templates for important lifecycle events. Set them up and oversee them to make sure that each task is completed at the right time and by the right person.
You can assign tasks to different stakeholders across the company, such as:
- New joiners: assign tasks such as filling out their employee profile and providing information for payroll.
- HR: assign tasks such as adding new starters to Bob, sending them company swag, and sharing the employee handbook, Org Chart, and code of conduct.
- Managers: assign tasks such as nominating a dedicated buddy or mentor for the new hire, posting a Shoutout to welcome them, and setting up 1-on-1s with relevant people in the org.
- Other stakeholders in the company, such as IT: assign tasks such as providing access to accounts and ordering new equipment.
Our customer, AlgoSec, is passionate about providing their new hires—working on-site and remote—with a positive and welcoming onboarding experience that gives them the tools to succeed. As part of onboarding, AlgoSec’s HR introduces new employees to Bob’s People Directory and Org Chart, enabling them to easily familiarize themselves with their peers and the company structure and start feeling comfortable in their new roles.
Make a lasting impression on your new hires
You only get one chance to make a great first impression, so make sure your company is in that 12 percent that does a great job of onboarding and engaging their people.
Help new hires feel welcome and acclimated with a preboarding and onboarding experience that is relevant, personal, and thorough, providing them with the tools they need to hit the ground running. Your efforts will be rewarded with happy, engaged, and productive employees committed to your company, values, and future.
