First impressions matter: why onboarding is so important to the employee experience
Once an organisation has attracted talent, to maintain the strength of their employer brand, it’s vital that the employee experience lives up to the expectations set in the job advertisement or matches the company reviews online.
For employers, there is no greater opportunity to make a positive impression on new hires than during the onboarding process.
What Is onboarding?
Onboarding is a structured way to introduce new employees. The onboarding process includes everything from completing documents and ordering equipment, such as a laptop or smartphone, to getting familiar with the company values and getting to know the team.
In brief, onboarding aims to make newcomers feel welcome and get them set up in their new role quickly and smoothly.
Digital onboarding
Today, due in no small part to Covid-19’s acceleration of digitalisation and the demand from young employees to have the same level technology at work as they use in their private lives, many organisations are using digital tools as part of their onboarding process.
Benify, together with YouGov, recently conducted an anonymous online survey involving approximately 5,000 participants aged 18 and older throughout Europe. The results, which can be found in The Benefits & Engagement Report, show that employees who are onboarded digitally are more likely to say that their employer lives up to their expectations than those who are onboarded without digital tools.
In fact, our survey reveals that an incredible 81% of employees who were onboarded digitally using digital tools, such as an employee benefits platform, say their employer lives up to their expectations. Furthermore, 71% of employees who were onboarded using digital tools say they were satisfied with their introduction.
Yet, despite these findings, Kate Goodwin, head of client relations international at Benify, says that few UK employers are making good use of the digital onboarding tools available to them: “Digital onboarding is not used enough in the UK, in my opinion. For many employees, onboarding means receiving papers through the post – ‘here’s the things you need to read and complete’.
“There has been a shift towards digital onboarding, but it is not as rich in the UK as it could be. There’s a lot more that employers can do, and a benefits platform is a great way to onboard employees digitally, especially now during the current situation.”
In other words, employers that make the most of digital tools to onboard new hires have a clear advantage over the competition.
How virtual onboarding works
In one of our earlier posts, Hannah Steele, manager of talent acquisition at Benify, shared that using digital tools to welcome new employees is extremely useful under normal circumstances, but even more so with so many workforces working from home.
With the digital tools that exist today, employers can enable new hires to learn more about the company and complete specific tasks before their first day. As part of the digital onboarding process, Hannah Steele explains that new employees can log into their employee platform and access e-learning tools and see checklists of things they need to do during their first few days.
With the social aspects of work being crucial to employee wellbeing, digital platforms can also be used for ‘meet n’ greet’, sessions whereby new hires can digitally meet with their new colleagues and colleagues in different parts of the organisation.
Digital onboarding tools allow HR professionals to provide new employees with a standardised, structured, onboarding process where every employee receives the same high-quality introduction necessary to feel part of the organisation.
To read more results from our latest survey and discover what today’s employees want and expect from their employers, download The Benefits and Engagement Report.
This article is provided by Benify.
In partnership with Benify
Benify offers the market's leading global benefits and total reward platform.
