Celebrating 3 years of Onboarded: Lessons from a pandemic

As we celebrate Onboarded’s 3^rdbirthday and reaching a milestone 300,000 onboards, we’ve been reflecting on our journey so far, and what’s changed in onboarding in that time.

When we started Onboarded in 2019, we had a simple goal – to make onboarding a fast, efficient, and seamless experience. At that point, more and more recruiters were looking to technology to resolve bottlenecks and deliver a better candidate experience. In addition, the wider market was starting to really appreciate the relationship between onboarding and retention.

Of course, what we didn’t realise was that a global pandemic would soon change the landscape. The need for digital onboarding skyrocketed as businesses moved to a remote model without warning. Our existing clients were able to make the switch easily, but we also saw an influx of businesses needing our services quickly. This also meant we had to evolve quickly. Our agility was put to the test, and I am pleased to say the team passed with flying colours.

So today, I wanted to share some of the lessons we learnt about onboarding and technology, and how we can apply them in 2022 and beyond.

It is possible to go paperless fast

Pre-pandemic, many businesses had the goal of going ‘paperless’ to accelerate digital transformation, lower environmental footprint and increase efficiencies. But it was still some way off into the future for most, and onboarding was still a paper-heavy process for many.

With the rapid move to remote working, onboarding became an online process overnight, and guess what? It worked. A digital onboarding process is simply easier for everyone. The recruiter or employer can see where everything is at and the new hire can complete forms anywhere, on any device, cutting down turnaround time.

Onboarding and retention are increasingly linked

Prior to the pandemic, many recruiters and employers were starting to realise that onboarding had a role to play in retention, but this relationship was deepened in a remote world. Without in-person interviews or site visits prior to starting, onboarding played a bigger role than ever before in first impressions.

In fact, research shows that a good onboarding experience can improve retention by a whopping 82%. And it’s an area where the right onboarding tools can really pay for themselves.

According to Career Builder, paperwork overload is amongst the biggest onboarding bugbears for new starters. A digital solution enables you to reduce this paperwork, distributing digital documentation that’s easy to complete anytime, anywhere, from a mobile device.

In addition, you can structure and template a process that just works. No confusion for you or the new hire, and it works seamlessly in remote, hybrid and traditional workplace settings.

Software designed on usability is key

As businesses grappled with adopting a range of technologies to go digital fast during the pandemic, it often created new headaches for employees and clients alike. That’s where we saw software designed on usability, like Onboarded, really come into its own.

Usability is built into our designs at every step to make it easy for recruiters, HR and candidates to complete the process. Here are just some of the ways Onboarded takes the hassle out of the process:

Each candidate has a unique, secure URL to complete the whole process, so no passwords or usernames to remember.
A single platform covers the entire onboarding process right from pre-hire registration to placement onboarding including payroll, to make it a simple and easy process for candidates.
All data is seamlessly integrated back into your ATS/HR Solution with one click of a button to ensure one source of truth for the data and reduced administrative burden for the team.
Easy-to-use features like background screening, contracts, e-signing, and payroll onboarding functionality that can be used on any device keep things simple – no paper, no printing, no waiting.

Looking for a better way to onboard new hires? Talk to Onboarded today about how we can customise the experience to your specific business needs. Our platform can be integrated and modified to match your business requirements – if it’s part of your process, we can make it happen.