The initial weeks of a new team member’s employment set the stage for their tenure at a company. Because the professional development journey begins in those first moments, it’s crucial to set new hires up for eventual success. New employee onboarding software makes that long-distance goal an achievable reality.
Plus, when you know that onboarding has massive potential for influencing revenue growth (up to 60% higher earnings potential at companies with great onboarding processes), investing in the right solution is a given.
When an organization prioritizes new employee training and leverages an award-winning learning platform, it’s easier to retain new hires and keep them engaged. In this post, we’ll explore employee onboarding software from every angle so that you can better understand features, benefits, and strategy.
What is employee onboarding software?
Employee onboarding software encompasses a suite of tools that employers can use to educate, instruct, and equip new team members. The learning experience is digital, offering employees a way to learn through flexible online formats.
Employee onboarding software helps employers meet specific requirements related to training and hiring since it automates how companies welcome new team members and bring them up to speed with company policies, cultural information, and technical help.
Bringing recruits on board with proven software enables an easier transition as new employees seamlessly integrate into the organization, connect with peers and managers, and find their footing in important new roles.
Benefits of employee onboarding software
Employees’ first impressions matter. So it goes without saying that creating a fresh onboarding experience has multiple advantages. When employers leverage onboarding and training software efficiently, current staff members save more time and effort.
From improved administrative processes to financial savings, everyone stands to gain when organizations invest in better onboarding experiences. Let’s take a look at the many ways that your team could benefit.
Provide a consistent experience to all parties
One of the greatest selling points for employee onboarding software is that it helps employers deliver on-brand consistency. When you delegate onboarding tasks to individual managers or department leaders, you run the risk of having disjointed training experiences. And despite their best efforts, different leaders might not always stay “on brand” with corporate values or messaging as they instruct and guide new team members.
Productivity requires consistent information, and that begins with the quality of training material that teams receive. With online onboarding programs like CYPHER, organizations eliminate the guesswork and produce exceptional curriculum that’s trustworthy and unique.
Manage compliance concerns
Employee onboarding software also helps companies fill in compliance-related gaps, respond to regulatory guidelines, and take action on legal implications. Even though compliance issues vary by industry, it’s likely that most businesses have some of these needs that they can address during the employee onboarding process.
Examples of training information related to compliance include:
- OSHA standards and workplace safety requirements
- Sexual harassment, assault, or discrimination policies
- Customer identity and confidentiality
- Data privacy and protection (in light of regulations such as GDPR)
Free up time and resources for instructional staff members
With instructor-led onboarding processes, employers always need an instructional team member to take the reins. And if an organization is particularly crunched for training time or resources, this requirement can be a huge setback.
Onboarding software delivers a digital, personalized experience that’s perfect for teams that want (or need) to devote important resources elsewhere. With asynchronous learning options, employees are able to learn at their own pace.
Reduce onboarding costs
Not surprisingly, when businesses lack productive onboarding processes, they’re more likely to incur expenses later on. These costs are often associated with rehiring and recruitment, since employee turnover costs corporations millions of dollars annually.
According to the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), “69 percent of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding.” There’s a direct link between onboarding and retention, which means that companies save on costs in the long run.
Moreover, when teams use onboarding systems that are intuitive and efficient, they don’t have to waste resources on labor-intensive development. By using a powerful platform like CYPHER, business leaders get training modules up and running in as little as ten minutes.
Features to look for in modern employee onboarding platforms
Why should teams explore the use of employee onboarding software? In addition to the benefits above, a post-pandemic job climate demands new approaches to learning and training.
Workers have diverse onboarding expectations, and employers must be willing to invest in personalized and creative options.
Additionally, there’s an emotional and motivational element to onboarding that people-centric teams never overlook. As workers desire to engage with their employers on a deeper level, the right platforms and features make those dreams a reality.
As you explore onboarding options, consider the following tools, features, and selling points.
1. Automated onboarding tasks
Does your onboarding software enable employee onboarding within minutes? Do automated features make the employee experience more collaborative and engaging? If not, it’s time to look for a platform that offers automation as part of the onboarding experience.
With hands-on automation and gamification settings in CYPHER, instructors are able to trigger specific actions when learners complete tasks. This makes it easier to work with entire groups of students, move learners through key pathways, and award points based on progress or completion.
Plus, automation keeps employees on the move, so there’s less wasted time and confusion (on both sides) about what happens next in the learning process.
Bonus tip: CYPHER is the only learning platform with platform-wide automation. This means that you can easily include gamification, support crucial skills development, measure competency and mastery, and generate a first-rate onboarding experience every time.
2. Employee compliance pathways
Although most companies have a legal obligation to provide employee compliance training, the experience doesn’t have to be dull and boring. Innovative onboarding platforms can (and should) meet compliance demands without skimping on proactive engagement.
Find a platform that promotes employee skill development through proven learning paths. Compliance features should give companies the ability to personalize the courses that are required for compliance and to deliver a unique experience, regardless of the subject matter.
Because various departments also follow different governing regulations, customizable learning pathways ensure that the right people receive relevant compliance material when they need it most.
3. Mentorship and coaching
To create a company culture of continuous learning, companies must prioritize mutually beneficial relationships from the get go. Introducing the concept of mentorship during onboarding or initial training is a great way to welcome new hires to the company and invest in their long-term career goals.
Modern LMS platforms offer features for mentorship through training. A suitable software includes tools like web conferencing, real-time chat, and document sharing to make the conversations between mentors and mentees easier and more productive.
4. Branded portal for employees and teams
A learning portal delivers a highly accessible and unique experience for new employees within the onboarding process. The portal is different from the entire learning management system (LMS) platform in that individual learners log in and access information that’s just for them. (And with CYPHER, it’s easy to brand the portal experience and make adjustments to online course content, announcements, and events.)
A portal feature is especially beneficial during employee onboarding because new hires are still getting up to speed with corporate logins, credentials, and expectations. By sending them to a personalized portal, newer team members have direct access to the content they need for learning and development without having to jump through multiple hoops or search in separate places for training materials.
5. Insightful reporting and analytics
Without access to data and analytics, it’s impossible to know whether your onboarding materials fulfill their true purpose. Not to mention, real-time reports allow you to see where learners are on their personalized roadmaps.
Look for an onboarding platform that offers the ability to look under the hood at any time. Not only does this data give instructors the chance to measure success, but it’s also valuable for communicating transparently with stakeholders.
Pro Tip: CYPHER’s reporting features include canned reports, ad-hoc reporting, and graphical analytics for key areas of the LMS. Place more control into the hands of course leaders, and get access to the data that matters for future progress.
6. User-friendly interface
A user-friendly interface isn’t just about making the process feel or look more impressive. By giving new hires a carefully curated experience, better design also minimizes the learning curve for trainees. This feature is especially helpful when new employees aren’t tech-savvy.
When a learning platform offers enhanced user experience (UX), teams increase adoption rates and decrease the likelihood of frustration. That’s a winning combination, especially when it’s so vital that employees learn and retain the information they receive during onboarding.
User-friendly platforms also tend to be more flexible when it comes to redesigning certain elements of courses, making changes to programs and pathways, or releasing new requirements to learners at a later time.
Top implementation tips for new employee onboarding software
Once you’ve selected an employee onboarding software, move toward protecting that investment. A strategic approach to implementation ensures that the product does what it promises—and that everyone reaps the knowledge and rewards.
Here are a few ways that you can build trust and confidence when you make the switch to employee onboarding software.
Involve key stakeholders
To experience the highest success rate, you need buy-in. And to get that support, communicating with any key stakeholders from HR, IT, and relevant departments is the right move. Include these voices in the decision-making process so that you can hear multiple perspectives.
Use this initial time to gather input, create a list of needs or expectations, and address relevant concerns. Because key players often have in-depth questions about the overall investment and strategy, come prepared with reasons why a more modern onboarding process is the right choice for solving known pain points.
Construct a comprehensive onboarding strategy
Outline the critical steps, timelines, and responsibilities to achieve new onboarding goals. Aim to identify potential roadblocks, and predict how to mitigate them.
It’s easy to state the possibilities of what a modern LMS can do—especially when it comes to getting new employees up and running faster and reducing the “learning to productivity” ratio. But these results always need to align with the big picture.
Think about your corporate culture, stretch goals, and overall mission or values statement. How does your selected onboarding program support those things so that everyone wins?
Customize the curriculum
Whether the topic is onboarding or employee relations, personalization is the secret to success. Customization builds personal connection throughout the organization, and it reinforces an employer’s brand goals, mission, and values.
To accelerate onboarding software adoption, make the training experience specific to individual teams and role assignments. Demonstrate the connection between corporate business goals and individual employee contributions so that individuals know how much their work matters. Where possible, use integrations for greater customization and connection.
Test or run a pilot program
As a general rule, always test and quality check your learning setup prior to launch. A pilot onboarding program allows you to get measurable results from a controlled environment. This means that you can spot red flags and fix issues before the new initiative goes live.
With a test group of participants, ask for honest feedback about the overall experience, and explore whether any changes would help. Remember—the more buy-in you have up front, the easier it is to experience successful onboarding over the course of several years.
Launch with clear communication
Always set clear expectations regarding the use of new onboarding and training software. Verbalize how these new tools and features will simplify the onboarding process and give new hires better results—both in their first few weeks and in their future career.
If participants have questions, explain how to find answers. Will you include feedback or support channels? Proactively eliminate bottlenecks and offset potential problems.
Don’t forget that onboarding is only one part of training—perhaps just the first step in a longer journey. To generate excitement, communicate future possibilities like continuing education, career advancement training, certification, and in-depth product upskilling. (There’s also extended enterprise training that includes partner, customer, and contractor or vendor training).
Adapt and pivot as needed
Companies must redirect their approach to new employee onboarding software as they manage tech advancements, remote work trends, and shifting employee expectations. These factors demand a dynamic onboarding process that includes thinking outside of the box.
Companies that fail to integrate personalized learning run the risk of hindering employee engagement, productivity, and retention. Plus, as compliance regulations change, an agile onboarding system ensures legal adherence and minimizes risk. Business leaders must keep tabs on where, when, and how these broad changes require internal redirection.
When organizations are adaptive, this also fosters inclusivity, accommodates diverse learning styles, and caters to a globally dispersed workforce. Flexibility also helps attract and retain top performers, while giving companies a competitive edge in the modern workforce.
Does your employee onboarding need an upgrade?
If your organization has struggled to introduce positive changes to the onboarding process, now is the time to incorporate digital onboarding into your team culture.
CYPHER Learning helps learning and development (L&D) professionals, Human Resources (HR) leaders, and corporate trainers expand their resources and incorporate human connection into every single milestone.
We believe that delivering tailored learning experiences (that are meaningful and measurable) shouldn’t feel impossible. Get access to easy-to-use, award-winning online training programs for your new employees.
