The onboarding experience can be a make-or-break moment for new employees. It’s how new team members learn to navigate your work environment and get familiar with your company policies and company culture. But how long does the typical employee onboarding process last, and what makes for an effective onboarding schedule?
Here’s what HR professionals need to know about new employee onboarding, and how to use automation to create a personalized onboarding schedule for each new hire.
An onboarding schedule is your calendar or timeline for onboarding new hires. Ideally, it starts several weeks before your employee’s first day on the job, and continues well into their first year of employment. This ensures that you make a good first impression, and that you follow up to see how they’re adapting to their new role.
A one-size-fits-all onboarding checklist might cover all the basics, but creating a custom onboarding program for each team member can make for a better new hire experience. After all, remote employees, field workers, and in-person team members will all have a very different employee experience and need to be onboarding accordingly.
When you use an onboarding automation platform like RapidBee, you can tailor your onboarding schedule to match each new hire’s role, skill set, and job description so everyone gets a suitable welcome to your organization.
The length of your onboarding process will depend on the size of your organization and the complexity of the position. You can expect to move through each of these four stages during a typical onboarding process.
The pre-boarding process starts as soon as an employee accepts a job offer and lays the groundwork for Day One. It usually includes a welcome email congratulating them on their new job and confirming their start date. This is also a good time to introduce them to their onboarding buddy or main point of contact.
Other key tasks to include in the pre-boarding process include reading the employee handbook and filling out new hire paperwork.
The first week on the job is usually dedicated to employee orientation and/or training. Depending on the nature of the job, this might include a tour of your workspace, the creation of user accounts, and the completion of digital training modules.
Another good thing to put on your onboarding schedule for the first week is to verify professional certifications and track their expiration dates.
By the end of the first month, your new hire should be settling into their new job. But they might still have questions about company policies, challenges adapting to new systems or workflows, or issues to raise with your human resources team.
Schedule check-ins with a manager during this stage of the onboarding process to resolve any issues as they arise and maintain a good working relationship.
The initial onboarding process might conclude at the end of the first month, but your onboarding schedule should continue for at least a year. Checking in with your new employees on an ongoing basis can increase your employee retention rates and promote a culture of open communication and transparent feedback.
You can use a performance review template to assess your new hire’s progress and identify opportunities for improvement or advancement.
Even with the best of intentions, important things can get skipped and your onboarding process can trail off well before it’s complete. Here are four ways to create an effective onboarding schedule — and stick to it.
Instead of relying on a single checklist for everyone, create an onboarding plan for each new employee or job description. This may sound like a lot of effort, but HR automation platforms like RapidBee can do most of the work for you.
RapidBee allows you to create a customized onboarding process that aligns with your company culture, as well as unique onboarding workflows for every role.
Next, schedule onboarding activities in advance so employees know what to expect at each stage of the process and how long they have to complete each task. This could include an in-person orientation, team-building activities, and follow-up meetings.
When you digitize the onboarding process, employees can see each event or item in a single digital interface, sort them by due date, and add them to their calendar.
Track employee progress throughout the onboarding process to see how they’re doing.
Do they need to complete specific training modules or obtain certifications before they can move on to the next step? Do other stakeholders need to weigh in?
RapidBee’s built-in progress tracker allows you to monitor each new hire’s onboarding status and see which items are in progress or have already been completed.
Finally, use automated reminders to send out notifications to stakeholders when a task is incomplete or overdue. You can send an email or SMS reminder about an upcoming due date, a certificate that’s about to expire, or a follow-up meeting after the first week, first month, and first year of the employee’s onboarding journey.
RapidBee’s AI-driven ticket management system allows you to build custom employee journeys with automated alerts and multichannel support.
A digital onboarding platform needs to offer more than just a cut-and-paste onboarding plan template. Here are three extra features you need to look for.
The onboarding process includes a lot of paperwork — from tax forms to remote work policies to employee benefits enrollment. Instead of expecting employees to look for and download the documents they need, build them into your onboarding plan.
With RapidBee’s HR Asset Library, you can convert documents into digital forms and store them all in a central location. Employees can fill out forms without leaving the platform, sign them digitally, and automatically trigger custom training journeys.
The purpose of an employee onboarding process is to drive good performance, so your onboarding program should transition seamlessly into performance management. With RapidBee’s all-in-one performance management system, you can set and track goals, collect 360-degree feedback, and schedule reviews to go out at regular intervals.
Other features include pulse surveys and employee satisfaction surveys so you can solicit feedback along the way and increase employee engagement.
No matter how thorough your onboarding checklist template, some employees will need a little extra support. An AI-powered employee service center helps employees get the support they need with instant answers to common questions and a built-in escalation mechanism to route complex cases to a human agent.
For example, employees can ask RapidBee’s AI-powered HR chatbot for answers to FAQs, get personalized training program recommendations, and more.
Your onboarding program sets the pace for new employees joining your organization. A good onboarding schedule helps employees keep track of due dates, progress through training modules, and add monthly, quarterly, or annual check-ins to their calendar. By using onboarding automation, you can create a customized onboarding plan for each employee based on their job description and training requirements.
RapidBee’s AI-powered platform helps you deliver an efficient onboarding process, with document management, learning management, and performance management all built in. Use our integrations with Google Drive, Workday, ADP, and other platforms to build a seamless onboarding experience that you can implement at scale.
Sign up today to request a free trial!