You only get one chance to make a first impression. This is particularly true in terms of the new employee experience. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they have a great onboarding experience.
In many companies, the first thing a new employee does is fill out a stack of forms so they can get paid, enroll in benefits, and access policies and procedures. If new hires are asked to fill out numerous paper forms, they spend significant time on their first day sitting at their desk rather than getting familiar with their job responsibilities and meeting their colleagues.
With web forms, the new employee fills out onboarding data once which automatically populates all required forms on the back end. Online forms can be filled out at home before the new employee even starts the job. These forms are then stored in a secure centralized digital repository. The automated system can then email a digital welcome kit that covers logistics such as details on the dress code, parking, and who to ask for when they arrive. The kit can also include information about the company’s mission and values, and what the employee can expect on the first day.
Using workflow to further simplify internal processes, your HR team can create an onboarding checklist of required tasks, including acknowledgement of employment, confidentiality agreements, an employee handbook and initial training plans. It can also streamline new hire provisioning to make sure employees have all supplies, from a computer to a building key, that are needed on day one. Automated onboarding sends email notifications to all team members who are involved in the process to ensure each is task is done in a timely manner.
Software integration tools ensure that your document management solution integrates with your HR and accounting software, ERP and intranet, so employee information you collect via web forms can flow from one system to another – making the data consistent, actionable, and valuable across your entire organization.
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Case Study: Digitizing onboarding saves time and reduces costs for DocuWare customers
Young Automotive Group, a leading car sales company located in Layton, UT, carries almost every automobile brand on the market along with a used inventory of over 1,200 vehicles. With more than 900 employees and 90 years in business, excellent customer service and a strong emphasis on hiring talented people play a major role in achieving their success.
Prior to installing DocuWare, Young Automotive required all newly hired employees to go through a four-hour new hire orientation process at one of their offices. That required people to travel, sometimes from out of state, to complete paperwork. The process was inconvenient, lengthy and increased the company’s expenses because they reimbursed new employees for travel and gas mileage.
“We figured that if we could send the information to them digitally and they could enter their information digitally in real time, it would definitely save us a lot of time and gas mileage that we were paying for,” said ShaRee Shupe, HR Generalist. “We thought people could do all these things prior to even starting.”
After switching to DocuWare, Young Automotive Group digitized its HR procedures. When the required digital forms are completed, they are instantly delivered back to HR personnel, who then forward the new hires their employment agreement. "I was on the phone with a new hire instructing how to fill out our digital forms. He pressed the button and the form ‘disappeared.’ When I told him I already got the form on my end, he was impressed by how quickly our system works,” said Shupe.
Using digital forms, the company streamlined other processes, such as requesting an advance on a paycheck or deducting auto repair costs from the payroll. The company also uses DocuWare to manage employee recognition activities. In the past, requesting certain benefits and actions required multiple managers’ approvals followed by HR processing, resulting in paper forms being transferred from person to person. Now the process is fast and error proof.
Start your free 30-day trial of DocuWare for Employee Management