Digital Employee Onboarding

Digital onboarding is the most effective way – and probably the only way – organisations can get essential training and core company values to a global workforce or remote workers. For global organisations, with staff all around the world, onboarding that can be delivered via devices is accessible, effective, affordable and measurable.

The trend towards flexible working, with remote workers or freelancers, is set to continue and grow in the years ahead. Clearly, traditional onboarding isn’t going to work with them. They need to be reached with a less head office-centric onboarding experience; it needs to be more personalised to reflect their circumstances. The most crucial thing is to ensure they have a good induction. Don’t just leave them to it. That way leads to isolation and an early exit.

Having new starters that are virtually ‘good to go’ from day one has never been easier. Digital preboarding programmes allow them to arrive feeling confident and comfortable. They will already have an insight into the company’s culture and values and will have learnt about the priority skills. Moving some of the traditional elements of induction online makes it flexible and accessible in advance. Some organisations are now also including some fun facts about the colleagues the new joiners will be working with.

Delivering a consistent onboarding experience has always been a challenge – until now. Digital onboarding ensures consistency in training for all new joiners and, crucially, in also embedding the company’s culture and values across the organisation. It might be as simple as an online ‘welcome’ video from the CEO.  An online ‘values’ induction course, taken by all new joiners before they start, can be done in a fun way using quizzes or gamification, as in the case of the Specsavers preboarding programme. It’s not just about consistency; it’s also about quality engagement that will inspire new employees.

Don’t under-estimate the importance of networking and the sense of belonging. Introducing new workers to colleagues and key contacts should be seen as an integral part of onboarding. Digital social channels such as Whatsapp groups, Slack and Skype are great for developing a sense of being part of the team. Some organisations are also introducing an online ‘green room’ where new joiners can make connections, share experiences and support each other.  It’s interesting to note that the companies who are being innovative in this way have asked staff how the induction process could work more smoothly.

Onboarding should be seen as part of a culture of continuous learning. For some organisations, this might require a whole new outlook. They will need to change their perceptions of what onboarding is. There is no finish line with onboarding; it’s simply the start of an ongoing process. Continuous learning ensures there’s never a gap between stages of development. Learning is personalised and adaptable; progress is seamless; and staff are continually improving capability and performance. The key to this is learning reinforcement, delivered via a microlearning platform.

Digital onboarding is engaging, and engagement equals inspiring, effective learning.  We know it works because we have so many case studies with real-life results that prove it.