Employee Onboarding Workflow

Your journey with a new company begins with your onboarding process. If your company has optimised their employee onboarding workflow, you can reap all the benefits of your onboarding stage. You will connect, commit, learn and contribute in no time. Your onboarding experience will establish the impression about whether your journey with a new employer is short-term or long-term.

In this article, we will discuss the employee onboarding workflow. What does an optimised onboarding workflow mean? And how does it assisting you in attaining mastery of your new role?

What is an Onboarding Workflow?

Let’s start by defining a workflow in genera terms, just for the sake of clarity and full comprehension. Then we can get into the more specific onboarding workflow discussion.

The Process Workflow

A workflow is a sequence of tasks that processes a set of data. Considering how data driven business are nowadays, it becomes clear that workflows are a constant of any kind of business and industry. A workflow is created when data is passed between people and/or systems. The role of the workflow is to describe the paths of how something goes from undone to done, raw to processes.

There are various types of workflows, the one relevant to our conversation is the process workflow. A process workflow is characterised by a repetitive and predictable set of tasks. Thus, before an item begins the workflow, there is a clear expectation of what path it should take. Thus, we are dealing with predictable tasks and outcomes. So, let’s see how these general definitions apply to the onboarding process (regardless if it’s on premise or remote onboarding).

The Employee Onboarding Workflow Definition

An employee onboarding workflow refers to a complete set of predefined steps that you must go through as a new hire in a new company. As onboarding is a complex activity, involving multiple actors, you can expect multiple onboarding workflows.

The employee onboarding workflow is a type of onboarding solution that facilitates a complex process. A well-optimised employee onboarding workflow can make the difference between an underwhelming process and a remarkable onboarding experience. Thus, it can define whether or not you engage and get a positive impression of your new employer.

No doubt, the feeling is always great when your employer has prepared for your job start. Feeling confident from the moment you walk through the door on your first day at work is a priceless feeling.

3 Challenges to an Effective Onboarding Workflow

An onboarding workflow is in motion whenever data is passed between various entities, and activities are completed. So, for example, an example of employee onboarding workflow is the process of access set-up, as part of your IT Onboarding. You go from not having access to having access, there are multiple steps, and possibly more than a person, such as HR and the systems admin.

But notice how we signaled that there are some challenges to an effective onboarding workflow. Just because workflows happen more or less as a natural part of your onboarding process, it does not automatically imply efficiency. So, what makes an employee onboarding workflow effective? And, in contract, what prevents an employee onboarding workflow from achieving effectiveness?

Relying on Outdated Onboarding Workflows

The major obstacle to experiencing an excellent onboarding is when your new company’s employee onboarding workflow is outdated and strictly paperwork focused. Nothing can be as underwhelming as spending your first day at work bombarded with papers. This is the opposite of a digital employee onboarding, which is becoming the new standard of onboarding.

Your first day at work should be exciting and even inspiring. Filling out your employment forms and signing tax papers does not really fit the bill of exciting onboarding experiences.

Relying on Manual Onboarding Workflows

You will probably receive an onboarding checklist to keep track of tasks you need to complete to fulfill your job expectations. Maybe you even received a visual flow chart. However, when you have to follow your progress manually, it could lead to inconsistent new hire experiences.

A small company that hires one new employee per month can probably get away with using a manual onboarding workflow. But the higher the organisational complexity, and the higher the frequency of bringing new employees on board, the more difficult it becomes to rely on a manual onboarding workflow. A manual onboarding workflow is more prone to human error. Moreover, the whole workflow can suffer if, for example, the key person was sick.

I have first hand experience to arriving to work on my first day only to find out that the HR responsible was on holiday. So, because this person was not at work and my contract was not registered, nobody could approve my access to the internal systems for a full week. Not a very rewarding job start, is it? I could spend time meeting people and reading some materials, but what if the same happened in a virtual onboarding process? It would have been an even worse experience.

Manual onboarding workflows might not only lead to unsatisfactory experiences, but they could also end up hindering your capacity to come to speed and attain optimum productivity. Just like in my previous example. No access to systems meant no opportunity for productive work.

Lack of Consistency & Standardisation

When onboarding workflows are not standardised, different actors could bring different approaches to onboarding activities. This is particularly relevant for training. If there is no standard method of doing something, different new hires might get different inputs. Different mentors might have not only different methods, but also different priorities.

This will not only lead to inconsistent onboarding experiences, but also to inconsistent performances.

With standardised onboarding workflows, each and every new hire benefits from the same style of activities. Goals and priorities align. Additionally, if a person is sick or on holiday, the entire workflow stays on track without derailing. Furthermore, new hire specific knowledge is uniform, simply because everyone receives exactly the same training. This can be particularly reassuring to line managers.

As a new hire, this can make provide you with the boost of confidence, that your knowledge is as good as anyone else’s. So, you can take ownership of your tasks without self-doubt.

What Are the Steps to an Effective Employee Onboarding Workflow?

With the right employee onboarding workflows, you will attain a seamless onboarding experience. This means that you will properly settle into your new role and build the right synergy with the other team members.

The following are steps will aid you in achieving a proper new employee workflow.

Paper forms might have been a necessity until not that long ago. But there is very limited reasoning to continue using physical papers when onboarding and preboarding a new employee. This ensures a smoother paperwork focused workflow both for all new employees: yourself as the new hire, and the HR employees. This is all possible with smart onboarding documentation.

When the new hire workflow of your company is free of manual workflow nightmares, you will attain the desired level of productivity within a short time.

Tracking task progress is essential for you as a new hire. It can reinforce your confidence of being on track and achieving your onboarding goals. The related onboarding workflow would refer to drafting, communicating and tracking your journey.

When you can see the status of your activities, the ones in progress or overdue, you can achieve job performance. Again, creating a checklist of your core tasks can plays a vital role in creating a great employee onboarding workflow. But this is not enough. A checklist in a document (printed or online) will not remind you if you still have a lesson before completing your training.

With an automated system you can trust that you will not miss out on anything important in your bid to fulfill your job obligations.

With an onboarding platform, you receive an outlined journey that contains your milestone tasks, timelines, job details, roles, due dates of assignments etc.

You Deserve a Seamless New Hire Workflow: Concluding Remarks

As a new hire, your utmost desire is to have a system of activities workflow without any hitch. You can easily achieve optimum productivity when a platform allows workflows to be on autopilot. Workflow onboarding is boosted with automated reminders of your crucial tasks. Also, you can view the status of your assignments at a glance.

A structured and intuitive onboarding software can create effective employee onboarding workflows. A tool like introdus will enhance your ability to benefit from an employee centric onboarding workflow. This will bring out the best in you. introdus offers you a wonderful learning experience that helps you attain full productivity.

According to Simone Sonn, Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding at LEO Pharma, the key to eliminating anxiety is to have a good start. Having a good start with a new company is anchored by effective employee onboarding workflows.