Why Employers Should Upgrade Their Technologies to Successfully Onboard New Employees

Modern onboarding processes are more technologically advanced than ever before. However, in the post-pandemic world of remote work, even employers with obsolete technologies may struggle to keep up with employee expectations and satisfy their desire for efficiency. When your software and hardware aren’t up to par with that of other businesses in your industry, new hires won’t be impressed. Plus, you’ll lose out on much-needed efficiencies that could help your HR teams focus on more strategic initiatives.

On the other hand, employers with up-to-date technology can quickly and effectively onboard new employees, no matter where they are in the world. Your technology can improve training so workers can instantly understand their role in the business hierarchy, acclimate to your company culture, and dive right into the processes they’re responsible for.

Let’s dive into why employers should upgrade their onboarding technologies and how to do so.

Set up and Streamline Your Workflows

The onboarding process can involve many different parts, from general orientation and team introductions to technical skills training. In traditional offices, each of these elements of onboarding is managed separately. Without any oversight over the entirety of the onboarding process, some team members can easily miss key steps — like granting permissions for email or software programs — that cause delays for new hires.

Streamlining your onboarding workflows can help you successfully acclimate new employees to their work environment. A simple way to upgrade your technology is by investing in a centralized onboarding platform that is available in the Philippines. This kind of platform allows you to customize your workflows and see the real-time progress of all your onboarding tasks. This way, your new hires get a smooth introduction to your company that boosts their morale.

Simplify Onboarding for New Hires

New employees often have a lot of tasks to complete when they start their new roles. While your management team works on finishing an internal onboarding checklist, they’re working on completing tax forms, signing agreements, watching training videos, and more.

All of your new hire’s to-dos can get scattered and lost if they’re simply being sent over email. For many companies, offering an online portal allows employees to complete all their tasks, thus setting their new workers up for success.

Upgrading to comprehensive human resources software is one of the best ways to successfully onboard new employees. When your software links together payroll, employee records, and more aspects of HR all in one employee-controlled portal, you won’t have to ask employees for the same information twice. Plus, you decrease the chances that employees will miss a step.

Keep Hardware Compatible With Modern Software

Technology upgrades aren’t always software upgrades. Sometimes, hardware must be updated, too. When certain hardware becomes obsolete, much like traditional landline phones and floppy disk drives, it’s necessary to upgrade to modern alternatives.

However, it’s important to recognize that the software you upgrade to can cause your hardware to become obsolete. For example, if you switch to internet-based phone services, your new hires won’t need new desk phones set up during the onboarding process. However, your company may need to invest in smartphones for new employees, which can be incredibly costly if you don’t already have this hardware available.

Before you upgrade onboarding software, consider what new hardware you’d need to use and what existing hardware will go to waste. Similarly, before you upgrade hardware, make sure it’s compatible with your software and IT resources — even the power outlets your team has access to. You don’t want your new employees to join your team only to receive hardware they can’t use.

Eliminate Remote Communication Barriers

As the world grows more remote, upgrading technology will become a more important step for keeping communication intact between new hires, coworkers, and employers during the onboarding process. This can boost new employees’ long-term engagement by helping them bond with their team members and feel supported by their managers.

While traditional methods of communication may suffice, there are issues with each one. Email doesn’t facilitate real-time conversations, phone calls can be disruptive, and video calls are generally scheduled ahead of time. It’s best to upgrade to an internal communications platform like Slack or Discord, which allows for informal conversations, fast-paced messages, and fun reactions. This upgrade makes it easy for new employees to reach out to a coworker or manager with the right answers without running into any red tape.

New remote employees will appreciate your updated communication software when they need quick questions answered while working miles away from their next closest team member.

Reduce Resource Consumption

Traditional onboarding can use up a lot of resources. When you’re not taking advantage of modern onboarding software, you’re likely taking on several manual workflows that consume a lot of your time and effort. As a result, excess revenue may be wasted on your onboarding efforts, too.

Upgrading your technology can help you reduce the number of resources you use (including skilled labor and hardware) to onboard a single employee. One way you can do so is by automating the most repetitive processes. For example, you can use an automation tool like Zapier to instantly trigger a team welcome message on Slack once a Google Form is filled out.

Alternatively, you can simply look for software with lower running costs — for instance, by switching from options that require in-house IT maintenance to cloud-based onboarding software.

Onboard New Employees Effectively and Efficiently

When your team grows, you inevitably need to onboard your employees. Onboarding allows you to make a good impression on your new hires and keep them engaged with your company in the long run — as long as your onboarding process is high-quality. To successfully integrate new employees into your company, you need to move away from inefficient, error-prone, and costly old technologies and move toward modern software and hardware. Start trying out new software, such as cloud-based onboarding portals and internal communications platforms, and upgrading to widely compatible hardware.