Build a Personalized Onboarding Experience

 

How many of us have ever started a new job and truly remembered the onboarding experience, in a good way? At best, most onboarding processes are pretty similar–fill out a mountain of paperwork, get your photo taken for your ID badge, a quick office tour, then the training begins. Not offensive, for sure, but nothing that really gets you excited or feel like you’re a part of a real company culture.

 

And at worst, onboarding experiences can be simultaneously boring and overwhelming, or the complete opposite–totally disorganized or even completely non-existent, leaving new hires floundering from the first day and far more likely to leave before they’ve even gotten their feet wet.

 

That’s why every company can benefit from a personalized onboarding experience that’s tailor-made to their needs, their structure, and their culture.

 

What is personalized onboarding?

Personalized onboarding is exactly what it sounds like–an onboarding experience that’s built to the exact specifications of the company utilizing it. Rather than a generic process that could be seen at any company on earth, your onboarding experience is built to manage the needs of your organization’s hiring and training process efficiently and consistently, and to emphasize the unique and positive aspects of your organizational culture.

 

The end result should be an onboarding process that’s smooth as silk, transitioning in new hires quickly and seamlessly every single time without unnecessary roadblocks or frustrations. It also should give every new hire a sense of what it is that makes your company culture special and work to include them within it, so that they start their new position feeling welcomed into the organization, empowered to do their best work, and engaged with the process every step of the way.

 

The benefits of a personalized onboarding experience

Overhauling your onboarding process can be a tough sell sometimes. You might be thinking that the annoyance of onboarding is a necessary and expected evil and that you’re happy to just push people through the once-per-hire process and really start engaging them afterwards.

 

But don’t be so quick to write it off. The first 90 days to a year of a new hire’s work are when they’re the most likely to leave, and you’re certainly well-aware of the extraordinary costs of hiring a new employee vs. retaining an existing one. So why would you not want to make sure your onboarding process is robust, seamless, and on-brand in a way that engages your new hires rather than adding additional stress or frustration to an already volatile period of time in their career?

 

Personalized onboarding can benefit your organization by:

 

• Integrating your brand into the onboarding experience: A poor culture fit is one of the main reasons people leave jobs, but too many organizations throw their hands up and say it’s out of their control. Your onboarding process is a great way to envelope a new hire into the best aspects of your brand and your organizational culture, actively cultivating a great culture fit from the very first day.

• Creating a consistent, reliable onboarding process: Onboarding technology makes it easier than ever to create an onboarding process that ushers in new hires without skipping a beat or missing a step. From documentation to training to check-ins, your onboarding can be personalized to give every new hire exactly what they need, when they need it–every time.

• Streamlining slow and costly onboarding: A personalized onboarding experience also allows your organization to decide what a new hire needs–and what they don’t. From options to fill out paperwork in advance, to specific modules for specific positions, personalized onboarding allows you to cut the fat and ensure the process is as time- and cost-effective as possible.

• Reducing “quick quits” and employee turnover: A confusing, overwhelming, or burdensome onboarding process can cause new hires stress, discomfort, and make them feel unwelcome in their new position. A smooth and on-brand onboarding process will do the opposite, giving you new hires that are engaged and ready to hit the ground running–and far less likely to quit in those crucial first 90 days.

 

A personalized onboarding case study: Trendmaker Homes

When house builder Trendmaker Homes was looking to revamp their onboarding process, they knew exactly what was wrong: their new hires were overwhelmed with manual tasks, uncertain of the brand identity of Trendmaker Homes and their sister companies, and left insufficiently prepared for their new jobs.

 

To create a personalized onboarding program, they landed on the idea of the “Front Porch,” an onboarding portal that gave new hires a deep understanding of the company’s mission, a sense of how their role fit into the success of the business, and–importantly–instilled the sense of being welcomed into a new home just like their clients.

 

It wasn’t just about building that brand identity, however–Trendmaker Homes’ Front Porch program also streamlined the tedious intake paperwork process by allowing new hires to fill out paperwork digital from home, and worked seamlessly with their existing software suite, freeing up time and energy for the 1-on-1 conversations and personal connections that built loyalty and  confidence for every new employee.

 

RedCarpet onboarding technology sets your team up for success

SilkRoad Technology enables people to thrive in a changing workplace, and SilkRoad’s RedCarpet onboarding technology is an industry leader in engaging, training, and developing new hires and existing employees to ensure that your organization is running as efficiently and productively as possible every single day.

 

To learn more about our talent management software and see how RedCarpet onboarding technology can help you hire, train, and retain the top talent in your industry, contact SilkRoad Technology today.