If you aren’t using automation to help speed up your hiring process, you’re missing out on top talent. By using automation, recruiters and HR departments will continue to focus on creating a completely seamless experience for new hires as they move through recruitment, induction, onboarding, and training; but not necessarily in that order.
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Boundaries between the four will blur as organizations set their own paths on a per-role basis. No two roles are necessarily the same, so businesses will require new hires to undergo different stages of the process at different times. Anwar Khalil, of MyRecruitment+, shares some top automation trends to watch in the year ahead.
Khalil says, “We are also noticing that companies have different views on what constitutes training, onboarding, and induction. What may be considered training for some companies, could be considered induction for others. This overlap requires software that can be molded to suit both the business and the needs of that role, so it’s really up to the HR specialists, business leaders, and hiring teams to design what the process looks like for each position.”
Flexible Technology That Provides Multiple Funnels
Organizations now expect their onboarding software to be flexible enough to create bespoke funnels throughout the hiring and onboarding process. HR departments and hiring managers want to be able to set the funnel at the “request to hire” stage, then the software prompts various departments as required throughout the employee journey. This can mean setting multiple tasks to be carried out simultaneously or in order of priority, only moving to the next stage once an important element has been completed.
For example, a large mining corporation may require all new hires working underground to complete mandatory health and safety training online before they arrive at a site on their first day of work. New hires in the childcare industry may have a funnel whereby they must have completed background checks prior to receiving an employment contract. This will be particularly important as we see sectors, such as the senior care community services, enter a huge growth phase over the coming year.
The funnel takes care of bringing HR, IT, payroll, facilities, and any other departments together to make sure that the new hire has been set up on all systems, has access to laptops, phones, company cars, security passes, and whatever else the new hire needs to hit the ground running.
Communication Is King
Onboarding technology will take care of seamless communication management between various internal stakeholders as well as the new employee. The software will continue to act as a single communications hub for the candidate, ensuring various stakeholders understand their role in the candidate onboarding experience and act accordingly.
Software with an instant-messaging service will be a priority for all users, supporting real-time collaboration between HR function and hiring managers, while also recording conversations that may otherwise be held in-person or over the phone. Instant messaging will also reduce the length of a company’s time-to-hire which in turn means financial savings and lowers the chance of missing out on great candidates.
Creating bespoke templates will ensure consistency within a business and speed up the communications process, but there will still be enough flexibility to override a preset communications process on a per-hire basis.
Offboarding Integration
HR departments work tirelessly to create funnel systems that bring all internal stakeholders together for the onboarding process, so why should they create a whole new system for offboarding? HR departments are looking for software that takes care of the employee from hire-to-retire, which includes an employee leaving the organization.
The same software will automate the offboarding experience to include communications between business units for account closures and restricting access to hardware and software. The software will also manage communications with the employee, for example making sure an exit interview is conducted in a timely manner, recorded, and feedback reported to appropriate business units.
Again, the multi-funnel system will enable HR specialists to set up a bespoke path at hire phase, so the system can seamlessly take care of the offboarding process with minimal manual intervention.