In the search for talent, first impressions matter
As organizations compete for talent, the onboarding experience can have a significant bearing on someone’s decision to join an organization and stay long-term. But many organizations struggle to deliver a good onboarding experience. That’s because onboarding processes aren’t organized around the new hire, and due to a lack of standards, experiences can vary depending on role and location. With the total cost to hire a new employee equaling up to three to four times the position’s salary, more needs to be done to deliver an onboarding experience that sets up new hires for success. So, what’s going wrong with onboarding, and, more importantly, how can you fix it?
It’s not just the responsibility of HR
Onboarding involves multiple departments, from the IT team who organize hardware configurations and system access to facilities for building access to finance for payroll and benefits and more. Onboarding requires close cooperation between the different functions, which are often using their own departmental systems. When steps are missed, this can result in delays, leaving the new hire anxious and frustrated.
Inconsistent onboarding experiences
Additionally, the new hire’s experiences can often be inconsistent throughout the preboarding stage and into their first days, weeks, and months. The submission of preboarding verification documentation isn’t always straightforward; it may be difficult for new hires to get the answers they need in those early weeks and months. This can leave them with a negative perception of the brand, impacting their productivity and increasing the risk of new hire attrition.
No single version of the truth
Often there is no one place for HR or the hiring manager to receive updates on the status of the hiring process, which can be especially cumbersome when you are handling multiple new joiners with different start dates. HR operations also face too many manual processes and must repeatedly enter information and data into multiple systems. The hiring manager doesn’t have a true understanding of what is going on, either, or is unable to provide input into the process. The handoff of tasks between siloed departments can also be difficult as they follow their own processes.
Building a seamless onboarding experience with BMC Helix
It’s our goal to provide BMC Helix customers with a way to address these onboarding challenges, and accelerate the time to value of their investment, without building everything from the ground up. Out-of-the-box, pre-configured onboarding workflows are available to orchestrate the management of tasks for key lines of business such as facilities and finance, as well as IT, HR, and the new hire. The workflows can vary based on employee persona information like location, employment type, role, etc., and configured using drag-and-drop capabilities that make the process repeatable and easy to scale.
Standardize interdepartmental workflows
HR systems of record play a vital role in maintaining the integrity of personal data and employment information. The BMC Helix onboarding solution is not designed to replace your human capital management (HCM) solution. Instead, we offer a way to standardize interdepartmental processes for onboarding employees, streamlining communications, and ensuring compliance with HR policies and procedures.
Make your new hire feel part of the team before day one
With our integrated new hire portal, you can make your new hire feel part of the team before their first day. You can avoid the frustrations of disjointed emails to manage pre-boarding communications and instead provide them with a portal, customized in your company branding, where they can log in with their own personal email account and submit documentation and complete pre-hire tasks. This enhances their experience and fosters a feeling of organizational belonging even before their first day, helping to set them up for success.
Empower your hiring manager with better visibility
Give the hiring manager and HR a single-pane-of-glass view of the onboarding status of their new hires so they can keep track of all their related onboarding tasks. They can also use the portal to make any equipment or software requests and communicate with fulfillment teams by updating tasks with comments.
Building a culture of effective and consistent onboarding
An employee’s job satisfaction begins from the moment they are hired. Adequate training, mentorship, and feedback are necessary to ensure that new hires can quickly acclimate and become valuable contributors to the organization, as well as enthusiastic stewards of the company’s brand. This requires a culture of effective and consistent onboarding.
BMC extends the value of BMC Helix with an onboarding workflow that supports the successful integration of new employees throughout the company, removes friction, standardizes processes, and supports the new hire journey from the moment they accept their offer to day one and beyond. To learn more, visit bmc.com/onboarding.
These postings are my own and do not necessarily represent BMC's position, strategies, or opinion.
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