When is an employee most excited to work, eager to learn, and likely to listen?
Yes, you know it. It’s when they’ve just joined a company.
Employees' motivation is at an all-time high during the onboarding phase, and they’ll do everything you tell them.
On the flip side, though, an employer just wants the honeymoon period to be over as soon as possible and skip to the phase where the employee can start being profitable to the company. (Basically, the time when they’ve lost all that new hire excitement.)
However, as tedious (and boring) as it seems, you must never disregard a new hire’s need for seamless onboarding.
Almost 70% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they have a good onboarding experience. And 58% are more likely to be with the company even after three years.
How can you be one of those companies employees who don’t want to leave?
Glad you asked, and let’s find out.
What is Employee Onboarding Software?
Employee onboarding software is a start-to-finish digital equivalent of the old-school onboarding process. (We say “equivalent,” but honestly, we meant superior.)
No, seriously.
Employee onboarding software is a digital dashboard for managing, tracking, and ensuring a new hire’s smooth transition into your company.
So, imagine everything from:
- the corny stuff: welcoming a new employee into the company
- the clerical stuff: managing paperwork, background checks, etc.
- the educational stuff: offering training modules, reinforcing company values, etc.
All of it - in one place. And all the employee has to do to start is to log in.
Standard features of employee onboarding software
Think about everything you would need to welcome a new hire into your team. Now think about everything they would need from you.
Now think about all of this being done by one piece of software.
This is basically what employee onboarding software does. It does everything.
But what are some of the things it does well, you ask?
Now you know why we said superior.
Why Is Good Employee Onboarding Training Software Important?
Employee onboarding software would be emailed if the old-school HR process was a mailing service. It is faster, smoother, has little room for error, can be tracked easily, has all your mailing history, and can be accessed directly from wherever you are.
It makes you wonder, right? Why would someone even use a mailing service when emails exist?
Well, you tell us.
Unless you’re already convinced. This would be a shame because we have so many more points to make about why you need good employee onboarding software.
But for now, let’s begin with a story.
Thermo Fisher Scientific is an American multinational biotechnology company with annual revenues of $20 billion and 70,000 employees. (In case you didn’t notice, that’s a lot!)
Thermo Fisher couldn’t afford clunky, unclear, and inadequate software training. And since it was spread across multiple locations, this training needed to be provided in different languages.
How did they solve this?
You got it - through an employee onboarding training software.
But how exactly did it help?
The new employee onboarding software offered a tailored training experience that could suit each employee’s needs - keeping in mind things like the new hires’ role, level of experience, preferred language, and the amount of information they need.
This helped them eliminate their traditional training period, about six months!
Benefits of an Employee Onboarding Platform
At this point, we’re pretty sure we’ve got you convinced.
But there’s just so much to tell you, and we don’t believe in incomplete knowledge, just like your employees wouldn’t when they have a smooth and engaging learning experience.
So now that we know why good employee onboarding software is important let’s talk about what’s in it for you exactly.
How will it help your company, and what can it do that a traditional onboarding process cannot?
1. Reduce learning time considerably
DB Schenker, a global logistics provider, has 72,000 employees spread across 2,000 global locations.
New hires were overwhelmed by the amount of information they needed to learn - just onboarding them onto the Oracle Sales Cloud system would take six to eight hours.
Enter a new employee onboarding software.
Through a combination of learning techniques such as walk-throughs, videos, clever tips, surveys, etc., new employees learned new processes in real-time while they were completing tasks. You can imagine how it helped overall productivity for a company of its size!
2. Reduce scope of error by new hires
Tedious, boring, and outdated training methods are often breeding ground for underqualified, inefficient employees. Using techniques such as gamified tools, quizzes, surveys, and video-based learning, you can boost product knowledge and improve the chances of retention.
This is especially helpful in industries that undergo changes every few years, are compliance heavy, and need employees to be constantly updated with changes to products and services.
3. Reduce costs and effort invested in onboarding
Classroom training or on-the-job training methods often require a senior employee or ‘onboarding buddy’ to invest their time in training new hires.
With employee onboarding software, new employees can simply refer to standardized training modules on their own, thereby reducing the investment needed from the company.
While this is an intelligent strategy for everyone, it would benefit companies that hire seasonal employees and companies that hire new employees regularly.
So yes, investing in employee onboarding software sounds like an excellent idea, but is it a fantastic idea for you? You can’t just do something because everyone else is doing it.
Even if everyone else has a good reason.
When Does it Make Sense to Invest in Employee Onboarding Software?
Honestly, good employee onboarding software could work for anyone in any industry. It’s just an efficient way of seamlessly integrating new hires into the team.
But there are some cases where it works well. It would be weird not to have onboarding software in any of these cases.
Let’s do a quick test. Think about how many of these problems sound relatable to you:
- You want to switch to a remote/ hybrid model of working
- Bringing a new hire into your team causes more anxiety than excitement
- You work in a heavy compliance industry (e.g. hospitality, sales, automotive, etc.)
- You’re experiencing a lot of mistakes in the onboarding phase
- You need the employee to be profitable as soon as possible
If you’re still reading, we’re guessing you related to one or more of these (very common) onboarding issues.
Great, so we know the problem. We know that we want to solve it.
Now let’s find out how to solve it correctly (and efficiently, smoothly, also permanently).
How to Choose the Best Employee Onboarding Software?
Even though we’ve been talking about how an employee onboarding software is the superior digital version of the old-school HR process, we can’t speak for all of them.
You have to choose the superior one amongst the hundreds of (some very average, some very sophisticated) options.
Remember, a digital solution that isn’t well-suited for the users and the company might be worse than no solution.
There’s a lot (in terms of being both functional and fun) you can expect from good employee onboarding software, but there are a few things you just shouldn’t compromise on. Especially if you want the best.
Phew, that was quite a lot of knowledge sharing.
I wish we had a gamified training module for this. ;)
The Best Employee Onboarding Software on the Market
Okay, now that you’re almost an expert on knowing how to choose that one employee onboarding software for your company…
We’ll just lay out the facts, and you can choose what works best for you, based on the features that would best suit what you need.
1. Tovuti
Surprise, surprise.
You thought we’d talk about all these excellent benefits of good employee onboarding and not mention Tovuti?
But we said we’d share facts, so let’s talk about the features offered by Tovuti.
- Built-in course authoring: Tovuti offers authoring tools that allow you to quickly create different types of learning content within the software itself. Just like making a PPT.
- Bring your content: If you don’t want to create new content on Tovuti, you can simply add your existing material (videos, PPTs, handbooks, etc.) and use our other features!
- Course tracking: You can monitor your employees’ progress through their courses and generate easy-to-read reports.
- Personalized learner portals: Employees will have their dashboard and can be individually assigned checklists, materials, certificates, badges, and more.
Basically, Tovuti offers a quick, easy, and effective way of creating learning modules for new employees, which can be integrated with any employee onboarding software.
We take care of the educational stuff; they care for the rest. Together, we offer the best. (Okay, yes, that was kind of lame. But you get it.)
But - and this is a big one - Tovuti can stand on its own for employee onboarding. If you just want to get right to work, we can do everything for you.
Pricing starts at $700 / month (accurate as of 04/2022).
2. BambooHR
BambooHR is one of the most highly rated employee onboarding software in the market right now. It collects and organizes all information you would need throughout the onboarding process and focuses on creating a smooth experience, both for the employee and employer.
It offers:
- Preboarding packages: These include welcome emails, IT checklists, paperwork, and other formalities that can be completed even before the employee’s first day. So they can have a good one.
- Personalized onboarding experience: Their New Hire Packet Templates make it easy to customize onboarding for different job types, departments, locations, and anything else you’d need.
- Onboarding tasks: You can send onboarding tasks to new hires to complete at their own pace, so they know exactly what they are supposed to do and aren’t running around clueless!
Besides being an excellent HR employee onboarding software, BambooHR is compatible with Tovuti’s learning system. This means you can use their software for the clerical stuff and Tovuti for the educational stuff.
You kids call it a crossover, right?
Pricing is not disclosed, but you can get a free quote from them.
3. Eddy
Eddy is an all-in-one employee onboarding software that can be used to hire and onboard employees. Because of its simple, intuitive interface, employees can help onboard themselves without having to take help while also keeping track of all onboarding tasks.
Intrigued? More on that below:
- Self-onboarding: If needed, the new hire can do everything from creating their profile to digitally signing documents. It saves time and resources for your company and gives the new employee control over the process!
- Trackable new hire task list: Being able to track how many onboarding tasks are left makes things easier for new employees, as well as the employer.
- First-day messages: Team members can share first-day notes to the new hire to make them feel welcome, even before they start working.
Not bad for a virtual onboarding, huh?
Pricing starts at $8 per employee per month plus a $49 base fee per month (accurate as of 04/2022).
4. Namely
Explicitly designed for mid-sized businesses (25-1,000 employees), Namely brings you everything you need in one place. Its features cater to solving the challenges mid-sized businesses face, such as a disengaged, less productive workforce and employee frustration due to smaller paychecks.
What are the solutions it offers?
- Employee engagement: The software has tools that engage, develop, and unify your workplace, even in a remote setting. They do this through social networking tools within the company that allows employees to share good news, achievements, goals, appreciation, and more!
- Compliance: Namely has dedicated tools that protect your business from risk and legal problems, such as handbooks, compliance libraries, and law alerts. Who doesn’t like being in safe hands?
- HR analytics: Easily readable, intuitive dashboards and reports enable your HR department to analyze existing strategies and drive innovation. Knowing how you’re performing is always helpful, right?
However, Namely doesn’t offer learning or assessment modules, which can help a mid-sized business.
Well, that’s okay because Tovuti does, which also integrates with Namely. (Crossover #2, but who’s counting?)
Request a call for pricing.
5. Click Boarding
Click Boarding is another great start-to-end employee onboarding software, especially if you are looking for personalization. How does it help you create a bespoke onboarding experience for your employees?
Let’s find out:
- Personalized employee dashboards: Click Boarding allows you to create workflows specific to each employee based on role location, level, stage in their journey, or any other attribute you can think of.
- Design your process: While you can use their available templates, you are free to choose the flow and tasks required for your employees’ onboarding journeys.
- Creating a connected experience: You can keep new hires engaged with your brand through features like welcome videos, office maps, cultural norms, and other content.
This is an excellent pick for you if you’re only looking for software to handle the clerical stuff and not need to train or educate your employees while onboarding them.
Summary
Okay, one last time, just because we like to be thorough.
Employee onboarding software is a digital solution for enhancing the onboarding experience for new employees.
Good onboarding software creates shares and stores everything a unique hire needs; for instance, onboarding checklists, required paperwork, compliance checks, training modules, tracking learnings, etc.
The aim is to provide a smooth, fast and seamless onboarding for a new hire.
You need it because:
- It’s faster, more efficient, and has a higher return on investment when compared to traditional HR processes
- It ensures that new employees retain more knowledge, make fewer mistakes, and learn faster.
- It improves the overall onboarding experience of a new hire, making them more productive, more efficient, and more likely to stay with you for longer.
If you want to level up your onboarding employee software, check out Tovuti's demo today.
