Why faster employee onboarding is critical to your business growth strategy
Transforming your employee onboarding processes – now is the right time
The fight to secure the best talent in all industries, at all levels, has already intensified in some sectors – transportation and delivery, healthcare, FMCG – and it's about to intensify in many others as global economies move to the next phase post–pandemic.
Out–dated models hold businesses back; the admin burden is too great and candidates applying for roles expect to use technology consistent with that used in other walks of life.
The technology to digitally onboard staff exists. So what is holding businesses back in switching to the new–normal approach?
Budget? Time pressure? Lack of desire? Lack of prioritisation? The facts speak for themselves; the costs of switching are immaterial when compared to the costs of not switching.
The direct costs of slow onboarding
The costs of getting it wrong, of relying on the old ways to do the new things, are significant. An oft–cited example of how slower onboarding could affect the bottom line is that of Amazon.
If Amazon took just 10 additional days to recruit and onboard a new employee, then on–the–job–performance would drop by 10%. This would equate to a reduction in the average revenue per employee and a financial loss equating to $75,000 for each new employee. In addition, it costs money to replace employees – up to 76% of a new starter's average salary is spent on their recruitment and training, according to The Society for Human Resource Management.
It's not just the direct costs of not getting it right. Businesses want to recruit the best talent from the talent pool. Take too long to onboard and that talent could go elsewhere. Missing the right talent means not hiring the calibre of people a high performing business needs. The implication of that is substantial.
Peter Gill, Associate Director at VirtualSignature comments "If the first taste a prospective employee has of a business is an old, out–dated, onboarding system, it's very difficult to remove that bitter taste from them. Do people make decisions on where to apply based on the application process? In some cases yes! Will prospective employees hang around for a decision on an offer when another hiring company moves quicker, no. The market is too competitive."
Consider the journey the hiring manager and the new employee have to go on. Manual or digital – the choice becomes clear.
It's evident that the process will be quicker if carried out digitally, and although you can never replace human interaction, the ability to speed up the tedious yet necessary "red tape" of onboarding can only be a good thing.
How the hiring process can be accelerated
If your organisation uses digital tools for some aspects of HR, such as Payroll and Employee Benefits, but would like to add on the ability to verify ID documents and identify the holder in real–time, along with eSignatures for your offer letters, contracts, training records and the like, why not make use of a system that takes care of the complete onboarding process including form automation – one that can be easily integrated via API or used as a stand alone platform? You will save time and money on admin, not to mention IT development.
By using the VirtualSignature suite of tools (which can be tailor–made to suit your requirements) you will reduce workload, speed up the hiring process, save costs and keep your candidates engaged.
Get in Touch
If you would like to find out more about how VirtualSignature.com can help with your digital onboarding or discuss a particular solution that will fit your organisation's requirements, then give our team a call on 0333 335 5176 and we'll be pleased to demonstrate how the platform works.
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