Digital technology is changing the way companies must operate to be successful.
Central to this is having a top notch digital onboarding platform.
The sooner an organization is able to onboard new hires to their software and applications effectively, the quicker employees can become productive and engaged members of staff.
A suitable employee onboarding platform has become integral to business performance.
The logic behind using an employee onboarding platform
According to a 2017 report, poor onboarding platforms have cost companies between $483 and 605 billion dollars. These are astronomical sums. The research shows that employees are unhappy, disengaged and therefore unproductive.
These poor outcomes can be avoided by incorporating an effective employee onboarding platform into an enterprise’s HR strategy. Companies need to stop treating onboarding as an afterthought, or an add-on to orientation, and educate themselves on the most up-to-date onboarding software available.
Enterprises today are losing too many employees within their first 12 months of hire.
Millennials are notorious “job hoppers” and, since they make up a significant portion of the workforce, it’s time to think outside the box when it comes to staff retention.
The threat of employee churn begins before your new hire even sets foot inside their workplace. Your communications prior to day 1 are a chance to engage the new hire immediately. Your onboarding platform is another.
The sooner they feel engaged and a valuable member of the workforce, the more likely you are to retain them.
Companies who have properly integrated onboarding platforms into their operations have retained over 50% of their employees in the first year of hire.
Businesses that fail to use a digital onboarding platform effectively lose employees at an alarming rate within the first year of hiring them. It’s time to buck this trend.
Turning around poor employee performance
John Pierce, head of recruiting at Stifel, writes in Forbes that all hope is not lost. These alarming revenue losses can be turned around if companies follow some practical advice.
Pierce says companies must indoctrinate their new employees with their corporate vision. An immediate and effective way to do this is to use digital onboarding software for new employees.
Why does this strategy work? Because by using a digitally-forward and engaging employee onboarding platform, you’re sending the message to new hires from day 1 that their training needs are a priority.
A successful onboarding experience establishes from the get-go what the organization expects of new hires and what employees can expect from the company. When it comes to today’s workforce, first impressions are critical.
In a second 2017 study, 53% of HR experts polled said that companies who properly onboard new hires see employee engagement rise overall. Greater engagement leads to increased productivity and higher annual profits (by 26% according to a 2015 report).
Another startling benefit was a whopping 233% customer retention rate.
The onboarding process must be structured, strategic, and properly timed to successfully introduce employees to digital systems and company culture.
Integrated onboarding platforms bring unity to all levels of management and non-management employees. The process should be logical and systematic, but with the appropriate amount of personalization.
The proper amount of time must be invested into each new employee. If the onboarding process is rushed or fragmented, it will breed disengagement and a splintered company culture.
This is where the employee onboarding platform comes in.
Using a DAP as your employee onboarding platform
Today’s enterprise systems, operations, and business models are increasingly digital. If yours aren’t yet, they soon will be or it will signal the death knell for your business.
The DAP, or Digital Adoption Platform, is an incredibly powerful onboarding mechanism because it can be applied to any enterprise software or digital tool.
It provides contextual guidance to new hires who are attempting to use these unfamiliar systems, actually at the time of need. And it generates insights for the organization into adoption and onboarding problems.
Using sophisticated AI and machine learning, the DAP understands individual user behavior and can deliver personalized assistance. This vastly improves engagement as well as accelerating the user’s time to competency.
In terms of solving the employee churn problem of today’s enterprises, the DAP is a “blue sky thinking” digital solution that actually produces results.
Pam O’Connor, Assistant Vice President Instructional, Design & Technology Supervisor, at First Midwest Bank knows how well the DAP works as an employee onboarding platform. She says it provides “efficiency and guidance” within their organization.
To sum up
The bottom line for every company wanting to reduce employee churn and up engagement is to use an effective employee onboarding platform.
Bringing new employees up to full speed and indoctrinating them into company culture quickly is the ultimate goal. This ensures the organization isn’t losing money due to lack of productivity.
Successful adoption of enterprise systems and digital tools is what makes turns both the technology and the users into assets. This is where the Digital Adoption Platform fits in.
The DAP promises more productive and happier employees. It improves engagement and contributes to better retention rates. All of this can positively impact the bottom line.
