Top Employee Onboarding Software Functionality You Should Expect

Successful employee onboarding involves understanding all of the steps required to prepare new hires before they start and during their first hours, days and weeks in the team. These steps will vary depending on the nature of work your organization undertakes, the roles that individuals will be performing within your team and the design of your current onboarding process.

In supporting the onboarding process, new starters need to have a clear understanding of the role and expectations, access to any required training and knowing they have support in getting up to speed.

In working with a range of diverse teams across all industries, following is our Top 5 features you should expect from employee onboarding software like the CentricMinds platform.

Step 1 – Before your new employee starts

Your new employee has signed your offer, and everything is go! This is an exciting time because most recruiters and senior team members have investment a lot of energy in identifying the most suitable candidate, and both the candidate and you have already envisaged working collaboratively together. There are important communication steps your employee onboarding software should provide once the new candidate has accepted.

Internal Communication

Informing your existing team they will soon have a new member joining them is key to ensuring everyone understands the role and responsibilities of the new team member. This announcement should be a formal news item published on your company Intranet, or via a Slack or Teams notification.

Onboarding Extranet

To improve the transition for the new team member from their previous role to your new role, provide your new employee with access to your company onboarding extranet. The extranet environment will provide initial employee forms; contact details, personal information, bank account information and more. The submission of this form data is captured into an HR workflow process where key information is delivered to HR, Payroll & IT team members within the organization.

Company Mobile App

When using the CentricMinds platform, all new employees are instructed to download and install the CentricMinds iOS or Android app. Credentials for accessing the app are sent to a new company email address which the new employee can access before their first day.

CentricMinds Mobile App

All employees using the CentricMinds Intranet Software platform are provided with the native app for iOS and Android. Accessing the app enables new employees to access key content including team directory, operational documents and more.

Accessing the app will provide them with content related to their role; understanding of projects & clients, employee handbook, information about how the company operates, etc. The mobile app also enables the new employee to take a selfie for uploading to the Team Directory on the Intranet.

Step 2 – Their first day

Your new employee is here! There are probably some nerves from both parties as the leap of faith taken by both parties is now in effect.

Internal Communication

Welcome the new team member through a morning announcement via the Intranet. Remind the whole team/company that the new employee is starting today.

Mentors should be allocated to walk the new employee through the first few hours of the day, depending on the role and level of knowledge sharing required to ensure the new team member can start moving forward with confidence.

Depending on the size of your team, you may want to consider organizing a morning tea/coffee session so they can meet other team members in a casual setting, or an afternoon catchup over Zoom with the wider team once the mentor and new employee have had suitable time to work through the needs of the first day.

Employee Onboarding Checklist

Within the CentricMinds Intranet platform, every team member has their own profile landing page within the Intranet.

My profile

All employees are provided with their own profile page within CentricMinds. Users can manage their subscriptions, posts, and personal contact information which can synchronize with your Microsoft Active Directory or Google People Directory environment.

For new hires, accessing this profile page for the first time (usually on their first day), they are provided with access to complete a range of online forms relating to authenticating their access to other internal systems; CRM for Sales, Marketing Automation platforms for Marketers, Development tools for developers and maybe an LMS for ongoing learning and development.

Step 3 – Departmental Content, Forms and Workflows  

The onboarding process you provide will play such a fundamental role in the overall employee experience. Low levels of employee engagement have been linked to an increased risk in employee turnover, with as much as 30% of new starters leaving their new role within 90 days of their first day.

Once your new employee is up and running, in most cases they will be part of a departmental team; Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance, IT, etc.

Personalization

Welcome the new team member when they first access your key environment.

Employee Onboarding software should deliver targeted content based on where the new team member is located within your organization, and the content they are presented with should be tailored to be a combination of both individual content (personalized to them), departmental content (what’s happening within their respective department) and finally, organizational content (what’s happening across the entire operation that they should be informed about).

For the employee, they will be keen to understand what their personal development path looks like. How they will master their role, how the information they are presented with plays into this process and how they can connect with other team members to build productive relationships and how this impacts the success of the whole team.

Forms & Workflow

Onboarding employees can be a complex process, depending on the size of the organization and the roles that new starters are performing. Employee onboarding software should make it simple to design, create and publish forms and workflows for capturing and managing discrete onboarding tasks. Employee workflows can ensure new starters transition into their respective roles in the most efficient way possible.

We’ve worked with many diverse teams to successfully onboard new team members and ensure they know what’s required from them to ensure retention and long-term success within your organization.