Onboarding, although it might appear simple, has its complexity. HR executives have to deal with innumerable challenges, some of them new and unforeseen. They have to constantly churn prospective candidates to fulfill the demand. There has to be regular onboarding sessions, and candidates have to be screened, their documentation retrieved, and corporate resources allotted in a timely manner.
HR executives also have to deal with candidates not showing up for onboarding. Either the candidates are not keen to join or they have been faced with situations that prevent them from being on-boarded. In the latter case, such candidates may or may not convey their status to HR executives.
All of these situations are only a sampler of the various ways how HR people have to deal with situations. And this is where automation comes in – an automated onboarding system or HR onboarding software can help HR streamline any and all of these situations.
So what are the stages of employee onboarding? Here’s a look into these phases.
Table of Contents
Pre-onboarding
This stage starts all phases of onboarding. It is when a candidate accepts an offer. It is the period between offer letter acceptance and the official start date of the candidate in the organization. In this phase, great care is taken to keep the candidate interested in the company. It is because it is possible that the candidate may receive multiple offers from various companies.
In this phase, documents are signed, documents are requested and verified, the company performs the candidate’s employee screening etc. The hiring company will work with the candidate on their notice period details, relocation, and possibly pre-employment training requirements if any.
Preparation
It is one of those stages of employee onboarding, which is closer to the candidate’s first working day with the organization. In this stage, the candidate is introduced to the company. In this phase, the company has not received any communication from the candidate about their non-acceptance of the job role. So, the company is fairly sure that the candidate will join the organization, and takes this cue as a trigger to start the Preparation stage.
Candidates are briefed about their job role, team, team and organizational culture, working environment, facilities, benefits etc. There could be videos shared and also invitation to join certain company events as an onlooker, so as to get a feel about the company culture.
Initial onboarding
This onboarding process phase is also called new-hire orientation. It starts when the candidate joins the organization. From here on, the candidate becomes an employee. This is the employee’s first day at work. Unlike pre-onboarding, the initial onboarding phase is formal and focused. Employees have to take new hire orientations. They might even be given tests to understand their level of understanding of the company’s policies, resources, facilities, and points of contact.
A new hire will be given information on organizational structure, vision, mission, code of conduct, tools, processes, productivity applications, and their new hire buddies. During this phase, all soft and hard copies of the employees educational and experience certificates are taken, checked, and profiled.
Team orientation
This is another around of orientation once an employee is allotted a team. The team management undertakes the responsibility of orienting the new hire. The new hire is given training, information, guidance, facilities, and resources to start working. The new hire may be given small tasks to perform to help them understand the working rhythm of the organization.
During this phase, the employee could interact with various team members on-site or off-shore and get familiarized with everyone. New hires will understand team culture, goals, vision, working resources, access, code of conduct, working timings, and several other details.
Mentoring and growth
As the employee starts working, and within a couple of months, they become eligible to be mentored. They are given more responsibilities. Their opinions are used for forming the team strategy. Employees in this phase are provided an opportunity to choose their mentors. An employee can have one to a few mentors from a designated set of departments. The employee will have periodic meetings with the vendor. It serves as a means to get guidance on personal and professional growth.
Conclusion
Because it is critical to keep employees engaged and invested, an HR department should consider automating all of these phases and its workflows using an employee onboarding platform. This is the only way to scale HR operations.
