SIMPLIFYING EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING

Transcription

1 SIMPLIFYING EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING Eliminate the paperwork and automate workflow Abstract Learn how savvy HR organizations are using technology to drive efficiency and turn a tedious process into a great experience for new-hires. Author: Bennett Klein 0

2 Contents Introduction... 2 Challenges... 2 A Better Approach... 2 Top 10 Considerations for an Onboarding System... 3 Benefits... 5 Next Steps... 6 Summary... 6 About Advanced Processing & Imaging... 6 About the Author

3 Introduction Onboarding refers to the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective organizational members and insiders. Tactics used in this process include formal meetings, lectures, videos, printed materials, or computer-based orientations to introduce newcomers to their new jobs and organizations. Completing and signing all the required city, state, federal and company forms as part of the process is typically the first step after the new employee receives an offer letter or phone call from Human Resources (HR). It is also typically the most tedious and time-consuming part. Errors or omissions in forms, misdirection by staff or miscommunication between departments impacts not only the new employee, but can impact efficiency across the organization. Challenges While each organization has their own process for bringing new-hires on board, it seems that no matter what size the organization, most still employ the arduous task of having the employee read, complete and sign a wide range of paper forms and documents. Based on interviews with HR organizations across a variety of industries, many said there could be up to twenty or more individual forms and documents that need to be completed and signed by new-hires. Many of the form requirements are driven by U.S. city and state regulations which adds complexity if your organization is geographically distributed. Once forms are completed, HR staff need to then manually track, review, copy, distribute and store them. This paper-intensive manual process is costly, takes too long and typically lacks consistency. Worse yet, interdepartmental communications and action item dependencies are also at risk. If the organization is geographically distributed, you have additional costs for mailing original forms and documents to headquarters. Bottom line, an ineffective employee onboarding process can impact the entire organization and leave new employees, staff and management frustrated. A Better Approach Savvy HR organizations have already discovered ways to simplify and accelerate this process using business process automation (BPA) and document management (DM) technologies. There are a wide variety of solutions in the market ranging from core BPA and DM technology platforms to turn-key Employee Onboarding solutions that can be more simply tailored to the organization s process and forms. In either case, there are a number of critical considerations that should be researched before making a decision on an automated onboarding solution. The following are what I consider the most important criteria. 2

4 Top 10 Considerations for an Onboarding System 1) Electronic Forms Creation One of the main goals of an Employee Onboarding technology solution is to eliminate the mountain of paper forms and documents that must be printed, copied, distributed, tracked, stored and protected by HR staff. The solution should allow for quick and easy creation of online/electronic government and company forms. That includes city, state and federal tax forms, employment policy forms, benefits and payroll forms, and many others. Having the system automatically identify required fields within these forms to employees and staff helps make HR reviews quick and painless and accelerates the process. Employees and staff also need to be able to electronically sign each electronic form during the process. 2) Document Capture The Onboarding solution also needs to be able to capture employee provided documents such as high school and college transcripts, social security cards, drivers licenses, passports, and other proof of identity and U.S. residency documents. These electronic documents are typically stored in the employees electronic folders along with all completed forms and other employee records. 3) Process Automation As mentioned earlier, while many of the forms will be the same or similar in nature across different businesses and organizations, the way each organization processes these forms and drives employee onboarding may be very different. Therefore the Onboarding solution should provide a way to define and automate the entire Onboarding process including all forms, internal and external communications, workflow, tasks and task owners. At the core, the solution needs to offer a way to specify: Both parallel and sequential processing Task ownership by individual or group/department Task deadlines and escalation process Exception handling Cross-department and external communications via 3

5 4) Employee Access In most cases, forms completion by the new employee is the first step of the Onboarding process. Therefore the solution must be able to present all forms electronically, typically from the organization s Intranet. But not all employees will have authorized access to the organization s Intranet so the Onboarding solution also needs to provide a separate webportal to accommodate this type of employee. 5) Forms Control The system needs to be able to be configured to automatically present all the appropriate forms and documents required for review, completion and signature based on any number of employee characteristics defined by HR. These could include job title, department, geographic location, and others. 6) Forms Review Process Once electronic forms are completed, they are typically reviewed by HR and other staff for completeness and accuracy. The review process is just one part of the Onboarding process and must include forms tracking and completion, multiple levels of review and signatures, parallel and sequential processing, rejections, communications and exception handing. 7) Inter-department Communications The Onboarding process typically involves numerous departments within an organization. It can include Information Technology (IT) to provide network access, computer resources and phone; Finance for payroll and company credit card, HR for benefits and employee records, Facilities for security access, parking permits and office space; and many others. The Onboarding solution should allow for automated inter-departmental communications, internal electronic forms and specific task assignments all based on specific employee characteristics and company policies. 8) Business Application Integration Most organizations input new employee information into a wide variety of business systems. HR, Finance, IT and Legal departments may have their own systems or modules of an enterprise-wide ERP (Enterprise Resource Management) system. Having different staff from different departments enter employee information into disparate systems is not only time-consuming but includes a level of risk based on simple human error. The Onboarding system should have the ability to extract information provided by HR and/or new employees on the forms and automatically update multiple business systems without having to perform manual data entry. In some cases where the business applications do not offer any Application Programming Interface (API) or 4

6 automated way to upload the data, the employee information can be captured in a simple spreadsheet and then uploaded by the department staff to reduce risk of errors. 9) Tracking and Reporting A critical part of any Onboarding solution is Process, Task and Forms level tracking and reporting. HR staff, managers and executives need a quick and easy way to track new employees as they proceed through the process to ensure fastest return on investment (ROI) and productivity for new employees. A good Onboarding solution will offer information that can be used for business process management (BPM) so that executives can track and measure staff performance and tailor the process to maximize business efficiency and reduce costs. 10) Document Retention, Compliance and Auditing Most businesses and non-profit organizations are required to maintain employee records for a minimum specified time to meet regulatory compliance requirements. Sometimes the business itself will require document retention for litigation purposes and risk mitigation. In any case, the Onboarding solution should offer document retention policies based on document type. This type of solution automatically notifies staff that certain employee documents have met their retention goals and may now be deleted. It is rare that the system will automatically delete these records without having staff authorize deletion first. With a paper-based Onboarding solution, documents could have been copied, distributed and stored in a variety of locations making deletion of documents to meet compliance goals virtually impossible. The solution should also allow for document tracking, meaning once documents are completed and stored, be able to track who has accessed employee documents and when. This is great for auditing and compliance. Benefits It should be clear that organizations that use an automated and paperless Employee Onboarding solution will see many benefits. Speed the onboarding process to accelerate ROI for new employees. Gain management insight across the organization. Improve cross-functional communication and task completion. Increase staff productivity and satisfaction. Eliminate having to manually file, retrieve, copy and distribute paper forms and documents. 5

7 Reduce costs to better utilize budgets. Repurpose printer, paper, toner and copier costs. Better address compliance requirements. Define formal automated document retention and access control policies. Improve records protection and security. Backup and protect employee documents and reports the same way you protect your employee information in your HR system. Next Steps The first step in preparing for an Automated Employee Onboarding solution is to work with your business analyst, operations department, outside consultant or Onboarding Solution Provider to document the entire Onboarding process including tasks, task owners and required communications. Benchmark your current process. How long does it typically take a new employee to complete all forms and have HR and other departments process the forms and complete their required Onboarding tasks? While this step is not required, it will be valuable when management, executives and even constituents (if you are a non-profit or government agency) ask for a return on investment (ROI) for your expenditure and time. Inventory all required forms and documents and organize them based on employee characteristics (described above in the Electronic Forms Creation section). Clearly this is an ongoing process as government and corporate rules and forms evolve over time. Define your retention policies for all these documents once they have been identified. This is the best time to perform this. Determine access control and security policies who will have access to what documents. Use the considerations list above to evaluate the technology solutions you are investigating. The list above is not all-inclusive but is a good way to evaluate the core technology. Summary Once you have automated your Onboarding Process and converted from paper to digital forms and documents, you will see immediate returns. From accelerating the Onboarding process and getting new employees productive faster to increasing staff productivity and reducing costs, your organization will become more efficient and effective. About Advanced Processing & Imaging For almost 20 years, Advanced Processing & Imaging (API) has been helping businesses, government agencies and K-12 school districts increase business efficiency and reduce costs. API develops and sells process automation and document management solutions designed specifically for Human Resources. Our Employee Onboarding solution will accelerate the process, increase staff productivity and reduce operating costs. It includes an Onboarding web portal for new-hires, converts all paper government and company forms and documents to editable online PDFs, enables electronic signature and review, and automates document workflow and communications. For more information visit 6

8 About the Author Bennett Klein has more than 20 years experience in product management, product marketing and corporate communications for large and small technology companies selling to businesses, government, education and non-profit organizations. 7