How to Use GoToWebinar for Employee Onboarding
Half of all hourly workers leave new jobs in the first four months, and half of senior outside hires fail within 18 months. Onboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success Society for Human Resource Management Over 75 percent of new hires who receive formal onboarding meet their first performance milestone, while only 49 percent of new hires who are not formally onboarded meet theirs, reports icims. Properly onboarding employees is the first way to foster a productive workforce, but doing so is harder than it used to be now that business gets done in different places outside of the company headquarters. The great news is that like so many other business processes these days, it s now possible to conduct employee onboarding entirely online using web conferencing. From interviewing to training, human resources departments benefit from having an online component, whether it s for contingency planning or a part of the normal business strategy. 2
Most of new employee onboarding is about bringing people together, and as a human resources professional, you know the challenges of making these meetings happen: people are out on business trips, candidates are in other cities or schedules are jam-packed. Enter video conferencing, which increases the likelihood of getting the group to connect. An onboarded employee is a valuable employee, so it pays to streamline the onboarding process by adding an online option. Read on for suggestions on how to transfer your in-person employee onboarding program online. Interviewing with video conferences Some human resources departments want to take their interviews online so they can expand their hiring borders, assign recruiters to job openings in other offices or increase the number of interviews they can conduct in one day. Other departments seek online alternatives as part of a business continuity plan so that hiring and training don t get put off due to unforeseen circumstances. The best way to partially or fully transfer your in-person interviews online is to use a meeting platform with built-in video, like GoToMeeting. Video conferencing is a great alternative to meeting in person, because the face-to-face online environment accommodates the crucial non-verbal communication that says so much in a conversation, especially as you familiarize with someone. Research and conventional wisdom both suggest that employees get about 90 days to prove themselves in a new job. The faster new hires feel welcome and prepared for their jobs, the faster they will be able to successfully contribute to the firm s mission. Onboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success Society for Human Resource Management 3
Your GoToWebinar subscription comes with a seat of GoToMeeting, and since GoToMeeting is built to accommodate small face-to-face meetings, we recommend using GoToMeeting for interviews and GoToWebinar for group training. To properly transfer your interviews online, follow these steps: Tell your candidates that you will be connecting through video conferencing for the interview and ask them to make sure their webcam is setup. As you would in an in-person meeting, open your meeting room a few minutes early so you can get situated before beginning. Treat the interview like it s in person by starting with some small talk, moving into the interview questions and then leaving time for questions from the candidate at the end. We frequently use HDFaces video conferencing during our GoToMeeting sessions because it makes communication easier. And HDFaces works really nicely on the ipad. -Justin Riendeau Product Support Manager, Training The Braun Corporation 4
Onboarding new employees online Training employees poses even more scheduling and location challenges. Again, moving processes online eliminates a lot of the hassle and hiccups associated with organizing new employee orientation sessions. Whether you re connecting with remote workers, conducting an orientation session across different offices or just looking for a backup plan in case you can t present in person, large group web conferencing platforms like GoToWebinar can help. They eliminate the need to organize costly on-site events and coordinate travel for employees based elsewhere. 5
For maximum effectiveness in transferring your employee orientation online, consider the following: If your employee onboarding traditionally took place in all-day sessions, consider breaking the event into smaller chunks, since it s easier to keep attention online in shorter increments. Schedule a few hours of sessions monthly, so no matter when employees start, there is always an orientation for them to jump into relatively quickly. Add slides for group interaction, like Q & A, polls or group participation, to your onboarding presentations to help with engagement and information retention. Turn on your webcam. Video conferencing makes you more engaging, fosters familiarity and builds trust between the audience and presenter, which, again, can help improve retention of information. Record the sessions. You re not likely to get 100-percent attendance at any of your events, but recordings of the sessions are a great way for absent employees and participants to review the material. Making your onboarding content available on demand saves human resources departments from hosting sessions multiple times or following up individually with each employee who couldn t make it. 6
We use GoToWebinar for internal meetings and trainings involving large groups, such as field sales. I particularly like that GoToWebinar launches with everyone on mute, so I don t have to ask them to mute themselves; plus, it offers the ability to monitor audience attentiveness. - Kim Skonieczny Business Analyst, Information Systems Alexion, Pharmaceuticals, Inc. GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar help us maintain morale, promote teamwork and a sense of community and reinforce our culture in a 100-percent virtual work model. - Jason King President, Accella 7
Keeping employees updated The onboarding process is ever continuous, since processes change, programs launch and companies grow all the time. So the need for large group meetings exists beyond the initial onboarding. When companies have to gather large teams, entire departments or every employee, hosting these sessions online ensures efficiency in both event organizing and employee attendance. Again, recording the sessions allows absent employees to review the content at their convenience. It s also easier and less expensive to get attendance online. And just like in your onboarding sessions, add interaction to your large company meetings and leave time for Q & A. Connecting your organization with GoToWebinar Taking your employee onboarding process online has never been easier, more cost effective or more convenient than with GoToWebinar and GoToMeeting. Video conferencing is your answer to getting new hires onboarded early and thoroughly. It connects people, departments and organizations and complements your in-person processes. To take your employee onboarding online today, visit www.gotowebinar.com. Start free trial or Learn more Visit the GoToMeeting blog for best practices in web conferences. 2014 Citrix Online, LLC. All rights reserved. Citrix, GoToAssist, GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, GoToTraining, GoToWebinar, OpenVoice, Podio, ShareFile and RevStream are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc., or a subsidiary thereof, and are or may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ios is a trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and licensed by Apple. 8