Fundamental Facts About Scalable Workforce Onboarding You Must Be Aware Of
Onboarding is a critical stage in any business or workforce relationship. Whether it is with an employee, a service provider, a seller in a marketplace platform or another B2B channel partner, onboarding is of the utmost importance. In the frenzy of fast growth, however, companies sometimes overlook this pivotal stage. SchoolKeep’s Scalable Workforce Onboarding for Fast-Growing Brands free eBook provides all the information you need to create an amazing scalable workforce onboarding experience. The impact of a great scalable workforce onboarding experience cannot be overstated. It creates conditions for a fruitful and long-term partnership.
Onboarding is the first chance your organization gets to show why someone would want to work for or with your company. Scalable workforce onboarding also proves why both of you are going to excel together. Companies that excel at onboarding realize it is a multifaceted process. That process is contingent upon technical infrastructure, marketing savvy, user engagement, great design and effective online training. But with thoughtful planning, one step at a time, you can turn this challenge into a growth engine that differentiates you from the competition. However, there are 3 facts you should know to create an impactful scalable workforce onboarding experience.
1. The Hidden Opportunity In Onboarding
Within the thrill of fast growth, it’s not unusual for companies to react with one swift tactic, hire, hire, hire. But, to ensure these hires maintain momentum rather than stymie growth, it’s vital that human resources aren’t wasted on processes that can be automated. Scalable workforce onboarding offers a way to keep hiring scalable. Processing and training each new member can be both automated and meaningful. This helps the people who work for you or engage directly with your customers to achieve their desired outcomes. That increases revenue and controls costs. Clearly defining and communicating what your organization can do for its employees and partners is like adding rocket fuel to your company’s growth. A successful scalable workforce onboarding process also minimizes the costly problem of churn, and keeping churn under control is key to continued growth. More on that in the free eBook Scalable Workforce Onboarding for Fast-Growing Brands by SchoolKeep.
Companies that depend on external partners, such as contractors independent service providers and marketplace sellers understand they have a similar cost exposure. They also have a similar opportunity to capture more value out of these relationships. As customer success consultant and SaaS expert, Lincoln Murphy says in the context of customers, “Proper onboarding isn’t done to prevent churn; it’s done to ensure the customer achieves their desired outcome. Retention comes from that.” The same goes for relationships with your workforce and partners.
2. The User Lifecycle Explains Scalable Workforce Onboarding
Employees, partners and users typically go through a common journey or lifecycle with your company. There are certain stages in that process.
- Awareness
“I like this company and want to know more about it.” - Application
“This is an organization I can see myself working for, so I’ll fill out an application or sign up.” - Activation
“I’ve applied and am now being vetted. Great! Once I’m approved I can start the onboarding process and learn more about my new role.” - First Exchange
“I’ve completed my first assignment. The training during onboarding really helped.” - Growth And Retention
“Now that I’m feeling more confident in my job, I want to do more and grow.” - Remediation
“How can I improve? Is there more training I can take advantage of?” - Mentorship
“Now that I feel confident in my abilities, I want to help others succeed here.”
All those steps are important in your relationships with your workforce, but the most crucial to onboarding online training are activation and first exchange. These are the points where your company starts to have direct contact with someone who is interested in working with you. Therefore, this is where your time to value equation (TtV) comes together. A confident employee, service provider or seller will take on more responsibilities or work assignments or complete more sales and deepen the partnership, thereby strengthening their contributions to your bottom line. Activation and first exchange are your foundation for mutual long-term success.
3. Elements Of A Great Scalable Workforce Onboarding Process
Successful companies focus relentlessly on designing a smooth and clearly marked journey to joining the team, leaving no roadblocks to getting started. Several features come together to create a great onboarding system, but three stand out as critical, as seen in SchoolKeep's free eBook Scalable Workforce Onboarding for Fast-Growing Brands. First, the creation of a robust training program fully integrated within the onboarding workflow is fundamental for any scalable workforce onboarding experience. Automation that ensures efficient onboarding is equally important. Last but not least, data or document collection of the right information completes the puzzle of what makes an onboarding online training experience successful.
- Training
Integrating high-quality instruction with scalable workforce onboarding means partners will have the knowledge and confidence to complete their first assignment quickly. There are numerous uses and benefits to embedding training. It helps prospects complete the onboarding faster. If during onboarding, a prospect needs instruction on how to perform a specific task like uploading a needed document or photo, they can pull up a short how-to video. In addition, training can be customized to the needs of different online learners. Users are able to select modules most applicable to their needs or concerns as they onboard. They can cherry pick content relevant to their purpose, such as how your solution solves their specific business challenge, or how it helps them earn more. Don’t forget that a scalable workforce onboarding experience makes training easily accessible.
As your new hires flow through the onboarding steps, they can immediately access learning content without waiting for a trainer to visit or wading through libraries of PDFs. Naturally, today’s training isn’t just online. It must also be mobile optimized to reach employees and contractors when and where they need it. Training also demonstrates value. Training modules at the onboarding stage can underscore the benefits of joining your platform. Brief tutorials can show how your solution works and how it benefits your employees. You can also mix in case studies of others who have succeeded with your company.
- Automation
Automated onboarding enables prospects to complete the process on their own without resources to manage each step.You can concentrate your people where they are needed most, namely resolving prospects’ legitimate concerns and questions rather than overseeing rote steps, such as manually filling out a form. Recently, SchoolKeep partnered with Postmates, an online, on-demand food delivery service. Postmates wanted to speed up the onboarding process for its couriers, which at that time stretched to over a month. With condensed onboarding, Postmates and new couriers would be able to generate revenue together faster.
After Postmates implemented SchoolKeep’s digital solution, onboarding for their new couriers was reduced to just a couple of days. This included collecting all the required documents, which meant these new partners could start booking assignments immediately. Another customer, Everlaw, an online litigation tool for attorneys, integrated SchoolKeep. As a result, Everlaw’s User Advocate, Mondee Lu said, “We reduced the onboarding time for both new employees and partner organizations, while ensuring that they are well trained on our product.”
- Data Collection
Effective data collection enables the organization to pre-qualify a prospect as someone able to get value from the partnership. You may want various types of information from your new hire. Some of that information might include past experience in a similar role or confirmation that they uploaded required documents or signed contracts. In addition, employees might be asked for direct deposit information for payment. You might also want to know the employee’s purpose and what they hope to achieve by joining the team. Gathering this information also produces actionable insight. The onboarding data is a valuable resource you can share with other departments, such as product development, design, business development and sales.
Scalable workforce onboarding constitutes an effective method to fill in prospective or recently hired employees on everything they need to know about the position or the company. SchoolKeep’s Scalable Workforce Onboarding for Fast-Growing Brands eBook is the ultimate guide towards impactful scalable workforce onboarding.
