So your company wants to develop an onboarding module?

Great.

So where to start?

• Once a candidate has been offered?
• Once a candidate is hired?

How about as mentioned here (and in the Sound of Music), from the very beginning (a very good place to start).

Onboarding has been defined as “… a process through which new employees move from being organizational outsiders to becoming organizational insiders. Onboarding refers to the process that helps new employees learn the knowledge, skills, and behaviors they need to succeed in their new organizations.”

Thank you APA handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, Vol 3. Click here for a non sound of music link.

Onbording is not simply an e-solution tacked onto the end of the recruitment process. Onboarding is not about moving forms online with e-signatures replacing black ink.

Onboarding starts before you have even thought about sourcing your candidates and finishes long after they have sat through orientation.

With this in mind, the goal of a successful on boarding module should be to better help acclimatise your new hires to your company in an easy and enjoyable way while providing your company with metrics that can be used for reporting and improvements (Monitoring and Mutilation).

IS solutions should never be put in place without considering the process and your process should work with your systems.

What should make up my Onboarding Module and Process?

An Easy to use, Logical Work flow

All people in your organisation who play a part in onboarding and most importantly the candidate themselves need to be able to access, use and understand the your module and the process built within it.

Tasks for the managers need to occur in line with tasks for the candidate. A delay in completing something on the business side should not delay the candidate filling out or accessing pertinent information.

Constant Messages, Information and Brand

From the day the geniuses in your marketing department, internal comms, HR offices or elsewhere come up with your employment brand, you need to ensure that the experience any new candidate receives is in harmony with this.

Everything up to the point of hiring a new candidate; be it the look and feel of the ATS to the way the interview has been conducted should have been reflecting your brand. A big part of this is ensuring consistent messages are delivered throughout.

Once the candidate has accepted your offer, it is not the time to stop selling your company. Ensure your onboarding tool reflects the same brand and delivers those same messages.

Concise and Relevant Information

Isn’t it great you now have an online delivery tool for the information your new hires can read and sign off off. Having this material available for candidates is a great way of engaging with them. Remember though, just because you can put it online doesn’t mean you should.

The same way handing a new employee a stack of paper and a large handbook can be overwhelming in a welcome pack or on a 1^st day, so too does having to read too much information online.