What is Onboarding?

Onboarding is the process by which new employees acquire the knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective contributors to an organization.

The Challenge of Employee Onboarding

Onboarding new employees can be a significant challenge for both the Human Resource department and Managers. This is especially true as the onboarding process can set the standard for subsequent training and career development. 

Using a manual process takes time for the onboarding personnel to gather appropriate instructional documents and ensure that a new-hire goes through the appropriate orientation process that best fits their role. Any oversights in this process can lead to a poor onboarding experience. 

The expectation of hiring managers is that the majority of new hires stay for the long haul, but this task has become even more difficult with the entrance of a new generation of workers who dread and often despise paperwork — the digital generation. Today’s top talent do hesitate till they find the right fitting job, as discovered in a recent survey by Korn Ferry, that 90% of executives find retaining new hires was an issue with turnover rates of 10-25% within just the first 6 months. 

LXP for Employee Onboarding

The main focus of a Learning Experience platform is the user and the learning experience. This can make onboarding effective and engaging. It creates an environment that is conducive to alleviating the stress that a new employee may face while starting a new job. Naturally, the smoother an experience we can provide to a new hire, the better the likelihood of retaining talented employees. Let us explore some of the best reasons to use LXP for Employee Onboarding

1. Keeping New-hires aligned with Role Clarity

While orientation programs are an essential component of effective onboarding, they often fail to give new employees a clear understanding of their role within the organization. A keen understanding of their role can help employees fit into the company with ease and improve their confidence. Within a virtual team, the clarity of individual roles and expectations may decline, providing the right information during onboarding can help remedy this.

2. Preventing information overload on the first day

Every individual is nervous on the first day of a new job. This Allied Workforce Mobility Survey found that just 58% of companies provided clear job titles and expectations for employees. Besides, only 39% established milestones and set clear goals for new employees. 

The orientation process, onboarding paperwork, learning new processes, and meeting the team members is often crammed into a day or over a few days before the employee is passed on to their respective roles. A nervous newcomer may also be hesitant to seek clarifications about the processes and protocols of the organization. An electronic solution, such as an LXP, stores all of the onboarding documents securely so that it is within reach of the new-hires when they need it.

3. Introducing the Organizational Culture

Using an LXP for onboarding a new-hire allows us to create an environment that is conducive for learning and introduce the organization’s culture of continuous learning and development. The personalized approach of an LXP can make onboarding targeted and relevant to individual roles. Perhaps more importantly, it facilities a change in approach from onboarding as a mere due process towards career development in a new organization.

4. Encouraging Self-Onboarding

Self-onboarding allows a new employee to go through the orientation and training material at their own pace ahead of their first day at work. While letting employees bear the responsibility of onboarding, they should be encouraged to think about their roles in the process.

This means users become productive sooner and feel more ready and comfortable at the new job. These tactics also reduce stress and encourage individuals to become actively involved with the strategies and the process. 

5. User Engagement

Increase Accessibility

LXPs offer constant access to training resources. They work across platforms and devices, making good use of the near-ubiquity of mobile, smart devices. LXPs recognize that learners carry a learning tool with them all the time, wherever they go. This radically extends the reach of onboarding training and allows new employees to complete training in their own time at their own pace. And if they need to refresh their memories or need more information, they can easily access a piece of microlearning that they can consume in a matter of minutes — at work and on the go. This enhanced access to learning increases employees’ responsibility and control for their onboarding.

Reboarding refers to the process of bringing individuals back into the workplace after they have been away for some time.