Get an HR edge in the great talent war with a savvy digital onboarding experience

As a technical recruiter with more than 10 years of experience, Crystal Ohikhuare knows firsthand the critical role a positive on-boarding process plays in retaining great talent. In one recent example, she helped place four software developers with a Dallas-based company. Within 90 days, two of them had left. “Their reasons really boiled down to the fact that their onboarding experience had crashed and burned,” she said.

Not only was the process lengthy and tedious, but it also put much of the onus on the new recruits to ensure they checked every box prior to their start date — a major red flag. “It gave them insight into how this company views culture and how it does business,” she said. “And obviously it’s operating like it’s in the Dark Ages. As people in tech, they feared for their careers.”

In the end, the quick exits cost the company $85,000 in finders’ fees alone. Harder to calculate but no less real is the long-term damage to businesses’ reputations these kinds of experiences incur as jilted former employees go on to warn their fellow software engineers about the brand.

Research shows Ohikhuare’s experience maps neatly onto larger trends. According to a 2019 PwC survey on the future of recruiting, half of employees in high-demand fields say they’ve pulled the plug on a new job because of a bad onboarding experience. And while there may have been a time when some businesses could get away with these kinds of losses, that time has long since passed. A white-hot talent war has only intensified as a record number of workers have been quitting their jobs in the ongoing Great Resignation.

To compete for the best talent, brands must turn their attention to their onboarding process, says Ohikhuare. “Boomers are retiring,” she said. “The next generation thrives in a world of seamless integration.” They’re accustomed to streamlined customer experiences, and they expect the same from onboarding experiences.

Easy-to-access cloud-based documents

Of the two software engineers in Ohikhuare’s story who quit, one was completely remote — a scenario the company was in no way prepared for. The new hire had to write out her direct deposit information by hand, scan it, and email it in. “The way she saw it, there was all this technology out there and the company did nothing to make it easier for her,” she said. “She figured they didn’t care about her as an employee.”

Recruits are busy and accustomed to being able to complete and send forms with a few clicks of a button. To avoid looking callous, companies must adapt to integrated, cloud-based documents that employees can access and complete anytime, anywhere. “It’s imperative,” Ohikhuare said.

Adding to the urgency is the increasing number of employees working from home. Expecting all those workers to print, scan, and email often highly sensitive documents isn’t just wishful thinking — it’s bad manners, as her recruit pointed out.

According to one 2019 ADP survey, fewer than 12 percent of employees can access any single type of onboarding paperwork from a mobile device. Make your onboarding paperwork a fluid, mobile-friendly journey and you won’t just save your team time. You’ll be differentiating yourself from the vast majority of your competitors.

Secure and binding e-signature solutions

Besides uploading her banking information manually, the software engineer told Ohikhuare she had also been responsible for finding a notary to sign portions of her paperwork. Fortunately, the engineer was located in the United States. Had she been an international recruit, the process would likely have been even more burdensome.

Secure and binding e-signature solutions backed by legal experts are yet another critical tool for a smooth onboarding experience in today’s dispersed and increasingly global environment. It saves the candidate time, and it affords the sender the confidence that the form is legally binding, regardless of where the recipient is located.

“That’s what’s so nice about partnering with someone like Adobe Acrobat Sign,” Ohikhuare said. “You can email a form to a candidate and they can take care of it on their smartphone, their laptop, or their desktop. It’s a one-and-done.”

The ability to manage paper trails

Early in her career, Ohikhuare was in charge of filing onboarding paperwork, which she always kept safely locked away — aware of the personal and sensitive information under her charge. Then one day, she couldn’t find her key. She found it, but not before incurring a great deal of heartache and grief. To this day she keeps a spare key on her desk. “It’s a reminder that in our line of work, confidentiality is key.”

The sheer amount of sensitive information HR teams are responsible for is one reason she is such a proponent of companies having the right tools to track and manage complex paper trails, preferably in the cloud. “You can lock things down and say this person can have access to it, but this person can’t,” she said.

Besides making it easier to protect people’s identities, these tools offer a clear picture of where a new hire’s paperwork process stands at any given moment. With this information in hand, you are better equipped as an HR leader to guide recruits through the often lengthy process — rather than crossing your fingers and hoping they complete it correctly and on time.

Customizable forms

We live in the age of personalization, and that includes the onboarding process. Making sure your forms — including web forms — are tailored both in terms of content and visual branding is critical for guaranteeing a positive experience not just for the new hire, but also for your team.

For one, tailoring forms helps to cut down on unnecessary busy work while ensuring you’re still collecting all the information you need. “Companies are often hiring more than one set of candidates,” Ohikhuare said. “They might be looking for finance professionals at the same time they’re looking for people to work in their factories. You’re going to need different information from different candidates.” The same is true depending on whether the new employee is entry- or executive-level.

Incorporating your brand’s identity in your onboarding is one more way you can help your new employees feel immediately connected to your organization. In today’s global and dispersed workplaces, you can’t always take new team members cubicle to cubicle, or show them around your company’s campus. Using every onboarding touchpoint as an opportunity to further reinforce your brand’s look and feel is a small but important way to help new hires feel welcomed and included in lieu of physical meet and greets.

Seamless integration with your existing software

Even the most robust HR systems don’t have every tool teams need. Having software that integrates seamlessly with the platforms you already use is required for ensuring you and your teams can perform your jobs not just well, but quickly and with minimal technical hiccups.

“There are so many separate pieces to HR management systems,” Ohikhuare said. There’s the applicant tracking system, plus the systems that store all employee information and details regarding compensation. Any new additions must be able to play well with each of these and ensure a frictionless experience for internal and external users.

Catering to the individual

Ultimately, every new recruit is different. For some, the experience of starting at a new company and in a new role comes easily. For others, it feels like the first day of high school all over again. By streamlining and personalizing the onboarding process, you’re not only signaling to new hires you value them. You’re also freeing up your time and resources to do what HR departments do best — creating an atmosphere where all can thrive. “Suddenly you have the bandwidth to cater to their emotions, whatever they may be,” Ohikhuare said, “and ultimately bring about a better work culture.”

Adobe can help

Increase employee productivity and delight job candidates by enabling them to easily access and e-sign documents from anywhere. Now you can streamline your document workflows, discover maximum efficiency, and do more overall with Adobe Acrobat Sign. Learn more.