3 Ways to Simplify Your
New Hire Onboarding Process

It seems that a large portion of an HR department’s work is centered around the onboarding of new employees. There’s paperwork to process, trainings to oversee, and benefits meetings to give. But if all your time is spent onboarding new employees, when do you have the time to handle all of the other demands that are placed on you? You have enough on your plate as it is; the onboarding process should be smooth and simple, not cumbersome and time consuming.

At eFileCabinet, we work with many HR managers who have spent years looking for ways to simplify the onboarding process. With their advice, and some research of our own, we’ve compiled this list of ways to simplify the new-hire process so that you have more time to deal with other HR matters.

Video Interviews

If you’re involved in the hiring process at all, you can save yourself time and simplify your new -hire processes before even hiring anyone. There are multiple programs available that allow you to interview someone without actually having to be present for the interviews. With programs like HireVue and Spark Hire, you can establish a series of questions and enter them into the program, then have applicants record their responses.

When you want someone to interview for a position, just send them a link to the program. They can set up a webcam, read each question, then do a video recording of their responses to each one. When they’ve finished answering the questions, the video responses will be sent to you so that you can review them whenever you have time.

You get all the benefits of a face-to-face interview with these recordings, because you can observe their mannerisms, posture, grooming, and expressions; but you don’t have to set aside a block of time to conduct the interview yourself. You can also quickly eliminate applicants without worrying about whether or not it would be rude to cut the interview short.

With video interviews, you can save yourself time while still ensuring that your company is getting a great employee.

Recorded Trainings

Another part of the hiring process that takes up a lot of an HR manager’s hours is conducting training sessions with each new hire. While different departments will have their own processes to train on, every employee still needs basic training regarding company policies and procedures, and it is typically the HR manager that conducts these sessions.

The difficulty with this is that, unless your company only hires in bulk, you may be spending hours of your time training just one or two employees. This is not a very efficient use of your time, but you also don’t want to postpone employee training too long, waiting for more new hires to come in.

The most efficient option you have is to create training videos that new hires can watch on their own during their first few days on the job. Programs like Lesson.ly and DigitalChalk allow you to create training videos and post them on your business’s online profile. New hires can then log in and watch the videos. With some learning management systems, you can even require the employee to take a quiz to ensure that they understand the information presented in the videos.

This ensures that all of your new hires receive the proper training without you having to spend hours in a conference room. All you have to do is spend the time to make the videos; after that, the new-employee training will take care of itself.

Paperless Paperwork

Handling paperwork makes up a great deal of your job as an HR manager. Think about all of the papers that new employees have to fill out or sign in their first few days. Most of these forms have multiple pages; benefit enrollment forms alone can be nearly a dozen sheets of paperwork. If you’re still handing your new hires a printed packet of these papers, then you’re likely spending a lot more time on new-hire paperwork than you should.

Think about it: For every employee, you need to first get a copy of their signed offer letter. Then, you need to give them the stack of paperwork, and ensure that they are properly filled out, signed, and returned on time. Plus, you need to keep a copy of their proof of identification for employment verification purposes. If the employee doesn’t return all of the papers at once (they do sometimes need extra time to figure out what benefits they want), you need to keep track of that employee’s list of documents so you know which have been returned and what you’re still waiting on.

Once you have all of the documents, you need to keep a physical file for every employee, new or old. That means lots of manila folders and filing cabinets. If any employee needs to see any of their initial paperwork, you need to dig through the folders to find their file, then shuffle through their papers to find the right document. Sounds time-consuming, doesn’t it? That’s because it is.

Paperless Paperwork (continued)

Making that new-hire paperwork paperless will cut down your onboarding process time significantly. You can send the documents electronically, and employees can fill out and sign the paperwork using their computer. With document management systems like eFileCabinet, you can receive a notification of when each piece of paperwork is completed so that you don’t have to try to keep track of whether or not the employee has completed all their documents. Additionally, when your employee handbook is available through an online profile, all employees have access to it at all times. While paper copies may get misplaced or tossed out, electronic copies are always available. If an employee has a question, they can look for it in the employee handbook before bringing the question to you And if an employee ever needs to see an old piece of paperwork, you can easily find it using a simple search in the software and securely share it with them. You can also easily add new paperwork regarding performance warnings, pay raises, promotions, and other pertinent information. According to one HR manager we spoke to, onboarding new employees takes 1/3 of the time it used to take, all  from switching to a paperless system. Just imagine how much you could get done if you got 2/3 of your time back.

Conclusion

It’s important to remember that the onboarding process is the first impression that new employees get of your company. An efficient, organized onboarding experience will give your new employees confidence in the business, as well as enabling them to get to work more quickly.

At the end of the day, onboarding new employees should only take up a small fraction of your time as an HR manager—and that fraction of time should be as painless as possible. Using the tips outlined in this guide, you can streamline your onboarding processes and make it easier on both you and your new employees. By cutting down on the time this process takes, you open yourself up to be able to accomplish more productive tasks and create a more efficient HR department.