Onboarding is a significant step of the recruitment process. It’s the point at which a top candidate turns into a new employee, with all of the potential to become a valuable member of your team. Unfortunately, many companies fail to appreciate the importance of onboarding and don’t invest the time or effort to optimize this transition period.
Applicant tracking system (ATS) software can help you to improve your onboarding process, allowing you to make it both as effective and as efficient as possible. Since the onboarding experience can have a direct impact on factors like employee engagement, productivity, and turnover, an investment in onboarding can yield a notable return for your company.
Empower New Employees
Allowing brand new employees to access information about the company, complete new hire forms, and view training materials on their own can be empowering. Setting up your ATS software so that employees can review this information and begin these actions right away helps to establish a relationship in which your employees feel trusted and capable.
Provide a Reference Library
Every workplace has a unique history, mission, and set of policies. Keeping this plethora of information contained in a reference library that can be accessed through your ATS software allows your new employees to review it at their leisure and to reference it whenever they need to. It also makes it easy for you to make updates and communicate them to all employees quickly.
Capture Necessary Forms
There are several forms such as I-9s and W-4s that must be filed out for each new hire. Collecting and storing physical copies of these forms can be messy. When you use your ATS for onboarding, it’s easy to capture all necessary forms electronically and store them digitally for best organization and security.
Avoid Errors and Information Re-Keying
An ATS will often allow you to import candidate information into other types of HR and payroll software. In some cases, the software may even go so far as to fill in fields with new employee information automatically, so all you have to do is accept the information as correct. Being able to use software in this way can prevent manual errors and help you to avoid spending time re-keying information again and again.
Begin Training Immediately
ATS software can often be linked to training modules and can be used to track courses completed and certifications received. This allows new employees to get started with training immediately, which can help them to become productive employees that much faster. By making training available as part of the onboarding process, you also get a first hand glimpse at how motivated your new employee is.
Cultivate Culture from the Start
As part of the onboarding process, you can allow your new employees to set up a profile as part of an internal social network or to otherwise link into networks that allow communication between employees. Since the social aspect of a new job can be daunting and can impact an employee’s success within a company, making this available can help employees acclimate faster and can establish a friendly and collaborative culture.
