Written by Graham Fisher, recruitment expert, MHR International
All organisations need new talent – even during a pandemic and its aftermath.
CIPD research found 56% of companies were planning to recruit new staff in the first quarter of this year during which many will have been working remotely or in a hybrid manner, a shift which isn’t expected to change even when restrictions ease. This poses an important question – how do you make a success of onboarding recruits when so many employees are working remotely? How will new people fit in with their new team when it could be weeks or months before they meet them?
Without carefully considered induction training and personal introductions to colleagues, remote working can be difficult for new employees who may quickly feel they don’t fit it in when interactions are solely online.
College-leavers and first-time entrants to the job market need special attention to make them feel valued at this critical time or companies will haemorrhage the best young talent. In the legal sector, for example, trainee lawyers have always learned from senior colleagues in the office, observing how they handle cases and clients. The pandemic has restricted access to this wealth of experience, resulting in many young lawyers struggling to work from home. This will be true for many other professions as well.
It is also much easier for new recruits to resign when no feelings of loyalty or personal warmth have developed and the organisational culture appears unwelcoming. This is where more active policies of engagement are critical, reducing the likelihood of early departure which causes so much disruption and inflicts the extra costs of refilling a vacancy.
To a large extent, however, the redesign of onboarding for remote employment is already underway in organisations that have embraced the social media-type functionality of advanced, cloud-based HR platforms. Connecting with such ease and familiarity makes it very easy for a recruit to see what is happening across the organisation both professionally and socially and to feel part of the culture. A recruit is familiar with the ethos of the organisation and the people they will work with before they start.
Such HR platforms offer vastly better and simpler communication, more effective training programmes and more energised employee support. HR departments are more systematic without losing the human touch. They can, for example, create checklists and workflows that streamline the onboarding process, ensuring nothing is overlooked.
Regular contact is important from the outset to make new recruits feel truly comfortable and get up to speed with what the company requires of them. On an advanced HR platform, this is a simple matter of scheduling informal face-to-face interactions or check-ins with managers to discuss progress, personal goals and any concerns.
Similarly, new employees can join discussions with fellow team members quickly and easily, enjoying a sense of inclusion even though they may be at home. Regular contact with managers and teams on a platform that is simple to use and full of relevant information, guides and tips embed recruits far more quickly, substantially reducing the chances of them throwing in the towel early on.
Being able to access training modules, company guides and updates within the same HR platform enables a recruit to leap forward in their development. They don’t have to struggle to locate content in a company’s system, nor must they leave the platform to find out how they are progressing.
As the UK economy emerges from the pandemic and a mixture of hybrid working continues, HR departments and line managers will undoubtedly face all kinds of onboarding challenges. It will be organisations that are smart in their use of HR technology that achieve the best results in this new world of work. The most talented recruits will immediately start contributing to the organisation’s overall success because their onboarding has been so effective.