Skip to Main Content
Back to Resources

Overcoming IT Challenges for New Employee Onboarding

Published: March 20, 2019 (Updated: February 20, 2020)

employee onboarding

Onboarding is your first chance to make a great impression with new employees. If you have a streamlined process, you’ll make it exponentially easier for employees to get off to a great start in their new position. The problem? Onboarding doesn’t always live up to expectations.

As noted by the Association for Talent Development, while 80 percent of employees said onboarding was an “important moment at work,” 20 percent said they still weren’t fully onboarded after three months, 25 percent noted there was no “clear” onboarding process, and 33 percent “would prefer to go on an awkward first date than attend onboarding or orientation for a new job.”
 

 

So what’s the disconnect?

According to The HR Director, easy marks to miss here include creating human connections and helping new hires navigate corporate culture, but there’s another major pain point that is often overlooked: technology.

From provisioning devices to setting up permissions, deploying email accounts and ensuring all relevant paperwork has been signed, sealed, and digitally stored, IT now plays a critical role in the onboarding process. And, truthfully, it can make or break the experience for new employees.
 

 

Challenge #1: Sign on the Dotted Line

IT professionals already have their hands full digitizing documents, monitoring existing system performance, and cleaning up current data stores. Forbes reports that 89 percent of enterprises are now adopting a digital-first transformation strategy. The last thing they need? More paper to process.

Unfortunately, many HR onboarding processes still rely on paper forms and handwritten signatures, creating another set of documents for IT to collect, verify, and secure. This becomes especially problematic if forms aren’t properly filled out or employee handwriting is illegible.

The alternative? Business process automation tools that empower organizations to create fillable forms, collect digital signatures, and provide confirmation when documents are complete.
 

 

Challenge #2: Need for Speed

As noted by Training Industry, onboarding efforts often fall flat. Why? Two issues: Lack of personalization and the idea of onboarding as a single “event” that sets up employees for success. The root cause of both problems? Speed.

Companies want to get through the onboarding process as quickly as possible and equip staff for success, but the increasingly connected nature of workplace environments makes this a risky bet. Despite best efforts, new employees are often left without access to the services, information, and applications they need to do their job even after onboarding is “complete.”

According to Tech Target, the key to effective onboarding in a digital workplace starts with automation. By leveraging solutions capable of automatically assigning network privileges, generating email addresses, and supplying employee data to relevant systems (payroll, benefits, and scheduling programs). HR teams can focus on the human side of onboarding while IT gains the benefit of onboarding visibility to help ensure staff have access what they need, when they need it.
 

 

Challenge #3: Keep It Simple

Complexity kills productivity. As noted by Tech Republic, 68 percent of staff are switching between 10 or more apps every hour at work just to get their jobs done. The result? Employees spend just 46 percent of their work hours actually working.

Onboarding is the front line of this process complexity for both IT and new employees. If onboarding processes require multiple applications to handle HR data collection, IT resource assignment and software licensing, the result is a convoluted experience for recruits and unnecessary work for IT staff, in turn lowering total productivity.

Accusoft’s workflow automation software, OnTask, leverages a no-code process designer and online dashboard with real-time notifications to improve onboarding for IT and employees alike.
Employees don’t need to switch between multiple onboarding applications to complete paperwork and receive IT credentials, and IT professionals don’t have to chase down data across multiple sources and systems.

Onboarding is a critical process for any organization, and it can often go off the rails without the right systems in place. Improve the onboarding process for your new hires and existing teams today with OnTask’s powerful business process automation software.