6 Ways to Leverage Intranets for Better Employee Onboarding

When someone joins a new organization, they face a whole array of challenges that can bog down the excitement of a new workplace. And on top of it, there’s a tsunami of information and processes headed straight for them which can be overwhelming.

We have all been there, haven’t we? There are a few things that organizations can do to make this process a lot less taxing. Some examples on top of my mind are orientation session, onboarding buddy, etc. However, an intranet where employees embark on their journey tops my list. Want to know why? Let me explain.

The State of Hiring & Retention

To win the war for talent, many organizations have resorted to new recruiting strategies for luring new generation of professionals. However, the money poured into recruitment will amount to chitlins if the firms are unable to retain the latest inductees. A study by McKinsey revealed that the biggest challenge CEOs face is of retaining talent after hiring them.

Impression is a two-way street. As a business, this transcends wooing your customers, prospects, and investors — it is crucial for your staff, too. With turnover rates reaching an all-time high, it is evident that change is needed in order to prevent employees from jumping ship.

Onboarding is the Answer

Nailing employee onboarding is essential for retaining the top dogs. It ensures the new recruits feel welcomed, supported, and valued during the first few weeks in your organization. Here are a few stats that back my claim:

• According to a survey, employees are 69% more likely to stay if they experience stellar onboarding
• Statistics released in 2018 also stated that standard onboarding program increases retention by 50%
• Another survey found out that 31 percent of new recruits leave the company within 6 months of joining. Check the image below:

It reinforces the importance of getting the employees’ first few weeks right. This is where your intranet comes into the picture. It helps you craft a digital onboarding program for your latest go-getters. Additionally, it helps them reach a consensus that the decision of joining your organization was indeed right.

6 Ways Intranets Can Improve Onboarding Experience

Now that you know about the role intranets play in employee on-boarding, how do you go about it? Fret not, we have jotted down 6 canny ways that will help you streamline the onboarding process using your intranet.

1. Automate

A new job often entails an avalanche of paperwork, training materials, policy education, and whatnot. From a new employee’s perspective, going through all of that on their first day is probably not something they would look forward to or enjoy.

You can stitch all the formalities together in the form of a checklist and embed it inside your intranet. By placing everything they need in a central location like the intranet, ameliorated by a cross-channel search makes it easy to find stuff and is a major boon to the new hires.

TIP: Providing intranet access to new hires before joining will give them a fair idea of a few things planned for their first day and the documentation they need to submit.

2. Keep it simple

The flexibility intranets offer empowers firms to build never seen before social hubs. This also, however, makes them a double-edged sword. Some folks end up creating feature-laden and complex portals that are difficult to navigate.

Believe it or not, but simple and functional intranet will appeal more to your latest inductees. As a result, they feel confident and will be fully functional in no time. The goal is to get the basics right while keeping things as simple as they can be.

3. Treat customers & employees alike

Do you want your customers to have an ineffable, irrelevant, and messy digital experience while looking for something? Probably not. Similarly, you need to provide a stellar experience to your new employees too and make relevant content easily accessible.

According to an IDC research, the typical knowledge worker spends about 2.5 hours per day, or roughly 30% of the workday, searching for information. Many intranets are infested with outdated content that hampers discoverability. Fortunately, an AI-driven enterprise search engine can identify and deliver contextually relevant experiences to every new employee. This sees to it that only useful information reaches your staff and reduces time spent on fact-finding missions.

4. Deliver a personalized experience

Every employee is different. They all have different profiles, objectives, and strategies. So, it only makes sense to personalize the onboarding process according to every new hire’s preferences, challenges, and strengths. To begin with, they all should receive onboarding material that is specific and relevant to their role and location.

You can also analyze user behavior with an insights engine to learn what the new hires need help with. Then, you can leverage this knowledge to personalize their training to meet each employee’s interest while also helping them meet the company’s expectations.

5. Get social

While onboarding is an individual process, it shouldn’t be exclusive. Consider socializing the onboarding experience. Not only does it expedite on-the-job training, but it also allows new employees to connect with the firm and tweak their goals according to the new positions.

Your Intranet is a good place for your new employees to know about their co-workers, management, and work culture. This also enables collaboration and team building among your employees. The added functionality of liking, commenting, and sharing further helps in bringing in some additional engagement which in turn fosters helpful relationships.

6. Solicit feedback and improvise

Another nifty way to improve the onboarding process is by regularly soliciting feedback and then optimizing the process based on your findings. One way to go about it is by sending anonymous surveys to the new hires, asking them to share their onboarding experience.

What was it that the process executed really well? Which areas were lacking? By asking such questions, you can obtain actionable, real-life insights into your company’s onboarding process and ensure that every new hire feels heard, valued, and involved.

The Bottomline

Now think about this digital experience vs vintage, paper-based methodology. By offering your new folks the red carpet and trumpets-out experience (*imagine trumpets playing here*), you can be assured that they feel at home.

These are just a few ways in which intranet can transform an outdated employee onboarding process into an interactive, personalized experience for new hires. With 53% of HR professionals saying employee engagement rises with better onboarding, can you afford to ignore it?