Remote onboarding is the natural transition for a world of work that is having little trouble getting used to online interviews. If widening talent pools are the fall-out of having candidates from any geography apply, the talent acquisition model should ideally extend itself to remote onboarding too. This way, crucial positions get filled faster than if they were to wait for candidates to enter new places safely in an uncertain pandemic-ridden climate.
At a time when data for each task, in HR and elsewhere, is crucial to determine efficacy, companies watch, and should be watching, key performance indicators of recruitment such as:
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- Time to hire: How long it takes for a selected candidate to get hired. Virtual onboarding can quicken the pace. Virtual onboarding can be the difference between an industry average of 41 days to a much shorter time to hire (sometimes as short as 1 day).
- Time to process step: How long it takes for each step of the recruitment process to be fulfilled. Specifically in quick-filling roles, this number can be accelerated further by the opportunity to join and onboard – fully online.
- Cost to fill: The average cost of processing a candidate from advertisement/job post to onboarding. The cost of onboarding is reduced drastically when it’s done via the digital medium. Initial set-up costs give way to a high level of scalability.
- Quality of hire: This depends on the onboarding process too, since the first impression of an organization, after interviewing, as an insider, is onboarding. Quality of hire is determined by the number of recruits who do not leave the organization in the first year of employment. A memorable onboarding process can tip the balance either way.
- Offer acceptance rate: Acceptance of an employment offer can depend on whether a company is open to virtual onboarding and virtual working models. Offer acceptance, although to a lesser extent than the other metrics, is determined by virtual options, specifically in a job market transition from in-office to hybrid working models.
- Employee experience metrics: They follow virtual onboarding, and the first experience – onboarding – continues to color a number of these metrics for at least the first quarter of a new hire’s tenure.
- Employee satisfaction: surveys of employees’ first impressions, their comfort through the entire journey from job post to hiring date can be gauged by feedback taken at the end of onboarding. It is the beginning of understanding employee satisfaction and their propensity to continue in a positive frame of mind at the organization.
Aside from these, there are conditions specific to the current circumstances that urge the need for virtual onboarding. The dangers of the pandemic are far from over. For new hires, joining a new job can involve moving cities, homes, setting up new arrangements for the family that travels with them, and adjusting to a whole new set of civic and political aspects of living. This can involve risks one might not be ready to place oneself in in a world that is not completely rid of the latest pandemic-causing virus. For such candidates, the option, or the routine workflow made possible through remote onboarding is a great relief. Quite literally, it allows them to get on with their productive lives, family constraints, and financial planning in a way that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.
The course of remote onboarding is one more aspect that fits well into the steps of a distributed team or teleworking employee. They would be able to submit all their proofs and certificates online and receive their offer letters, appointment letters, and contracts through the same secure, validated platform. Physical exchange of documents is no longer relevant when all the letterheads are in place and served through a company’s own platform or staffing arm.
Success with remote onboarding depends on creating a humane, welcoming experience for new hires, replete with a sense of belonging together. Procter & Gamble, Mahindra & Mahindra, MobiKwik, and RBS India are some of the companies which have tried out remote onboarding with considerable success.
References:
- Remote Onboarding Best Practices to Acclimate New Hires Fast | Recruitment.com | Francesca Di Meglio | March 2021
- 8 Crucial Recruitment Metrics You Should Track in 2020 | hirevue.com | Adam Love | August 19th 2020
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