Best Onboarding Software & Tools

Onboarding Software Definition: What is an Onboarding Platform?

Onboarding software aids HR managers - but ultimately also department heads and future colleagues - in the integration and training of new employees. Basically, it forms a medium through which those responsible can digitally and centrally manage the onboarding process.

Such a platform is used to set up and implement onboarding strategies. As a rule, these processes fit seamlessly into other HR operations, including applicant management or personnel development. Accordingly, onboarding software is often also referred to as "HR onboarding software".

In the backend, those responsible in particular get the chance to organize important documents and central information for the new employees, define a schedule, switch related workflows and track the progress of the training.

In the frontend, an onboarding tool usually offers a special interface in the corporate design of the company that new employees can use. Here, newly hired colleagues are led through all stages of the onboarding process. They can also retrieve important information as needed and directly contact those responsible.

Why should companies use an HR Onboarding Tool?

Onboarding is a very important, but often underestimated business process. New employees are accustomed to their role, the company philosophy, and the offer of the respective company. It also strongly contributes to the retention of employees and ensures that they commit to the company's success. Proper onboarding makes new colleagues quickly and securely part of the team and makes them feel accepted.

Numerous studies have shown that a significant portion (often ten percent or even significantly more) of new employees leave a company due to a poor onboarding experience. Without appropriate onboarding procedures, there is generally an increased employee turnover. Productivity losses are also a critical issue. Because professionals who are not fully integrated into a company's established workflows and who perhaps do not feel part of the team, work less effectively and are less motivated. This inefficiency costs many companies large amounts of money every year.

When employees are fully integrated and engaged, the likelihood of them leaving their company is actually over 80 percent lower!

Unfortunately, advantageous onboarding is anything but a given. It is necessary to establish a specific strategy for one's company and to implement it precisely and structured. A multitude of official documents and information for the new colleagues must be compiled, which must then be made available to them as barrier-free as possible. Ideally, employees are supported from the confirmation of the job to becoming a full member of the respective team during their training - with everything they need or expect.

Implementing such conditions proves to be an extremely complex and elaborate affair. All too often, important steps for onboarding are overlooked or other mistakes are made. In the worst case, new employees will be particularly annoyed by unstructured onboarding processes. The risk of departure increases considerably.

These and other dangers can be practically excluded with suitable onboarding software (of course) in combination with a good strategy. Anyone who wants to safely benefit from all the benefits of a good employee induction will not be able to avoid using such a solution.

How does Onboarding Software work?

How onboarding software ultimately works naturally depends centrally on the integrated features. The functions and processes listed below are typical.

• Self-Service Portal: With this function, new employees can view the onboarding process before they start their job. They also gain access to important resources, such as rules, compliance, training plans, online courses, tutorial videos, etc. These individuals can thus obtain a comprehensive overview and all the help they need or expect. Self-service portals are not available in all onboarding programs.

• Customizable Workflows: Some onboarding providers equip their solutions with customizable onboarding processes. These can be flexibly designed based on factors such as job titles, departments, locations, languages, and others. With such tools, training phases can be planned and carried out individually and step by step.

• Form Management: Many tools on board have a library with form templates for the hiring and the training process. This also includes documents regulating compliance.

• Analytics and Reporting: Some tools offer specific analytics. These functions provide information on how long it takes for newly hired employees to become productive team members. This data can be very useful to companies to improve their onboarding processes. HR managers and managers get the chance to clearly demonstrate which components of onboarding are successful and which need to be optimized using reporting functions.

• Real-time Dashboards: Dashboards collect and display data in real time. HR managers and managers can get a short-term insight into the onboarding process of employees throughout the company or all departments.

• Offboarding: Some onboarding tools also support the HR department in managing the offboarding process. They thus offer a complete solution for the employee life cycle.

• Integrations: Employee onboarding software can be delivered within an HR tool that also offers functions for recruitment, applicant tracking, and offboarding. Alternatively, there are stand-alone onboarding solutions. These often offer integrations to HR tools and/or to other systems closely related to onboarding. These include payroll programs or performance management solutions.

What are the pros and cons of onboarding tools?

There are indeed many advantages that using onboarding software in a company can bring. Some were already highlighted above. The four main reasons why companies should consider implementing a corresponding system are summarized below.

• Employee motivation: No company likes to spend money on the hiring process. However, it pays to invest. When a digitally supported and therefore efficient onboarding process is used, it motivates new employees and increases the retention rate. Many companies do not particularly care about onboarding. A correspondingly unprofessional approach leads to a low retention rate. By onboarding using specific software, companies optimally prepare new colleagues for their respective positions. Human errors are largely excluded. A smooth introduction thus contributes greatly to increased motivation and consequently greater productivity.

• *Cost reduction: The digitalization and centralization of an onboarding process lowers the costs of introducing new employees. Corresponding software simply saves a lot of time. This eliminates the need to constantly convey important information or even manually enter data into different forms. With largely automated onboarding, new employees quickly and independently learn their tasks. They become more productive members of the company in a relatively short time.

• Increased efficiency: Onboarding software does not replace people who welcome new employees, but it tremendously supports the efforts of HR managers in training. Onboarding is not an easy task. The HR department is responsible for organizing emails, ensuring compliance, assigning workplaces, setting up computers, initiating training, and so on. If these tasks are performed without a central management base, mistakes are quickly made. Good onboarding software supports key to-dos of onboarding and even automates some of them. This saves a lot of manual work and reduces the risk of human error.

• No paperwork: Onboarding software makes printed documents and the cumbersome organization of these nearly superfluous. It offers all required forms in digital formats that are also easily accessible online from anywhere. It captures all necessary information about the new employees in no time. You don't even have to sign the employment contract on paper anymore. Onboarding tools offer features for electronic signatures. All relevant information is digitally stored in one central place and can be accessed promptly when required. This saves time and a lot of money (for paper and storage space).

Are there also disadvantages with onboarding software? Unfortunately, yes - at least certain difficulties can arise when using corresponding programs. The following problems are typical.

• Lack of strategy: The use of good onboarding software does not yet make a good onboarding process. While the best providers of relevant programs support those responsible with many must-haves around the creation of advantageous digital training procedures. However, the main strategy must come from the respective company itself. Not a few companies underestimate the effort in this respect. They do not work out their approach sufficiently in detail and waste a lot of potential.

• Establishment difficulties: HR managers who have been used to performing certain processes for a long time may resist changes, such as the introduction of an onboarding tool bring. This can be the case even if the new processes ultimately save them a lot of time and trouble. Additionally, it is entirely possible that digital onboarding measures are not well received by all new employees. There are certain groups that may be significantly less responsive to corresponding offers. These are often especially older people or professionals who simply have a low digital affinity due to their job. In such contexts, companies don't have to miss out on the benefits of onboarding software. They should then not make digital channels a requirement, but rather offer them optionally (perhaps in addition to traditional onboarding measures).

How to choose the right onboarding software?

When selecting onboarding software, those responsible should particularly consider the following factors.

The needs of the organization Every company is different - and accordingly each company has different requirements when it comes to selecting onboarding software. The first step in choosing the right platform is to identify the specific needs of the organization.

Is perhaps primarily only software for the management of onboarding documents needed or does it have to be a more extensive solution for complete HR management? Once there is a clear idea of what the company needs, the options can already be drastically reduced.

Only when you take enough time to identify the respective requirements of onboarding in the company can those responsible ensure that they choose a platform that effectively helps them achieve their goals.

The size of the company The size of the company plays a decisive role in choosing the right onboarding software. With large workforces, there are generally more new employees to manage. The onboarding platform thus needs to be able to implement a correspondingly large number of processes - with possibly very different conditions.

If, on the other hand, there are only a few employees, a less powerful program can be used. However, those responsible should also keep an eye on possible future requirements. They are well advised to choose a solution that can flexibly keep pace with the company's growth. Otherwise, it can happen that the onboarding software has to be changed sooner or later, which is of course a time-consuming undertaking.

The needs of the new employees It's important to choose an onboarding software that meets the specific requirements of the new employees. For example, trainees possibly need different support than professionals who have been working in their profession for many years. In different industries there are different needs or also special legal regulations.

Those responsible should make sure to choose a platform that makes it as easy as possible for their new colleagues to get used to the job and be productive from day one. A well-designed or precisely tailored platform to the needs of employees saves (in the long run) a lot of time and money. So it's worth taking the time to find the right solution.

The features of the onboarding software When choosing onboarding software, it is of course essential to estimate the need for functions. The more features are on board, the more expensive the solution usually becomes.

Are really individual workflows necessary, should all communication be done via the platform or rather by email, phone etc., and do trainings have to be switched directly in the onboarding tool or is this more sensible in another way?

Once the required functions have been determined, the choice of platforms should have become quite small. These remaining options should now be compared with regard to the following points.

The user-friendliness User-friendliness is another important factor that those responsible should consider when choosing onboarding software. Some platforms are indeed significantly more user-friendly than others.

Always keep in mind: Even the most powerful onboarding solution can never fully unleash its full potential if HR managers or new employees do not fully utilize it due to unfavorable usability.

The last thing those responsible want is for new colleagues to not get along with the software and give up using it. Therefore, it is very important to make sure that the platform is user-friendly and easy to use.

The support of the onboarding software provider When choosing an onboarding software, you should also look at the provider's support. Some companies do not offer immediate customer service. Others score with many contact routes and a 24/7 support.

The best way to get information about the support of a provider is to read online reviews. It also doesn't hurt to contact the provider of the onboarding system directly and ask them some (maybe critical) questions. Depending on how these are dealt with, the service can then be evaluated directly.

What do the tools from the onboarding software comparison cost?

Onboarding tools in the above comparison are available in a very wide price range. Some programs are available for around ten euros per month. Others can even cost several thousand euros monthly. How expensive a corresponding solution ultimately is depends primarily on the respective range of functions.

You can already get exclusive HR onboarding software that centrally provides a management platform for important documents and a simple self-service option for new employees for about 50 to 100 euros per month.

More comprehensive onboarding workflow software, which is perhaps even embedded in a larger HR management solution, however, quickly comes with a price of several hundred euros.