Do you have processes or procedures that are required to be completed and need to be documented by your staff in the same manner regardless of their location?

Do you need to assess your workforce’s understanding of your procedures?

Are you creating training manuals and requiring your workforce members to sign a hard copy to help you document their training?

Do you struggle to keep track of all of these moving parts when it comes to onboarding new employees?

In a recent survey conducted by CareerBuilder, more than a third of employers (36 percent) do not have a structured onboarding process. This can have costly ramifications. Forty-one percent of these employers believe the lack of a structured onboarding process has had one of the following negative impacts on their company including lower productivity, greater inefficiencies, higher employee turnover, lower employee morale, lower level of employee engagement, lower confidence among employees, lack of trust within the organization and missed revenue targets.

Maybe it’s time to upgrade your approach to the onboarding process. 

Why using a learning management system like VALTs makes sense for onboarding:

1. House your training in one easily-accessible automated system

You can breathe a sigh of relief. No more hunting through various files and emails for onboarding documents. When using VALTs, all training documentation is housed in one, easy-to-access system for both the user and the administrator.

Use your company’s internal documents and also include reference documents or website links that can be housed or linked within VALTs creating a one-stop-shop for all onboarding training. Post employee handbook updates and new or revised policies, best practices, safety regulations, assessments, policies and procedures, and reference documents.

Use a variety of media for your training such as video, slideshows, and more. Additionally, administrators can gain access to real-time reports and set training deadlines with reminders to complete training within companies requirements.

Technology not only makes the onboarding process more efficient, it also cuts down on mistakes. However, not all companies are handling things digitally. Looking at a subset of HR managers, 39 percent say they electronically capture most or all of their onboarding information for new hires at their company, while 47 percent capture some of it. – Career Builder

2. Customized learning plans for each new hire as it relates to their position

Not all roles require the same training. With VALTs, each training can be tailored per employee, per role, with secure sign-in to enhance security. You can include required or non-required materials to be viewed based on the employee’s title, role, job function and with the option to create customizable training as it suits your employee’s specific role.

3. Makes it easy for new hires to review training on their own time, on-demand, at their own pace or by a given deadline

Why not make onboarding more versatile for your new hires? With VALTs,  training documents are accessible 24/7. Instead of keeping track of deadline, the system does it for you!

Set it and forget it. Users and administrators receive alerts for approaching or missed deadlines. As an administrator, you have access to pull progress reports to keep training on track for new hires and existing employees alike.

4. Makes training a more efficient process

In today’s busy working world, who has time to paper chase? By eliminating cumbersome paperwork and, instead, implementing electronic-based training, your training is much more efficient. And saves you time.

The Career Builder study also explored the consequences associated with manually collecting onboarding documents versus automating the process, which included everything from delayed start dates to required documentation, like compliance forms, gone missing.

“Manual collection and processing takes time – 42 percent of HR managers who don’t capture onboarding information electronically spend three hours or more per employee manually collecting and processing onboarding information, while 16 percent spend five or more hours,” according to stats from a new Career Builder Survey.

5. More engaging than a binder of documents

Not every learner is the same. We all have different learning styles at Miller Tanner Associates. Reading a binder of documents may be effective for a small percentage of people but odds are, a majority will not be engaged.

The benefit of using VALTs for your onboarding is that you can include a variety of materials such as video, slideshows, or pre-recorded presentations to engage and increase learning retention. And if a user has a question, he/she can send questions directly to the presenter in real-time.

6. Can include assessments to reinforce learning principles

Another great feature of VALTs is the ability to provide assessments throughout the training. Assessments are a key to reinforcing learning principles. Not only can you measure your new hire’s understanding and knowledge retention, but these metrics serve as a metric to improve future training.

7. Easily document signatures with timestamp capabilities and electronic format

With VALTs you can also track training by applying assessments for outside training along with e-sign. As an administrator, you can gather electronic signatures with ease and have the ability to pull and file the signature relating to the new (or revised) policy and well as track that each has read and signed off on the new (or revised) policy.

Ready to try a digital approach to onboarding? Contact the Virtual Events Team for a demo of VALTs, one source for all your expertise available to your team accessible at any time from any location.

Other Resources:

http://press.careerbuilder.com/2017-05-11-Thirty-Six-Percent-of-Employers-Lack-a-Structured-Onboarding-Process-for-New-Employees-According-to-New-CareerBuilder-Survey 

https://trainingmag.com/board-onboarding

https://www.td.org/newsletters/atd-links/10-onboarding-best-practices