How AI Can Speed Up the Process of Onboarding and Offboarding Employees

Gallup has an astounding statistic to report. As part of an employee experience survey, they identified employees across different levels from companies operating in different industries. The respondents were asked about the onboarding experience provided by their employer. Guess what? Only 12% chose they “strongly agree” that their employer gave a great onboarding experience.

The number is similar for offboarding as well. Only 16% reported that their company had an offboarding process.

Why are onboarding and offboarding "moments that matter"?

Onboarding is one of the memorable moments in an employee’s journey with a company and can contribute to a positive employee experience which in turn will improve retention and productivity.

A 2022 cost of company review study finds that a good offboarding process will lead to a positive company review (2X more likely).

Employees are at the heart of any organization and managing the lifecycle of an employee end-to-end is a top priority. However, many organizations lack an effective strategy to onboard new and offboard departing employees — leading to redundant work, frustration, and lost productivity. Managing the lifecycle of an employee, be it onboarding or offboarding, is challenging because it is a cross-functional practice that involves various processes. So, how can companies use onboarding and offboarding as opportunities to provide great experiences?

Leverage AI-Enabled Technology

A holistic approach, such as incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI), becomes essential to ensure an employee's smooth transit in/ out of an organization. AI can help companies promote positive cultural shifts, including increased collaboration and transparency within an organization.

According to “State of Employee Onboarding Report 2022”, 68% of companies have started using AI to automate onboarding processes.

Implement custom-built HR Chatbots that can help employees navigate onboarding and offboarding without friction
Validate documents automatically using AI-powered intelligent document processing
Automate sentiment analysis and opinion mining using intelligent listening technology

Companies have saved business process costs between 25% to 40% on average using AI-powered intelligent automation (source: Deloitte Study). Automating recurring human efforts will result in direct and indirect Full Time Equivalent (FTE) benefits – number of hours saved for a single full-time employee over a period.

Let's now quickly dive into some common challenges organizations encounter during the onboarding and offboarding process and how AI can help improve the efficiency of the onboarding and offboarding process.

Common Challenges & How AI Can Improve the Efficiency of the Onboarding and Offboarding Process

Excessive Information

Most companies are tempted to speed up an employee's hiring and releasing processes, providing all information at once. Sharing all the information in one transaction becomes overwhelming and unproductive for new employees. Like personal life, where people have access to the latest technology and apps to get answers to nearly any question, employees do feel the need for similar functionality at their workplace.

AI as a Solution: AI can help employees catch up with the process more efficiently according to their pace of comprehension and personal preferences for visual or auditory learning styles. Besides, AI can help provide real-time performance feedback to catch up with an employee who needs additional training or coaching.

Repetitive Tasks

Repetitive and time-consuming tasks are prone to errors and can lead to legal implications in the context of onboarding and offboarding employees. From entering incorrect information into documents at the time of onboarding to forgetting to record critical details about an employee before they leave, it can potentially expose your organization to liability.

AI as a Solution: Using cognitive automation that combines AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), organizations can eliminate repetitive and time-consuming tasks and put an end to unnecessary repercussions. Automating the entire process (including appointment letters, legal notices, emails, and physical handovers) requires minimal human intervention. This can save time and money, as well as reduce human error. Contrary to a common belief, automation creates multifold prospects for people to connect and build associations while freeing you from redundant tasks. Automation allows you to emphasize what matters most: the people.

Security Concerns

Exchanging hard copies and other crucial information with onboarding and offboarding employees is a common practice by many organizations and often leads to risks. Following the same age-old conventional method of onboarding and offboarding employees can invite a lot of implications for an organization.

AI as a Solution: In this digital-first era, leveraging automated onboarding and offboarding solutions, organizations can access several security tools and features that safeguard crucial data. Not just this, using automated tools, you can assign exclusive security credentials to your team and keep track of who is accessing company data online, including newly hired or relieving employees' information.

Did You Know?
As per the survey conducted by Glassdoor, organizations with proper onboarding and offboarding processes have a productivity rate higher than 70%, and the employee retention rate is also above 82%.

The Gist

We are living in exciting times. With advances in technology and increasing awareness of the benefits it can offer, we're on the cusp of a new era in work. AI has many benefits to automating your employee onboarding and offboarding process. Perhaps one of the greatest is that it allows you to focus on the core: your employees. When you use AI solutions like those offered by Softura, you have fewer distractions, able to focus on core areas, leading to better productivity for everyone involved. Softura can also help you build a robust digital workforce leveraging a customized 'AI Automation Roadmap' to help your organization digitally transform.

How AI Can Speed Up the Process of Onboarding and Offboarding Employees

Categories