How Mobile-First Onboarding is Changing the Employee Experience
Nine out of ten Australians own a smartphone. With the number of smartphone users expected to reach 23.6 million by 2026, these devices are an essential part of our daily lives.
Beyond easily connecting with friends and keeping up with the news, phones are also key workplace tools. As remote and hybrid roles become more popular, 80% of IT executives say employees can no longer effectively do their jobs without a mobile phone. Adopting a mobile-first approach in all areas is now crucial for organisations hoping to stay competitive. This starts from the beginning of the employee experience: onboarding.
While a well-structured onboarding programme creates a great first impression for your new hires, 43% leave during the first month due to poor onboarding practices. Keep reading as we explain why, and how incorporating mobile technology into this process helps build a happy and productive workforce.
What Are the Benefits of Mobile-First Onboarding?
From digital contracts to secure welcome portals, mobile-first onboarding helps HR teams offer seamless, streamlined company introductions to new hires. This approach creates great first impressions from day one, helping to attract and retain top talent, while also boosting productivity.
Here are three general benefits of transforming onboarding through mobile workflows:
1. Fast and Compliant Onboarding
With mobile onboarding, advanced employment contracts and other important documents can be quickly assembled and sent to the relevant personnel. Employees and managers must no longer be tied to a desk to complete the essential onboarding paperwork. Instead, they can sign from home or while busy with clients.
As one of Australia’s biggest aged care and disability support charities, UnitingCare Queensland experienced the benefits of this mobile workflow for a large-scale recruitment project, which onboarded hundreds of new support staff under tight deadlines.
By implementing Onboard Express, Australia’s largest aged care and disability support charity managed the entire process seamlessly using mobile devices. The advanced contract construction engine also helped them maintain consistent and compliant onboarding, which is vital for meeting Aged Care Quality Standards.
This mobile-first approach reduced the total time to onboard a new employee through to payroll from 2 weeks to just 2 days.
2. Lower Costs
Did you know that digital onboarding processes, including those prioritising mobile, lower onboarding costs by up to 80%?
Along with using less physical paper and ink, HR teams also spend fewer hours creating and distributing contracts by hand. This leaves more time to help employees feel welcome and settle into the company culture.
The capital saved can also be reinvested into ongoing training and development opportunities that show employees how valuable they are to your company.
3. Higher Retention Rates
Fast, flexible mobile systems available from anywhere help you deliver a comprehensive onboarding program. Branded welcome portals and fully compliant digital contract assembly and signing help give new hires the best start at your company, ensuring they immediately feel comfortable and happy in their new surroundings.
Gallup research shows that highly engaged employees are 14% more productive. Feeling confident and secure in their roles thanks to well-structured, smooth onboarding also boosts performance by up to 70%, with employees who are committed to your company.
As a result, these new hires are 82% more likely to remain at a company for up to three years. This is especially crucial in service-based industries like aged care, where continuity of care ensures residents have the high quality of life they deserve.
How Does Mobile-First Onboarding Impact the Employee Experience?
Mobile-first onboarding offers a streamlined process for HR teams and directly impacts engagement. Utilising mobile technology helps employees settle easily and feel welcome from their first day.
“At a time when high-quality talent is scarce, a highly professional first impression, speed in making the offer, and a positive employee experience are essential,” says Ryan Ray, General Manager of Culture and Capability at UnitingCare Queensland. Here’s why:
Encourages Strong Communication
As well as for HR teams, having digital access to preboarding paperwork is also incredibly beneficial to new hires. Rather than printing, reading, signing, scanning, and sending completed contracts and policy documents manually, candidates can complete the whole process efficiently on their mobile phones.
This mobile communication flow means less waiting for managers who are off-site to sign crucial documents. Long, complex onboarding processes often put new hires off, causing them to leave before their first day! Instead, they’ll remain informed and in the loop.
Quality mobile onboarding software also includes a dedicated communication portal where employees can see their onboarding progress, including completed documents and those waiting for approval. HR teams can check in periodically through this portal to ensure new hires are on track, from the offer acceptance to the training stage.
Supports Thorough Training
Having all training materials ready in a personalised portal allows new hires to complete the induction process at their own pace. Rather than a rushed training day, they can properly process the material and develop a thorough understanding of their key responsibilities.
Thorough training reduces time-to-productivity, helping new hires become competent and confident in their roles more quickly. It also minimises the stress and anxiety associated with starting a new job.
A great employee onboarding experience that produces specialised, highly skilled and trained staff strengthens your entire organisation, too. Companies that invest in targeted employee training see a 17% boost in productivity and 21% higher profitability!
Promotes Flexible Working
Flexible working conditions are no longer just an extra employee benefit. 35% of workers now expect these conditions when applying for a job. More than half of employees also think flexible working is just as important as a 5% pay rise!
Starting the onboarding process with a mobile-first approach creates a culture of flexibility from the beginning of a candidate’s journey, making great first impressions. Remote or hybrid working practices build a better work-life balance for employees juggling multiple responsibilities. Telstra research into hybrid working found that a happy, highly engaged workforce boosts business performance through 22% gains in productivity and a 6% higher business income.
Flexibility is also beneficial for employers, who can gain access to a larger global talent pool. Mobile recruitment and onboarding help organisations secure and retain their first-choice candidates through inclusive practices that appeal to top talent, regardless of location or accessibility needs.
Builds Better Relationships
Eliminating clunky administrative tasks like manual document approval means less back and forth between multiple departments, particularly when onboarding multiple candidates at once.
This leaves more time for HR teams to offer personalised support and fun onboarding activities that immediately make new hires feel part of a positive, inclusive workplace culture. Think team-building activities and themed lunches that create socialisation opportunities and help new hires form strong working relationships with colleagues.
Build Simple, Mobile-First Onboarding Workflows with Onboard Express
Although mobile-first onboarding is incredibly beneficial to the employee experience, it can also create new problems when handled incorrectly.
54% of business leaders report skills constraints as the main barrier to technology uptake. Employees need time to adjust to new technologies, while complex workflows cause frustration and impact productivity. Mobile-first onboarding tools must be easy to use for both new hires and HR teams to enjoy the benefits we’ve discussed.
At Onboard Express, our simple mobile workflows are purpose-built to handle the complexities of high-volume onboarding, while offering a bespoke experience for every employee.
Create a seamless candidate experience from day one by combining all your essential contracts and policy documents in a secure, personalised welcome portal. New hires receive welcome videos, offer letters, and important company information quickly, ensuring they immediately feel valued in their roles.
You can also send customised notifications to keep new hires in the loop, from mobile reminders to welcome and milestone celebration messages. And best of all, our workflows are supported by a dedicated project manager for a fast, guided implementation that accelerates new hire readiness from weeks to just days.
Book a free demo today to discover how our customisable, mobile-first platform can enhance the onboarding experience for your employees.