Onboarding: It’s Not Just for Employees

The concept of “onboarding” has been around since long before the term was created in the 1970s. Also known as “organizational socialization,” onboarding refers to the process of bringing on board a new employee, getting them signed up, logged in, and prepared for the job for which they’ve been hired. Yet in the hyperconnected world we’re living in today, onboarding applies to multiple constituencies. And doing it successfully is even more critical to success than you may realize. The challenge with any onboarding is the complexity that comes with working and living in the modern world. When an employee reports for their first day of work, they’ve not only got to fill out and fill in employment contracts, government forms, and handbook acceptances, but they also have to sign up for payroll, benefits, insurance, and their 401(k). And then there’s the digital permissions of email, electronic access and permissions, a company laptop and an ID. Once those documents, files, and permissions are submitted, there’s the (usually manual) process of ensuring they get inputted in the right place, correctly, and that the information is shared across whatever HR, payroll, and administrative databases need it to ensure the employee gets paid the right amount and is enrolled in the right insurance program. The average U.S. employer takes 24 days and spends $4,000 to hire a new employee. Yet a negative onboarding experience once they’re hired can make it twice as a likely that that worker will look for other opportunities. On the other hand, a great onboarding experience can nearly double the retention rate (82%). Streamlining the flow of all that data and putting it to work for your employee can go a long way toward making onboarding as seamless and positive as it can be. And it’s not just limited to employees. Onboarding also applies to customers, partners — really, anyone who interacts with your organization. Take, for example, Boomi customer Natural Intelligence, an online comparison marketplace enabler that came to us to expand its customer base and collaborate with more partners, faster. The challenge for Natural Intelligence was standardizing data from more than 600 partner brands, more than 2 million front-end transactions per day, and hundreds of back-end partners such as payments, fulfillment, and logistics. Using the Boomi Enterprise Platform, Natural Intelligence harmonized data from every source to feed a dynamic business model, onboarding new marketplace participants more quickly, improving response times to customer requests, and improving stability. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor Avalara turned to Boomi for help in speeding up and automating how it onboards and provisions new customers. Using Boomi for data integration and API management, Avalara has been able to transform how it onboards customers throughout the sales process, from billing and usage monitoring to accelerating new client acquisition in a “no-touch” environment. In higher education, onboarding new students and providing a unified user experience for faculty, students, and all school employees is driving differentiation and spurring innovation. Check out this showcase of customer stories in higher ed to learn more. The complexity of your business or organization isn’t changing, and with more remote workers (or students) and ever-shifting business models that demand faster integration, your ability to deliver an integrated experience to your staff, customers, and partners is becoming more and more important. Build a successful roadmap to integrated data with our ebook, “Avoid the Digital Transformation Failure Trap”