Ready Before Day One: Digitally Onboarding Employees

Ready before day one: digitally onboarding employees

Technology is empowering businesses like yours to digitally begin the onboarding process for new additions prior to their first day on the job. The days of in-person onboarding have given way to a much more efficient digital approach with all-in-one HCM platforms. Give digital onboarding a try and you’ll find Harri’s software streamlines the entirety of the process. 

The digital approach to onboarding decreases paperwork, ensures compliance and makes it easy for new hires to hit the ground running in their new roles. The best part is digital onboarding sets the stage for immediate success that benefits the collective of your hotel, restaurant or other hospitality business, where the recruiting process is always ongoing. 

The Challenge of Onboarding in Hospitality

Onboarding new hires in the hospitality industry was once tedious, slow and frustrating. Thanks to technology, the digital approach hastens the process, maximizing both speed and efficiency. Hotels, restaurants and other customer-facing businesses have a natural ebb and flow due to their inherent seasonality. As a result, most hospitality industry businesses rely on temporary staffing, meaning efficiency is the name of the game. 

Here’s a quick look at what should be at the forefront of your mind when onboarding hospitality industry employees.

Key Considerations in Onboarding Staff

 The onboarding process can be inherently complex as no two new hires are the same. New additions have different levels of experience. Add in the fact that there is a limited time frame to onboard new additions and the problem is compounded even more.

To kick off a new hire in the right way, engagement has to start before day one. Greet those new starters with a digital welcome and you’ll find they are much more receptive to future communications, including details about policies, procedures and more. 

Onboarding new additions goes more smoothly when there is an agenda for the initial week of employment. Consider the onboarding process from the perspective of a new hire who is flustered and hesitant to make a long-term commitment. 

Do some brainstorming and jot down ideas as to what new hires should learn and do in the initial week. Create a schedule for that critically important first week of employment, including breaks between training that allow for a constructive dialogue. 

Digital onboarding software has the potential to be a bit intimidating, especially because it occurs through a screen without the oversight of a human being. You’ll find new hires are more thoroughly engaged with the digital onboarding process when they have the option of reaching out to a human resources professional or manager for guidance. 

Provide at least one name and their contact information at the start of digital onboarding and your new additions will be more inclined to proceed through the remainder of the process. 

Let’s take a look at the many reasons to take the digital approach to onboarding new additions.

Advantages of Digital Onboarding for Hospitality Employees

Digital onboarding platforms have emerged to help hospitality businesses fill open positions quickly and efficiently. In particular, restaurants, hotels and other service-oriented businesses hold the Harri platform in high regard. 

Harri is used by more than 20,000 hotels and restaurants that employ more than four million hospitality industry employees across the globe. Here’s why.

Reducing Paperwork with Onboarding Software

Choose Harri and you’ll decrease paperwork with the use of onboarding software. Digital onboarding greatly reduces both paperwork and administrative burdens. Transition from paper and face-to-face interactions to screens and you’ll find digitally onboarding hospitality employees maximizes efficiency. 

Our digitized system supports the upload of custom and mandatory documents for employees to review and sign, as well as the ability to send and receive critical documents like right-to-work documentation and payroll information. 

Harri’s e-signature functionality is unparalleled in terms of efficiency and functionality. The platform makes it easier to transmit and receive documents, regardless of where your business operates, or if you’re onboarding in multiple locations across jurisdictions. 

When it comes to bringing on new members of the workforce, especially among the frontline, you would likely prefer your HR professionals focus on job-specific training and ensuring new hires feel like a valued part of the team straight away. Unfortunately, it’s all too common that forms and paperwork take up the lion’s share of their and new recruit’s time. Luckily, you can turn to Harri to speed up the process of sending and receiving important documents for legal employment,  including W4 and I-9 forms. A more efficient onboarding process saves your business money and also increases the likelihood of new additions remaining in their positions. Harri simplifies the onboarding process for hotels, restaurants, retailers and other businesses, decreasing administrative work and freeing up your team to focus on the more important aspects of finding your next best hire. 

Ensuring Compliance and Essential Training Digitally

 The Harri platform is built with legal compliance in mind. Give our tech a try at your business and you’ll find the platform facilitates compliance with all laws governing your jurisdiction. Harri is the only platform designed for hospitality by hospitality, and we partner with businesses operating across the United States and the United Kingdom. Our platform can begin preparing new additions for their respective roles before their first day of employment, optimizing for franchises with locations across multiple legal jurisdictions. 

Streamlining the new hire process ultimately maximizes functionality for the collective of the enterprise. Recognize that digital onboarding software and training for legal compliance is a complex process, use Harri to check off every item on your digital document checklist, and you’ll guarantee that you have all the necessary information from new additions to operate following the details of employment law. 

If you are still on the fence as to whether it is in your interest to make the leap from traditional onboarding to a digital format, consider the candidate’s viewpoint. Signing employment documents online and reviewing procedures/rules for compliance allows new additions to obtain a complete understanding of the rules that govern their employment, and refer back to these important documents at any time.

Best Practices for Onboarding Employees Virtually

Onboarding new additions online is the wave of the future that your business can ride to success in the present moment. Take the digital route, implement best practices, and you’ll find that digital solutions make a meaningful impact on the engagement, morale and retention of new hires.

When developing best practices for the digital onboarding of employees, focus on the end goal of maximizing contributions from the get-go. Ideally, new hires will be prepared to start getting underway with the job on their first day of employment. Day-one employee readiness is essential for engagement, morale, efficiency and retention. 

The digital onboarding process should guide workplace procedures and policies. As an example, your policies should detail the most important frequently asked questions employees might have, such as how personal devices are to be used for work-related purposes. Provide such essential information through the digital onboarding process and you’ll find new additions segue to their new roles with clarity and understanding.

Creating a Welcoming and Efficient Onboarding Experience

Take a moment to put yourself in the position of a new hire. Your head is spinning, you are nervous and eager to make a positive first impression. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn more about the business including its standard operating procedures through a digital introduction? 

Use Harri for digital onboarding and you’ll facilitate an efficient transition from the sidelines to the workforce that benefits new hires and your company. The best part of the digital approach using the Harri platform is that it maximizes efficiency through a seamless onboarding experience designed with hospitality and hourly employees in mind.

Integrating Digital Onboarding with Overall HR Strategy

Most businesses have an overarching human resources strategy that guides the recruitment, hiring and onboarding of new additions. However, the pace of restaurant and hospital business is faster than most, leaving little time to analyze human resources strategies. That’s why everyone from independent restaurants to major hotel chains have turned to Harri to streamline their recruitment and onboarding process. 

Digital onboarding is now seamlessly integrated into human resources strategies thanks to Harri. Choose digitized onboarding for your new additions and you’ll find the technology is advanced to the point that it even allows for integration with your payroll. Harri integrates with leading Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) and payroll providers such as ADP, Paychex, Paycom and more. Initiate the process to unify HR and Payroll from the start to keep employee data in sync across parties. 

Moreover, digitized onboarding facilitates ongoing workforce management through convenient shift swapping, online communication channels and paperwork management.

Preparing for Operational Success with Effective Onboarding

Harri saves businesses like yours time and money. This is the efficient approach your business needs to maximize the impact of new additions and those who have the potential to be permanent contributors. The digitization of onboarding also enhances operational readiness, creating a metaphorical runway for new hires to build momentum to launch and spread their wings. The end result is an improvement in the quality of service and a higher employee retention rate. 

Harri’s digital onboarding tools are a click away. Try a Demo of our platform and you’ll find the digital approach enhances your hiring and onboarding approach, helping your business meet demand and rake in more revenue. 

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