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What’s more important in onboarding? Seamless processes that make life simple for new starter and HR alike? Or getting your new employee excited about your organisation and what they can achieve in it?
Both are vital. But all too often, leveraging the full power of an employer brand throughout the onboarding journey is overlooked in favour of concentrating on seamless processes. This is an omission that can affect everything from your NPS score to the bottom line.
A strong business case
Recent research from Bersin, Deloitte’s HR insights and services arm, found that 22% of employees leave within the first 45 days of their employment. And that on average, it costs double someone’s salary to replace them.
With statistics like this, it makes sense to leverage a vital weapon in your organisation’s arsenal - one in which you’ve probably invested heavily already - your employer brand.
Using the power of your employer brand
The powerful messages of your employer brand, that resonated so strongly in the attraction phase, still need to be compellingly conveyed once a candidate has accepted your offer. In fact, one could argue it’s even more important to engage with them, now that they are employees.
Organisations that do this, by creating personalised, engaging and insightful onboarding experiences, and content that delivers the powerful messages central to their employer brand, reap real rewards. By winning hearts and minds before their new employees even walk through the door, they see concrete benefits in everything from reduced dropout, increased engagement and more productive new hires.
A seamless employer brand journey
A perfect example of this comes from USS, one of the largest private pension scheme providers in the UK, with over £60 billion in assets. After extensive work to develop their employer brand, in partnership with CA3 and their RPO Omni, Next generation thinking became the focal point of all USS employer communications. From initial attraction on their new careers website all the way through to their engaging onboarding portal, their brand never misses a beat.
This enviable experience is made possible by USS’ onboarding platform, which is powered by Eli. Its award-winning functionality enabling them to continue the brand-led, immersive journey, after top talent has said ‘yes’.
Fully integrated with their ATS, Eli automates the whole onboarding process (including digital contracts and forms), reducing admin and ensuring the business has everything it needs (and line managers have everything they need) to get every new employee off to a flying start.
And, the results of creating such a consistent employer brand experience speak for themselves, with 100% of new employees using their onboarding portal. On average they’re on the site 11 times before day one and are spending over 9 minutes on the site each time they visit.
Line manager and buddy engagement (and involvement) is just as high. 100% have taken responsibility for the onboarding of their new hires and teammates. Supported and coached on their own bespoke area of the portal, they are using a range of tools not to simply process new starters, but to connect and communicate with them.
It all goes to prove just how effective your onboarding process can be when it utilises the full power of your employer brand.
