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You've gone through the process of attracting the right candidates, screening and evaluating them against the role criteria and company values, coordinated interviews, found your perfect candidate and you're ready to make the offer.
It's at this stage when the raising of paperwork, sending, signing and receipt of documentation and the storage of documents in a compliant manner has a habit of going wrong – which can result in all your hard work falling by the wayside.
In this insight, we provide a checklist to evaluate your current process and share tips for how to make improvements against best practice.
Online document collection checklist
On average, how long does it take you to put together an offer pack?
Do you automate reference requests and collection?
How are you delivering contracts to candidates – is the process speedy and efficient?
How easy is it for candidates to sign contracts and return all required documents to you?
What is your time to offer acceptance, and can you differentiate by role type? Do you report on this, and what is your measure of success?
Do you have full visibility of contracts online?
Are you alerted if anything gets missed or tracking of non-receipt of documentation ahead of a candidate start date?
Can candidates access a secure copy of their contract and documents?
Do you use digital signing/online signatures?
Are you confident that you can share the right information across HR?
Good practice guide
Having a good practice onboarding and online documentation process can reduce GDPR risks, reduce administration, improve visibility and deliver an enhanced candidate experience for your new joiners.
Not only are there cost savings to be made, but automated reference communications and collection streamlines the process and works best when your ATS does the chasing, so you don't have to. If referees fail to respond, your ATS/Recruitment system should be able to request the candidate supplies details of an alternative.
Online onboarding should manage the entire acceptance process online, ensure NDA's are signed, employee handbooks read, whatever you need to audit.
Build into the offer process videos, welcome messages and onboarding information that the candidate can access across multiple devices. It builds engagement and keeps hires warm before their first day.
Tip: Having specific offer workflows based on the role type with associated document collection alongside videos from the team, works really well.
Include downloadable contract packs for candidates that can be electronically signed securely using E-Signature technology to speed up the offer acceptance process. This can then sit within your ATS or transfer over to your HRIS. All offers can then be tracked and visible.
Ask us about our reporting dashboards with automatic alerts based on non-compliance, visibility of all stages of the onboarding process and candidate-driven DBS completion.
Check how you are collecting new hire information. Make use of web forms and document uploads that can be stored against the candidate record and securely accessed as required.
Not everyone will have all the information you require to hand so be sure to have a 'Save' and 'Continue Later' option for candidates to pick back up – on any device.
Finally, having integrated systems – your ATS, onboarding, HRIS and Payroll and other business systems is recommended and brings many benefits, such as removing the need for manual data entry of new hires and a connected way of working.
Further learning and, of course, free stuff!
Implementing good practice onboarding should collect everything you need from your new hires to successfully onboard them. We have some free resources to help you on your way, or if you'd prefer a quick demo then book a time slot to suit you.
