Six reasons to take your onboarding digital

The way we work and do business in the global economy, together with the composition of the modern workforce, has rendered traditional onboarding obsolete. In this article, Louise looks at six big workplace developments driving demand for more innovative onboarding approaches.

Today’s highly competitive and rapidly evolving business environment has placed a greater onus on high quality onboarding. At Sponge, we believe it’s the foundation upon which organisations build the skilled workforces they need, setting people on their way to a productive career within a company.

However, getting onboarding right is no easy task at a time when a host of challenges are cutting across sectors, industries and borders. The good news is that today learning technologies have replaced the classroom to deliver workplace training that’s flexible, agile and immediately available – just what’s needed.Drawing on our 15 years’ expertise in digital learning, we’ve identified the top six challenges and suggest some tech-powered learning solutions that can overcome them.

1. Global consistency
Customers expect a consistent experience from a brand, irrespective of location. A digital preboarding or onboarding programme, combining human expertise and technology, can deliver consistent learning in key areas such as company culture and values, while also meeting localisation challenges. For example, Sponge worked with Specsavers to create its Global Online Induction Programme, providing new recruits in ten countries with a strong understanding of the company’s story and values. Rob Foster, Global Head of Learning Technologies at Specsavers, said: ‘This induction has achieved major benefits for the company. New employees are immediately engaged even before they start employment with us.’

2. Talent pressures
Employee experience (EX) has become the new focus for HR and L&D professionals, as companies battle it out to secure talent and meet employee expectations. With the ongoing skills shortage, an inspiring preboarding and onboarding experience can make all the difference in talent acquisition, retention and people development. Experiential onboarding that uses learning technologies such as games, simulations, immersive videos and virtual reality (VR) will help organisations to win the all-important recruitment battle. For example, Sponge delivered a VR solution for Royal Mail’s new and existing postal workers to raise awareness about dog attacks. We’ve also helped multiple organisations to ensure that their workforces are familiar with GDPR regulations through a learning game, GDPR Sorted.