The Ultimate Guide to Onboarding

Everything you need to know about transforming new hires into engaged employees.

Most new hires have already bought into your company story and they want to take part. Onboarding

takes these enthusiastic new people and rapidly engages and connects them to the life of the

organization. That engagement leads to employee commitment. And their commitment leads to

accomplishment.

Why is proper onboarding so important? Because

turnover is expensive—astronomically so. The

cost of replacing an entry-level employee is 30-50

percent of the person’s annual salary. And, for mid

and senior-level employees it can reach 150 - 400

percent respectively. At every departure, morale

and productivity suffer. That’s why it’s vital that all

organizations hold on to their people, and they

can start by providing a well-designed onboarding

process to educate new employees about their place within the larger culture.

In this onboarding series, you’ll read about:

• Onboarding basics

• Essential components of the process

• Ways to measure return-on-investment (ROI)

• Ways to improve existing onboarding programs

A study by analyst firm Aberdeen Group found that 86 percent of respondents felt that a new hire’s

decision to stay with a company long-term is made within the first six months of employment. That

requires a great first impression! New hires are expensive. You want to protect your recruitment

investment. An awesome onboarding process that lasts more than one day or that begins even before

the first day with engagement and information can do that. Relying on a one-day HR orientation, a

series of unrelated administrative tasks, and a folder of forms doesn’t work. Especially with the new

generation of workers who expect speed and automation.

“Onboarding is the perfect opportunity to make a positive, lasting impression on a new hire,” says Ben

Eubanks, a blogger at UpstartHR. “It really is the honeymoon phase for new employees. They’ve just

agreed to come and work for a new company, and they are prepared to be wowed. But the employer

must deliver.”

“Onboarding is the perfect opportunity to make a positive, lasting impression on a new hire. It really is the honeymoon phase for new employees. They’ve just agreed to come and work for a new company, and they are prepared to be wowed. But the employer must deliver.”

Objectives of Onboarding Programs

An onboarding program that delivers in all the right ways will accomplish these goals:

Reduces Time-to-Productivity

The time-to-productivity metric,

which is rapidly gaining acceptance

as a critical measurement in

recruiting and talent management

circles, has a few meanings. Some

define it as the time required for new

employees to have all of the information, skills, and equipment necessary to perform

their jobs at a productive level. Others say it’s the time required for new hires to

achieve the job proficiency of an employee who has been at the organization for two

years. Either day, proper onboarding gets employees up to speed much more quickly,

so that within weeks, it’s hard to tell the difference between new and seasoned hires.

Reduces Stress

The guesswork required by new employees is enough to cause a significant amount

of anxiety. By telling new hires what they need to know before they need to know it,

proper onboarding reduces the negative affect that naturally occurs when entering a

new situation and makes it possible for new hires to concentrate on their jobs rather

than their angst.

Reduces Turnover

In many industries, organizations lose as many as 15 percent of employees per year,

and we’ve already mentioned why this is very costly. Strong onboarding programs

assure new and existing employees that they are valued and have all the necessary

tools to succeed. They demonstrate in tangible ways that the organization truly cares

about its employees, and make it far less likely that they will look elsewhere.

83% of best-in-class organizations start onboarding prior to Day 1 by welcoming new hires warmly and tackling administrative matters in advance.

Develops Job Knowledge

In addition to teaching new hires abut the mission, vision, values, and culture of the

organization, proper onboarding ensures that new employees fully understand their

roles and how they relate to the organization’s big picture operations. New employees

learn what’s expected, how to deliver, and how and when they will be evaluated.

Upfront education prevents damaging mistakes down the road.

What the Best Do

In their survey, the Aberdeen Group

found that the world’s highest

performing organizations have

implemented onboarding initiatives

that achieve these goals. As a result

of their efforts, 66 percent report

better assimilation of new hires into

company culture, 62 percent report higher time-to-productivity ratios, and 54 percent

report higher employee engagement.

These companies do a stellar job at retaining new hires, getting them to a desired level of performance

quickly, and improving manager satisfaction with the process and the hires. Their onboarding

processes also minimize disruption to the rest of the organization and strategically build trust between

new and seasoned hires.

Eighty-three percent of best-in-class organizations start onboarding prior to Day 1 by welcoming new

hires warmly and tackling administrative matters in advance. Fifty-two percent have a senior leader

actively involved in the process. For example, a department head might send a personal note to each

new hire, or the CEO might do a presentation for a group of new employees.

According to the Aberdeen Group, the top performers also place a majority of the onboarding

responsibility on hiring managers and line of business stakeholders. These individuals are tasked with

assimilation and alignment rather than the mundane tasks that can be handled by HR coordinators

(e.g. securing a parking pass for a new hire).

Whenever possible, put new employees together with team members who have positive personalities. While you can’t control everything, you can start with putting the right staff out in front.

Onboarding Technology Systems

Having a centralized employee portal that serves as a hub for everything your people

could possibly want to know and do requires some upfront investment, but will save

you time and resources in the long run. Solutions like SilkRoad’s Life Suite Onboarding

system, the premiere onboarding application, introduce new hires to their job virtually

while acclimating them to your culture and procedures before day one.

For example, as soon as new employees receive job offers, they also receive access to the onboarding

portal. Here they discover content that’s designed to engage them early: a friendly note from their

manager; first-day information; welcome messages from and photographs of their new teammates;

a glossary of company buzzwords and acronyms; and your organization’s social, sports, or volunteer

calendar. The portal may include a virtual copy of your employee handbook as well as other details about

the new hire’s department and job responsibilities. All will help new hires ramp up that much faster.

New hire portals also provide visibility to managers and HR through dashboards so they can organize

and track internal tasks that need to be completed during onboarding - and manage forms electronically

(like W-4 or I-9, benefits, payroll) to ensure completeion on time. Given the time-sensitive nature of many

government forms, there are substantial benefits to using a system that automatically reminds new hires

to respond within the deadlines and that integrates to Federal verification systems.

Once onboarding administration goes online, you solve all of the familiar headaches. Content is easily

updated and current so you’ll minimize misunderstandings and avoid potential compliance issues.

And you’ll make a terrific first impression on new hires who are accustomed to organizations where

onboarding is a somewhat careless operation.

Systems Set-Up

We’ve all been there: You start a new job. Find your office or cubicle empty - or better

yet, no office or cubicle at all. Maybe you find your desk wedged in a hallway or make do

sitting in the lobby or at someone else’s station until your new employer finally gives you

the tools you need to do your job. Not very confidence building, is it?

If you don’t have an automated system to alert all of the various departments involved in onboarding a new

employee, you’ll need to take manual steps. Take responsibility for stocking every new hire’s workspace

with supplies in advance of their start date. Work with your IT department to ensure that the new employee

has some sort of computer (laptop, desktop, phone), an operational e-mail address, and usernames and

passwords for essential online tools and resources ready for use. Have business cards, parking permits, and

ID cards ready so that new hires can move freely around your facilities.

An onboarding technology system can automatically assign these tasks to the appropriate parties and

ensure proper tracking and follow through. With this many moving parts, you don’t want to risk something

falling through the cracks.

What Does Onboarding ROI Mean for Your Organization?

Before you start creating metrics, understand what goals you want an onboarding

program to achieve. Then what those goals mean for your organization. Is your

goal to build a great team with excellent peer relationships, top levels of initiative

and creativity? Do you want to mentor employees to instill a sense of continuitity

and tradition? You want to create goals that cultivate retention. You may want

your onboarding program to support employees in achieving early successes. What is that worth to your

business?

Even if you think you’ve mastered your organization’s mission, vision, and values, it can’t hurt to revisit

them within the context of onboarding. Many HR leaders will ignore setting some baselines for ROI. Why?

Because this tends to be gathering metrics on soft skills and that can be pretty subjective. Evaluating

the value derived to the company when new employees are brought on and acclimated and then

establishing a baseline on time-to-success can be daunting.

So, take your time. Get the right partners involved and have the necessary conversations. Not only does

this provide business context, but ensures that what you discover will provide some strategic insight and

will help educate others about HR’s roles and responsibilities.

What Are the Most Critical Onboarding Metrics?

Aberdeen, the analyst firm, identifies best-in-class organizations as being nearly

twice as likely to have specific onboarding metrics. These companies rank

employee engagement (4.49), retention (4.44), and time to productivity (4.42) as

having the greatest value to both HR and the business.

Employee engagement can be measured in all sorts of ways, but experts recommend the assessment

of new hire satisfaction with organization-wide and group specific onboarding initiatives at 30 days, six

months, and one year. At the same time, it’s a good practice to measure the percentage of your hiring

managers who are satisfied with the onboarding process and the preparedness of their new hire.

You can create surveys to generate insights from both new hires and their managers.

Why is retention of new hires so important? Because employees who transition through a consistent

onboarding program engage more and with greater intensity. Likewise, they demonstrate they are less

likely to quit. Unllike new hires who get thrown into a job cold. If you have experienced the “quick quits”

phenomenon - new hires who quit within 90 days or six months - you know the risk to the organization.

Measure the six month and 12 month retention rates of new hires and compare the results to when

you had a manual, paper based orientation and compare to the consistent, individualized onboarding

process.

Calculating New Hire Productivity

New hire productivity, especially time to productivity, is not as easy to calculate as employee

engagement or new hire retention. Before you start, you need to understand what employees do, what

actions they take or perform, that indicate they are productive. Does full productivity mean that they

have a low error rates? That they require little supervisory time? That they can write code to spec at a

specific rate? Make outbound calls or field inbound calls in a service center at a certain rate per hour?

Once you define 100% productivity you can then define 50% productivity, 25% and so on. Then measure

the cost of that lower productivity - including the extra work needed from other staff to cover the lower

productivity. Or the lost opportunity cost of failing to perform to that level.

The key to leveraging the time to productivity metric is to understand what your new hires’ output looks

like from the day they walk in the door to the day they are fully productive employees. If it takes six

months and costs $5,000 to get someone up to speed, then an onboarding program that reduces that

timeline and expenditure to three months and $2,000 is clearly producing a positive ROI.

Onboarding metrics can include:

Days to achieve minimum productivity.

Turnover rates of new hires - the “quick quits” within

the first six months.

Termination rate of new hires who fail during the

first six months.

The completion rate of training and education

sessions to new hires over the first two weeks.

Retention rate for the onboarding information provided during the first one month - using a random

sample of new hires.

You will incur extra costs including manpower, additional staff coverage, and even morale while everyone is waiting for the new hire to get to the full 100 percent.

The ROI of Onboarding Technology

The implementation of an onboarding technology solution will result in greater

efficiency with regards to company resources and business processes. The use of

technology to facilitate your onboarding process is critical to successfully getting new

hires in the organization and getting them productive.

While measuring the ROI of less tangible benefits

like time to productivity, engagement, and

retention may show more true long-term benefits

to the organization, determining the ROI of your

onboarding technology investment shouldn’t be

overlooked.

Task-related ROI, such the number of employees

processed per year, cost savings on the

production and processing of employee materials,

and time savings on logistics tracking and the

collection of employee documentation are a few

of the key measures to take into consideration.

The following table captures sample costs and

savings associated with onboarding automation

through one year:

Getting the Most from Your ROI

If measuring the ROI of your onboarding programs is new to you, start slowly. Devise

one metric per major business goal and practice tracking it, analyzing your results,

and communicating value before adding more metrics to your arsenal.

Also, don’t view onboarding ROI in a silo. The ROI of your onboarding initiatives will be intimately related to

the ROI of your recruitment and talent management programs, so look for ways you can measure success

once but cut the data in different ways. For instance, the retention and time to productivity metrics have

implications not only for onboarding, but also for recruitment. Hopefully, effective recruiting and onboarding

practices are working in concert to ensure that new hires are brought up to speed, engaged, and integrated

into the team as proficiently as possible.

Most onboarding technology systems have functionality that facilitates the measurement and management

of ROI. If you’re unsure about how your technology can help in this process, ask your account representative.

CASE STUDY: REPORTING ROI

Challenge: With nearly 33,000 employees in

28 countries around the world and minimal HR

resources, eBay recognized their need to improve

the new hire experience and create efficiencies

through a comprehensive technology solution.

Solution: By using SilkRoad’s RedCarpet

onboarding software, eBay improved the new-hire

experience by automating both tasks and

socialization aspects of onboarding.

Results and ROI: eBay quickly reduced the

administrative cost of onboarding by 25 percent

and saved significant operational

costs and improved productivity by reducing its

onboarding process steps by 60 percent.

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Once you are able to demonstrate a compelling business case for your onboarding programs, don’t stop

there. Use your data to regularly revisit your initiatives and make tweaks. Talk with other HR professionals

about how you can take onboarding excellence to the next level, and make sure you close the loop with

the senior executives with whom you started this process. If your ROI is significant, they will have a vested

interest in your ongoing success. Visit the SilkRoad Killer Onboarding Portals Gallery to understand what

makes a great employee onboarding portal.

Alexandra Levit is a business and workplace writer and speaker who educates organizations on how to better connect with and retain top talent.

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ll trademarks are the property of their respective ow

ners. Onboarding301_072014

www.tenneco.comHEADQUARTERS In North America, Lake Forest, Illinois

EMPLOYEES 25,000

Tenneco Deploys SilkRoad RedCarpet Software around the Globe: Saves Hours, Engages Employees from Day One

The RedCarpet system improved Tenneco’s onboarding in myriad ways: We saved $250,000 within the first year of use. Now our onboarding process is 95% paperless. New hires are more quickly acculturated into the company. Best of all, managers and employees are enthusiastic about the software—especially the

Web portals customized for each Tenneco location. – Matt Sims, Senior Human Resources Manager

©2013 SilkRoad // silkroad.com

A $250,000 savings for the entire company within the first year.

Self-service, customized portals that deliver both corporate and local information new hires need.

A reduction in “non-value” employee orientation time by nearly 90%. The process of filling out paperwork was reduced from 4 hours to .5 hours.

A dramatic increase in employee satisfaction, shown in high scores on new hire surveys.

Greater transparency and alignment among managers, HR, and new employees.

REDCARPET RESULTS

An onboarding process that is 95% paperless.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PROBLEM

Tenneco pioneers technologies for cleaner, safer and smoother transportation, yet it used a manual onboarding process that was time-consuming, costly, and inconsistent. The organization sought an onboarding system to support its operational excellence and worldwide presence.

BACKGROUND

Tenneco is one of the world’s largest designers, manufacturers and distributors of solutions for the automotive and commercial vehicle original equipment markets and the aftermarket. Globally, the company has 89 manufacturing facilities and 14 engineering centers on six continents, and 100 countries that it services. The organization has 355 hiring managers and 47 HR managers—spread across a vast geography of different languages and cultures. Annually, Tenneco hires hundreds of employees to fill a wide variety of roles—from design, manufacturing and operations, to finance, administration and management.

Tenneco wanted a new employee onboarding system that would reflect its technical prowess and worldwide reputation. Yet, their older, inefficient onboarding process was burdensome for new hires, HR, and managers. New hires would typically spend hours reading and signing forms, which were routed and collected, then filed or scanned. Moreover, the process varied from location to location; new hires did not share a common experience, and first day expectations were communicated inconsistently.

In brief, Tenneco had outgrown its outdated onboarding process and clearly needed a new one. The company selected SilkRoad OpenHire software for recruiting. At the same time, the HR team recognized that SilkRoad’s RedCarpet system was easy-to-use, full-featured, and completely integrated with OpenHire, so they purchased it too.

One of Tenneco’s key strategic imperatives is to institute global business processes and capabilities. Our HR team helped fulfill that imperative by choosing the RedCarpet solution. The RedCarpet software was so easy to use; we knew that it could handle the scope of our entire global onboarding process.—Matt Sims, Senior Human Resources Manager

CHALLENGES

Move from a collection of manual methods to a single, automated solution that would provide a quality experience for new hires.

Address global inconsistencies in onboarding, all while recognizing regional differences.

Reinforce Tenneco’s vision, mission, values and distinctive culture.

Clearly communicate first day expectations to new hires, speeding the acculturation process.

Reduce the time and cost of processing new hires by adopting a standard across the organization.

Improve communication between managers, HR, and new employees.

SOLUTION

RedCarpet onboarding software has dramatically decreased onboarding costs and time spent per hire—while increasing new hire satisfaction throughout the company’s global network of offices and manufacturing facilities.

4321

56

SPEED, EFFICIENCY, AND COST SAVINGS

The RedCarpet solution has resulted in significant time and cost savings for Tenneco. No longer does HR spend time ensuring that employees have signed all paperwork, nor do new hires sit for hours, signing stacks of paper forms; now most forms are electronic. Managers no longer spend time on the phone, trying to determine when an employee is ready for work; rather, they receive system notifications after the new employee has completed all pre-hire forms.

Tenneco’s onboarding metrics are remarkable: After the first year of using RedCarpet software, the HR team estimated a savings of $250,000 to the company globally. The onboarding process is now 95% paperless, eliminating waste and cost. In addition, the time that a hire spends signing paper forms has dropped from 4 hours to .5 hours—all hours that can be more productively spent adapting to the new work environment.

ONE BRAND, LOCALIZED WEB PORTALS

Tenneco has an extraordinary brand that conveys the company vision, values and approach to business. That brand has been incorporated into RedCarpet Web portals to help reinforce new employees’ understanding of the organization. Moreover, the portals also carry standard corporate information that an employee might have forgotten during orientation, such as questions about the 401K plan or payroll schedule. All critical information is stored in one place, thus eliminating questions for managers and relieving any anxiety the employee might have.

What’s more, Tenneco’s employee portals are customized for each facility or engineering center. A new hire in Grass Lake, Michigan will find the same strong Tenneco brand as an employee in Shanghai, China or Buenos Aires, Argentina. Yet, the content has been localized to make the employee aware of hours of operation, nearby restaurants, amenities, and other information. Best of all, the RedCarpet software has enabled Tenneco to deliver content in the language of the new hire—helping to bring employees up to speed quickly.

INCREASED ORGANIZATIONAL ALIGNMENT, NEW HIRE SATISFACTION

The RedCarpet system has helped create greater alignment across the entire Tenneco organization—from the hiring

manager and HR, to other departments, such as Facilities. One system ensures all parties are accountable and aware of the roles they play in the onboarding process.

The software has also helped Tenneco fill an important piece of the onboarding puzzle: new hire satisfaction. The company surveys new hires about their onboarding experience after twenty days on the job. Before adopting RedCarpet, the scores were below average; now the company receives high marks for its organized, clear-cut process.

Last but not least, Tenneco’s onboarding activity has evolved from being tactical to strategic, supporting the company’s core values of teamwork, innovation and transparency. The company now quickly transforms enthusiastic new hires into dedicated employees who are prepared to help realize the company vision: pioneering global ideas for cleaner, quieter, smoother and safer transportation.

MANY COUNTRIES AND LOCATIONS: ONE ONBOARDING SOLUTION

Tenneco locations around the globe really appreciate the RedCarpet software. The user portal is customized for each location to show restaurants, health clubs, attractions, and

“need to know” company information. Best of all, the portal is translated into the language of the new hire, so that the person comes up to speed quickly.

Copyright 2013, SilkRoad. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective ow

ners. CS_Tenneco_RC_081913

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Required: A more efficient, accountable and robust onboarding system — no more frustration!

Scania Group are an internationally renowned manufacturer of trucks, coaches and engines, employing 34,000 people worldwide. In Australia the group is represented by Scania Australia, with a workforce of 380 employees nationally.

When onboarding new employees into Scania Australia, it became apparent the current procedure was not working as efficiently as required. With only a small HR team, the process was proving to be manual, lengthy and was also impacting the time available to work on other strategic HR activities. Recruiting managers found the onboarding process time consuming and labour intensive which impacted on their day to day activities making it difficult to complete the required tasks to have an employee set up for day one.

Scania Australia chose RedCarpet to help design an onboarding program to ensure new employees are informed about the company and have completed their new starter paperwork online so they were ready to hit the ground running, allowing them to be focused on important learning activities on their first day.

Background

For more information: asia@silkroad.com | www.silkroad.com

“It’s just made life easier,

and it works.

Case Study: Automotive & Auto Services

Jean IncorvaiaPayroll OfficerScania Australia

Scania Australia Onboarding Portal

Making Hiring Seamless: How SilkRoad RedCarpet gave Scania Australia a new

and improved ‘new-hire experience’.

RedCarpet was able to coordinate deadlines and reminders for departments across Scania Australia for the individual to be successfully set up and onboarded. This allowed the HR department to be informed on the status of completion of paperwork and coordinate first day arrangements.

Day One ReadinessOriginally, new employees would receive a hard copy starter pack in the post to complete and send back prior to the first day. This process was taking up to 4 weeks to complete before the new starter could even be added to internal systems. With RedCarpet, new employees can now familiarise themselves and start learning about Scania whilst completing the necessary forms before they step through the door on their first day. Being able to complete the onboarding process online and from home before starting greatly simplified the process and decreased lead times.

Using RedCarpet, managers now complete online e-forms and are clearly informed of the deadline of each task. Once a form is completed by the manager, it is streamlined to other areas of the business. In addition, managers are given notice when probation periods are coming to an end — something that had often been missed previously —simplifying their performance management duties and giving managers ample time to consider each employee and their level of ‘fit’ within the business.

Getting rid of the guessworkRedCarpet ensures all required steps are taken in the right order when onboarding new employees. Previously, managers often forgot or skipped steps due to time constraints or unfamiliarity with the onboarding needs. Thanks to RedCarpet, the guesswork was taken out of the equation and managers are given automatic reminders ensuring essential tasks are completed on time and efficiently. Upon completion of each task, HR is immediately notified. There is minimal paperwork being misplaced as copies are edited and completed online ensuring no more resubmitting or follow up.

Warm receptionThe RedCarpet system was well received by new employees — satisfaction in Scania’s induction process increased from just 30% to 65% in the first 6 months post implementation. Thanks to the landing page for new starters, feedback is consistently received asserting that new employees felt highly familiar with the Company before starting.

The number one advantage of using RedCarpet is increased productivity in all areas of the business. Scania’s HR department is no longer tied up with manual tasks and following up paperwork. Employee onboarding activities have improved overall.

SolutionScania Welcomes

“It has streamlined

our processes.

Lauren AsciakHR AdvisorScania Australia

End-to-End HR Software | www.silkroad.comTalent Acquisition | Talent Development | HRMS | Talent Portal

56 Number of new hires inducted through RedCarpet in the first six months

Participation in induction process survey

Reduction in number of follow-ups with the new hires by the HR department per day

Reduction in number of follow-ups with managers per day

65%

5:1

5:1

BY THE NUMBERS

61,051 TRUCKS

6,350 COACHES

7,063 ENGINES

Worldwide Deliveries, 2012

Lord Fairfax Community College Makes Onboarding 70% More Efficient, Improves Day-1 Productivity with SilkRoad Onboarding

“Employees don’t spend their first days signing a hundred things. They can start working with colleagues on day one. That makes a positive first impression.”

—Karen Foreman, MSHRM, Director of Human Resources

Minimize missed paperwork that often delays start dates and first paychecks, frustrating new hires.4

Easily adapt the onboarding workflow as the process evolves.3

Provide customized, consistent onboarding experiences across six employee classifications and three campuses.

2

Transition from a manual process to a single, automated onboarding solution.1

Free up academic and business leaders to spend less time on paperwork and more time focused on core responsibilities. 5Gain data and insights to identify process improvement opportunities.6

SILKROAD RESULTS CHALLENGES

A software solution customized for varied employee classifications and adaptable when processes change

One automated onboarding process that virtually eliminated paperwork and bottlenecks, and shortened the timeline by 70%

Self-service branded portals that engage new hires with personalized experience and enable productivity on day one

Full transparency that allows HR and others to see in current status on onboarding workflows in minutes

©2014 SilkRoad // silkroad.com

ONBOARDING DELAYS AND FRUSTRATIONS

An hour west of Washington D.C., Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) serves residents of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and Piedmont regions. The institution includes three campuses, 18,000 students, and nearly 1,000 employees.

“We’ve received multiple recognitions for being a great place to work,” says Karen Foreman, MSHRM, the college’s Director of Human Resources. “That helps us attract talented people.” Onboarding processes needed to deliver on that experience.

When Foreman joined the institution, onboarding was little more than a 30-page packet of forms and materials. While HR had a checklist and timeline for forms completion, most often individual follow-up was required.

“With all the back and forth, new employee start times and even their first paychecks were often delayed,” says Foreman. “It was time-consuming, distracting, and frustrating for everyone, especially the new employees.”

Her first step was to design complete onboarding processes to accommodate six employee classifications. Then they sought a tool that could make it all real. “As soon as we saw the SilkRoad demo, we knew it was exactly what we needed,” she says.

SILKROAD TURNS THINGS AROUND

“It’s a night-and-day difference,” says JoAnn Ellwood, MBA. “Today onboarding is usually wrapped up in three days. In a couple instances, we’ve completed everything in less than 24 hours.”

Each new employee receives a personalized onboarding experience via SilkRoad’s online portal. Everything is right there keyed to the individual and the job classification. On-time forms completion rate has increased from just 40 percent to 89 percent. And Ellwood says it’s still improving.

ACCOUNTABILITY MAKES A DIFFERENCE

In addition timely onboarding, SilkRoad brought accountability into the process. “Every morning, I can see exactly where we are in the process for each new hire,” Ellwood explains. “I can spot problems and address them immediately.”

I-9 reports also used to be a particular struggle for the HR team. “Now we have an I-9 dashboard and we’re one hundred percent on time with those forms,” says Ellwood.

SilkRoad includes rich reporting. One example is the Assigned Promptness report, which shows LFCC’s HR team which employees and departments are on time and which are behind schedule for each assigned onboarding task.

“Everyone was very happy with the result. There were no more desks full of paperwork.”—JoAnn Ellwood, MBA, HR Analyst II

The personalized onboarding portal helps make a positive first impression.

“We’ve saved on labor costs, paper and postage, and frustration for everyone.” —Karen Foreman, MSHRM, Director of Human Resources

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Copyright 2014, SilkRoad. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective ow

ners. CS_LordFairfax_060914

www. ynhhs.orgHEADQUARTERS New Haven, Connecticut

EMPLOYEES 19,465 and growing

SilkRoad’s RedCarpet® Onboarding Solution Adopted by Yale New Haven Health System

Problem: Yale New Haven Health System is a rapidly growing, nationally recognized healthcare organization, but it was using a manual system for onboarding—requiring enormous time and paperwork for HR and new hires. The organization sought an automated process that would match its reputation and excellence in patient care.

©2014 SilkRoad, inc. // silkroad.com

One, consistent, automated onboarding process that eliminated paper, errors in employee records, and data entry for HR and Payroll departments.

A self-service, branded portal that provides a superb experience for new hires, giving them an introduction to the organization and helping the Yale New Haven Health System organizations win in the war to retain healthcare talent.

Decrease in data errors, because all information is typed and not handwritten, and forms are pre-populated. Electronic records ensure that new hire information is no longer misfiled.

Greater transparency and communication across the Health System, since electronic notifications are sent to departments, letting them know when the new hires have completed all their paperwork.

REDCARPET RESULTS

Reduction in time spent on each new hire by 3 hours, allotting more productive time back to HR, Payroll, Parking departments and new hire.

new hire. Because all incoming employee information is stored online and easily accessible, the entire process is transparent and more efficient for everyone involved.

Yale New Haven Health System estimates a savings of 3 hours per incoming employee, a significant metric for a growing organization. In a typical year, Yale New Haven Health System brings on board approximately 2,100 employees. Crunching the numbers, this means that the RedCarpet software saves an astonishing total of 6300 hours annually—all productive time that can better be dedicated to other priorities.

SilkRoad’s RedCarpet software has shown Yale New Haven Health System significant time savings—hours that HR and Payroll are using productively to focus on other critical work.

CHALLENGES

Bring strategy, consistency, and discipline to the process of onboarding.

Move from a collection of manual processes to a single, automated solution that would provide a quality experience for new hires.

Reduce time and cost of processing new hires by adopting a standard that applies to all organizations in the Health System. Eliminate delays in routing paper documents to different departments for new hires.

Ensure that new employee data is absolutely accurate, eliminating errors and inconsistencies that can occur in paper documents.

Help make new employees productive, as soon as possible.

SOLUTION

SilkRoad’s RedCarpet software solution, with its sophisticated features and personalized customer support, has completely automated the onboarding process, dramatically decreased time spent per hire, and ensured greater new hire satisfaction.

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BACkgROuNdYale New Haven Health System is comprised of three hospitals, Bridgeport, Greenwich and Yale-New Haven, and Northeast Medical Group—a physician foundation. The health system is affiliated with Yale School of Medicine.

Yale New Haven Health has escalated hiring activity to meet its rapid 2 to 3 percent annual patient growth rate. As a result, onboarding is a constant and dynamic effort within the organization. The HR team brings on approximately 2,100 new hires per year—from surgical technicians, ER nurses, and physicians to administrative staff and leadership.

THE ONBOARdiNg CHAllENgE

Yale New Haven Health wanted a state-of-the-art new employee onboarding system to match its cutting-edge medical care of patients. Yet, the organization’s onboarding system was cumbersome. The system’s HR departments received multiple paper forms from new hires, which were collected, routed to departments for data entry, and filed. The process was highly variable, depending upon the employee handling the onboarding: Sometimes forms were missed, or misfiled. In short, onboarding was burdensome for candidates and time consuming for HR staff.

Without a doubt, Yale New Haven Health had clearly outgrown its paper-based and time-intensive methods of onboarding. After a rigorous evaluation of three software vendors, the organization chose SilkRoad.

THE BENEfiTS Add up: TiME SAviNgS, pROduCTiviTY

SilkRoad’s RedCarpet software has shown Yale New Haven Health System significant time savings—hours that HR and Payroll are using productively to focus on other critical work. Maintaining consistency throughout the onboarding process, previously a headache for HR, is now an easy task. The streamlined onboarding process has also saved time and effort for other departments, such as Parking. Automatic notifications are sent to departments when the forms are completed by the

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A HigH pERfORMANCESOluTiON: ONBOARdiNg 3,500 EMplOYEES iN ONE WEEk

The power and efficiency of RedCarpet software were put to the test under pressure in 2012, when Yale-New Haven Hospital acquired Hospital of Saint Raphael, a 511 bed hospital also located in New Haven. As a result of the acquisition, the organization’s hardworking HR team needed to onboard HSR’s 3,500 employees rapidly. Prior to Day One, the team began to integrate the acquired employees into the organization, using their RedCarpet system. Benefits and payroll information had to be correct and completed within days, because employees were scheduled to be paid the following week. The RedCarpet notification feature was used to let the acquired employees know precisely what they needed to do to make the transition. HR was available to answer questions. As a result, the whole operation went forward without a hitch.

“The task of onboarding 3,500 employees at once was monumental, but the entire process went smoothly and seamlessly. We would have faced a very difficult challenge accomplishing this with our previous paper-based system. Just managing the paper forms alone would have been very resource intensive and time consuming.” — Nancy Collins, Director of Recruitment,

Yale-New Haven Hospital

SupERB NEW HiREExpERiENCE

Healthcare organizations will face significant workforce shortages in

the coming years, so it’s imperative for them to retain employees. A smooth onboarding process gives a new hire a positive first impression of the organization. Moreover, it helps integrate an employee into the culture and expectations of the workplace, speeding the transition into a new job. The Health System’s new hires now have the opportunity to review employee benefits, the employee handbook, and campus maps before they arrive for their first day of work. With RedCarpet software’s Web-based interface, new hires have two weeks to complete all their paperwork online at their leisure. This includes automatic reminders as a new hire’s due date approaches.

Most important of all, Yale New Haven Health System has elevated the onboarding process, making it more strategic and disciplined. HR now has a sharper focus on other tasks, such as planning to meet the organization’s future growth. And, rather than receiving a flood of paper, new employees are integrated into the organization quickly, so that they can better fulfill the mission of Yale New Haven Health System: to deliver excellent care to patients and the communities it serves.

“We’ve saved three hours per new hire with the RedCarpet onboarding system, which is a significant amount of time.”

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