Onboarding Software Features
Self-service portal — This feature enables new hires to log on and view the onboarding process before they start their new job. Through these portals, new hires often have access to resources such as W-4 forms, organization charts, and training plans. By enabling new hires to access this information through a portal, they are less likely to lose important prehire documents and information than if these documents were sent via email. Since this feature often allows new hires to view their entire onboarding plan online, they are less likely to have questions about the logistics of their first few days on the job. Keep in mind that not all onboarding tools offer a self-service portal for new hires to access. Depending on the size of the company and their onboarding process, this feature may either be a necessity or a superfluous expense.
Integrations — Employee onboarding software might come packaged as an HR tool that also provides recruiting, applicant tracking, and offboarding features, to name a few. Alternately, some onboarding solutions provide integrations to HR tools such as payroll or performance management solutions.
Forms management — A library of templated forms related to the hiring process. Most tools come with templates for required forms, as well as documents related to compliance. HR personnel will want to make sure the templates that are provided by the software fit their needs, and if their industry has any compliance regulations, they will want to make sure the product fits those needs.
Autopopulation — Autopopulation streamlines the process of filling out information across all required paperwork. The information needs to be entered once, and will autopopulate across all necessary documents.
Electronic signatures — This feature helps HR personnel and managers streamline the process of approving documents.
Compliance — Onboarding solutions help HR personnel maintain the necessary compliance, such as Work Opportunity Tax Credits (WOTC) and Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliance.
Reporting — Some tools offer time-to-productivity analysis. This feature enables a view into how long it takes new hires to become productive members of the team. This data can be incredibly useful for businesses to improve their onboarding processes moving forward. Companies, HR personnel, and managers can use reporting features to view which components of the onboarding process are successful and which ones can benefit from improvement.
Dashboards — Real-time data is collected and displayed via dashboards to provide HR personnel and managers with insight into the employee onboarding process across the company and departments.
Additional Onboarding Software Features
Customizable workflow — Some onboarding vendors provide customizable onboarding processes that can be designed around factors such as job title, department, location, and language.
Personalized offer letters — With offer letter options, users can design and manage personalized offer letters using a content library that can streamline and manage offer letter messaging.
Pre-onboarding — These pre-onboarding features often provide compliance solutions for benefits and payroll.
Offboarding — Some onboarding solutions also help HR personnel manage the offboarding process, providing a complete employee lifecycle solution.
