If you’re not convinced already, here are five reasons why your organization will benefit from doing (all or part of) the training online:
First and foremost, onboarding online creates a sense of belonging already from the beginning. The new employees get introduced to the organization in a joint forum and the open community encourages all members to ask questions and to create discussions. This is also a very accessible place for staff to instruct and get to know their new colleagues.
Digital Onboarding saves you a lot of money. When “meeting” online managers, staff and new employees in different markets are no longer obliged to travel (that much) to meet up in one place. Except for this being cost efficient, it is also good for the environment.
Since training online can be recorded beforehand, you are not dependent on the lecturer being available at a certain date and time. This means that the content can be recorded once and then be utilized several times, whenever you want. You gain not only production flexibility, but also flexibility regarding delivering the training.
There is so much research regarding efficient learning. And it does not imply getting your head filled with tons of new information during a short period of time – as traditional IRL onboarding often mean. With digital onboarding new employees get the possibility of learning in their own pace and the opportunity to repeat the difficult and challenging stuff. Since all content is available online, employees are free to go through it over and over again; weeks, months or years after the introduction.
When moving training and discussions online, also the quiet ones get the possibility of contributing to the conversations. An online community makes it easier to ask questions, to “fail” and make mistakes. People do not feel as judged as they do in a real group, which is great especially for new and nervous employees. And this sure increases the learning process way faster!
We are convinced that these five recommendations will reduce the onboarding learning curve for new employees and hence make them way more motivated - and more productive - in their new job.