AI In Onboarding: 5 Use Cases That Will Shape Its Future
Onboarding is crucial for businesses in almost every industry. It is the process of introducing new hires to a company and equipping them with the necessary skills and tools to excel in their new role. However, despite its significance, onboarding has evolved into a tedious and uninteresting function for newcomers and businesses alike. This is partly due to the overwhelming amount of paperwork involved but also due to newer, more flexible models of work. As a result, businesses are seeking ways to reshape onboarding to effectively fulfill its purpose while keeping new hires engaged. Let's see how new technologies and Artificial Intelligence, specifically, will affect onboarding in the future by exploring 5 use cases of AI in onboarding.
5 Ways To Leverage Artificial Intelligence In Onboarding
1. Automate Administrative Tasks
Although starting a new job is exciting, the excessive amount of paperwork involved in onboarding can dampen the experience. During their first days, employees are inundated with documents, legal notices, payroll forms, etc., which they have to fill out and send. At the same time, HR departments spend numerous hours managing and processing this paperwork.
AI can significantly simplify these processes for both sides. Firstly, once digital signatures are enabled and submissions are automated, physical paperwork can be eliminated. Documents will be stored on a digital platform that businesses and new hires can access at all times. Reminders for timely submission will be sent automatically, ensuring that each stage is completed within a set time frame. Additionally, AI algorithms will be able to instantly check documents and forms for missing information or inconsistencies and prompt new hires to fix them on the spot, thus reducing errors and preventing delays.
2. Personalize The Onboarding Experience
Once businesses start incorporating AI into their onboarding strategy, it is certain that they will part ways with the one-size-fits-all approach. Every employee that comes into your business is unique, and their welcome and integration process should reflect that. AI-based personalization can be evident in all stages of onboarding, from the welcome email they receive on their first day to the training plan that will be tailored to their specific needs. For example, AI can design and automate checklists for the first week, month, or 90 days of an employee based on their position and specific preferences. A personalized onboarding experience ensures increased employee engagement while also setting up the new hires for success by providing them with the support they need.
3. Offer Immediate Support To Employees
Another element of personalization that AI can integrate into onboarding is constant and instant support via chatbots and virtual assistants. It's only natural that employees have many questions when starting a new job regarding their benefits, vacation days, remote work policies, and so on. Instead of wasting time stressing about who the right person to ask is, AI can help them get immediate answers. These AI-powered tools are designed to generate answers instantly and respond appropriately to follow-up questions. If at any point they cannot provide a satisfactory response, they will give the employee the contact details of the right colleague. AI tools can also gather useful data on the most common questions new hires ask. You can use this information to improve the system's knowledge base so that it functions even more efficiently in the future.
4. Improve Inclusivity
As remote work gains more traction in the future, the more culturally diverse businesses will become. For instance, if you are running an international organization with locations in different countries, you will want all your employees to have a common onboarding experience that also accounts for the intricacies of their specific country. Using Artificial Intelligence during the onboarding process will help translate training materials into the employee's native language, allowing them to acquire the necessary knowledge for their new position in the language they are most comfortable in. Depending on their location, they will also receive the right employee handbook that includes information that applies to their specific region. This ensures that onboarding is inclusive for all employees, aligning with the increasingly diverse nature of the modern workplace.
5. Gather And Provide Data-Driven Feedback
One of the great benefits of AI is its ability to provide data-backed insights. The future of onboarding is looking promising as long as employees can receive comprehensive feedback on their progress and businesses can quantify how effective their onboarding strategy is. Through quizzes, surveys, sentiment analysis, and numerous other features, Artificial Intelligence will be able to assist organizations in analyzing and decoding all facets and stages of onboarding to ensure better resource planning, optimize the onboarding experience for employees, and identify areas for improvement. Leveraging AI predictive analytics, businesses will be able to learn from previous onboarding strategies to ultimately develop an onboarding strategy that perfectly aligns with their corporate culture, organizational goals, and workforce requirements.
Conclusion
The significance of an effective onboarding strategy can no longer be debated. It is essential for talent attraction and retention, as well as the long-term success of an organization. But as technological and social transformations change the business landscape as we know it, leaders will need to embrace Artificial Intelligence to keep up with the competition.
