Easier onboarding and paperless onboarding go hand-in-hand; without the hassle of filling out a bunch of forms, the ability for your new hires to do it conveniently and wherever they please, the whole onboarding process is a bit simpler for everyone. It keeps you up-to-date with hiring trends, and can build your brand as an employer. But in case you need a little more convincing, let’s talk a bit more in-depth about why going paperless is both the easiest and best option for your onboarding.

It Makes an Easy New Hire Onboarding Process

Sometimes, a simpler onboarding process is easier said than done. It can mean restructuring the entire program, tweaking a few pain points and everything in between. Only 27% of companies would describe their onboarding as more than moderately effective, so if your onboarding isn’t where you think it should be, you’re not too far behind right now.

With paperless onboarding, you have the ease of creating the standardized process to your specifications. In order for employees to go through the process online and at their leisure, you need to have the process already set up. Most employee onboarding software will ask for a number of things to give new employees, making it easy to find out what you need in your onboarding process. So when you create a standardized onboarding process, chances are, it will be paperless as well.

It’s a Quick Fix to Keeping Up

If going paperless is part of the modern onboarding process, it only makes sense that companies need to make the switch in order to stay (or become) competitive with their talent rivals. And as candidates continue to hold the advantage in the candidate-driven market (with 83% of recruiters saying as much), companies are under pressure to evolve their onboarding, and going paperless is the next logical step. 

Eventually, most companies will go paperless — it’s just a matter of time. Last year, 71% of HR professionals said they were updating their onboarding programs, and 86% of those companies said their updates were moderate to major. With so many companies undergoing major updates, it’s likely they’ll make the switch to paperless, and you should too.

It’s a Simple Brand-Builder

We’ll be honest — one of the reasons we love paperless onboarding is because it’s pretty cool. Filling out forms isn’t exactly the most exhilarating activity in the world, but when you don’t have to sign anything with a pen and can see all your favorite (read: most tedious) fields filled out automatically, it’s still impressive. Someday, it won’t be, but for now, we’re still happy about it.

There’s an unspoken benefit to having your onboarding be this cool: it builds your brand with your employees. When a new employee starts out with your company and sees how fast their onboarding goes, they’ll be impressed, and become confident they’ve chosen a forward-thinking and flexible company. They’ll tell their friends about their first day, and if your onboarding left an impression, they’ll mention that as well. The result is better branding, and 65% of candidates said they’d accept a lower salary if it meant working for a company with a lot of positive press recently, and that includes word-of-mouth. 

Pretty simple, right? Setting up paperless onboarding will naturally make for a more formal onboarding process, will help you keep up with modern recruiting trends, and make it so your newly-hired employees will want to talk to their friends about your company. And trust us, getting started with paperless onboarding has never been simpler.

Bio: Christine Marino

Christine is the Chief Revenue Officer of Click Boarding, LLC, a company that offers employee onboarding software and solutions. She is responsible for the sales, marketing and business development strategies. Leveraging her 18+ years of experience in the Human Capital Management space, Christine drives company growth through strategic partner relationships as well new customer acquisitions across the small to large enterprise markets.