It’s commonly believed that the shift to digital employee onboarding was triggered solely by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic played a significant role in this transition, it’s not the only reason. Many companies had already taken this step years before.
The shift towards digital employee onboarding is driven by the desire to increase efficiency, reduce administrative burden, and create a more engaging experience for new hires. With the advancement of technology, organizations are likely to adopt more advanced digital onboarding solutions to further enhance the overall onboarding experience.
In this article, we’ll discuss the process of employee onboarding, and explain how you can automate it. Lastly, we’ll introduce a solution that can significantly simplify the process.
How Does the Employee Onboarding Process Work?
Not all companies made the transition to digital employee onboarding yet. You might be one of them. Let’s kick off with a description of the traditional process and its challenges.
The employee onboarding process
Once a person has been informed that they are hired, the onboarding process begins. The HR department performs Know Your Employee checks to make sure that the person they hire is who they claim to be.
This process involves requesting specific information from the employee to create their work contract. A valid passport, for example, could serve as proof of identity, but often Citizen Service Numbers, resident documents or work permits are required as well. This information is needed to prove the right to work, making sure you’re hiring only authorized employees.
The challenges of non-automated employee onboarding
During the employee onboarding process, the HR department faces various challenges. The first step in onboarding is to verify the identity of new employees. To achieve this, the HR department must undertake several steps:
- Request the new employee’s ID document.
- Ask the new employee a series of questions and gather information. This may involve filling in forms, which can result in errors and create additional paperwork.
- Verify the accuracy of the information provided and ensure that the documents are authentic.
- In some cases, if the picture of the identity document is not clear, a new picture may be requested.
- Once the employee’s identity has been verified, a contract can be prepared and signed.
Additionally, the onboarding process includes presenting the company, training, and orientation. Each step must be performed efficiently and smoothly since a strong onboarding process has been found to improve new hire retention by up to 82%.
That’s why more and more companies are shifting towards a digital employee onboarding process.
How Can You Automate Your Employee Onboarding?
By implementing an automated ID verification solution for HR departments, digital employee onboarding can be streamlined and made more efficient. Let us provide a few examples to demonstrate how this technology can revolutionize the way you work.
- Automatically fill in forms with document data extraction
The process of onboarding new employees can be tedious and time-consuming for many companies. It typically entails filling out multiple forms with details like name, address, and official ID numbers.
However, thanks to OCR technology, manual data entry can be automated. This means that employees can simply take a photo of their ID documents, proof of address, or bank statements, and the OCR software extracts the relevant information and enters the data of the ID document in the required forms automatically.
This process eliminates errors and saves time for both employees and HR departments. In just a few minutes, all the necessary information can be accurately filled out, making the process smoother and more efficient for everyone involved.
- Verify automatically the authenticity of documents
If the current process doesn’t include an onboarding platform, it requires employees to send their documents to the HR department via email. After receiving the documents, the HR team has to manually fill in all the required information and check the authenticity of the documents. This has become increasingly complicated because fraudsters are becoming better at creating fake documents that can go unnoticed by human eyes.
Identity verification software comes to the rescue in such cases. Such solutions are often capable of detecting fraudulent documents in no time with the help of AI. It’s making the entire process much more efficient and reliable.
- Onboard remotely new employees
Last but not least, using digital identity verification makes it super easy for companies to remotely onboard new employees, no matter where they live. Even if the HR team and the new employee are far apart, the company can still check digitally and automatically their ID securely.
Employees can verify their identity by submitting their IDs through an app or can send it to HR who will upload the ID documents to the software. The software continues the process and verifies the authenticity of the document. This makes the onboarding process safe and smooth, even when everyone is working from different places.
We’ve already discussed some advantages, but now let’s take a look at the full list.
Benefits of Automated Employee Onboarding
- Save Time: Automate employee onboarding to free up your HR department for more meaningful tasks.
- GDPR Compliance: Safeguard employee data and easily comply with GDPR using data anonymization.
- Prevent Fraud: Employ ID verification software with AI algorithms to detect fraudulent activities that may go unnoticed by human eyes.
- Ensure 99% Accuracy: Utilize OCR for precise extraction of HR document-related information.
- Enhance the Onboarding Experience for New Hires: A seamless onboarding process ensures a positive experience for new employees right from the beginning.
- Integrate with HR Systems: Streamline data transfer, minimize manual input, and reduce the risk of data discrepancies by integrating with HR systems.
Now that you know everything about ID verification automation, we’ll introduce you to the perfect solution.
Speed up Your Employee Onboarding with Klippa
Employee onboarding is made easy with Klippa. Our automated identity verification solution with AI extracts, verifies, anonymizes and classifies employee documentation quickly, saving HR departments valuable time. Instead of being bogged down with paperwork, HR professionals can focus on more meaningful tasks.
Interested in seeing how Klippa can revolutionize your digital employee onboarding? Book an online demo today and we’ll show you!