Contractors and field services workers are currently smack dab in the middle of their busiest time and that means the heat is on to keep your labor pool strong to finish out the season. But if your recruiting process doesn’t include fast employee onboarding, you’re not only wasting time, but workers might walk out the door right after they’re hired. Why? Onboarding sets the stage for a strong employee experience and more workers today demand a great one.
Better Employee Onboarding is Essential
Onboarding is part of the hiring process that gives new employees basic introductions to the job but also a full integration into the company. Many employers confuse onboarding with having employees fill out paperwork, like W4s, and handing out equipment, like hard hats. Simply putting your employees at the back of the site trailer to fill out paperwork doesn’t make for a great onboarding experience. It’s not new that only one in 10 employees strongly agree that their organizations does a good job of onboarding. And a negative experience about onboarding can impact retention rates. It has been found that companies that implement a formal onboarding program could see 50% greater employee retention among new recruits and 62% greater productivity.
The key to better employee onboarding is having a system in place that gets new hires on the job quickly and easily and that gives them a good experience.
What’s Involved in Fast Employee Onboarding?
Fast employee onboarding means your new hires get to worker faster, without missing any of the steps that prepare them for work, while maintaining compliance.
Jumpstart Onboarding at Home
Don’t waste the first day filling out paperwork. It’s a mundane task that isolates your new hire from the rest of the team. Remember sitting in the worksite trailer filling out stacks of paperwork? Instead, use an onboarding system that allows new employees to start this part of the process from home, before their first day on the job. A cloud-based system gives employers the ability to collect several documents from employees for legal and regulatory compliance.
This paperwork includes:
- W-4 for employees or W-9 for contractors
- I-9 Employee Eligibility Verification form
- State Tax Withholding form
- Direct Deposit form
- E-Verify system that verifies employee’s work eligibility in the United States
When new employees complete this step from home, their first day becomes less about paperwork and more about productivity. Use that first day to help employees start to create working relationships with their new team members and really begin to understand the responsibilities of the job and the culture of the organization.
Onboard Workers on the Jobsite
There are times construction and field services companies need to hire several employees at once, like for seasonal work or ramping up for the busy season, and all of these employees will need to be onboarded. Traditional onboarding methods can be time-consuming. For fast employee onboarding, use an onboarding system that offers a kiosk mode. Kiosk mode is just like it sounds, it is an automated onboarding process in one centralized location that every employee can access like a computer kiosk or tablet kiosk. Think of a mall or event center kiosk that gives visitors tons of information in one centralized location.
Kiosk Mode is ideal for group hiring, same-day hires or union workers no matter if you just hired two or 20. Onboarding paperwork can be completed quickly with an iPad kiosk or onsite computer kiosk so new hires can get on-the-job faster. Another benefit to kiosk mode is that there is no login required. Your employees don’t even need an email address to get started.
Start Training Right Away
The sooner you start training your crew, the faster they’ll be up-to-speed on the job. Start training on day one, especially safety training, by hosting a toolbox talk. OSHA’s Safety Training and Education standard requires employers to instruct employees on how to recognize and avoid unsafe working conditions to control or eliminate hazards. One way to do this is by hosting a toolbox talk, which is an informal safety meeting that focuses on specific issues. Holding one for new employees is an effective way to introduce safety standards and even refresh the topic for current workers. Use a learning management system like Arcoro’s to offer continuous training online 24/7. Employees who work on job sites can log in from their phones, a kiosk or even from home.
Implementing an onboarding system like Arcoro’s can help with fast employee onboarding. When a system is 100% paperless, it can streamline the entire process and eliminate any data input errors. It’s also less cumbersome for the employee and HR staff, allowing you to focus on the aspects of onboarding that help engage your newest worker.
Schedule a demo to see for yourself. 
