For IT pros and managed service providers, there must be a constant focus on maximizing the efficiency of employee onboarding, and smartly automating the process whenever possible.
A new employee’s ability to find success early on in their tenure with a new company hinges on the ability of their employer to complete the onboarding process as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Employers, meanwhile, face the risk of a potential temporary loss of productivity if employee onboarding takes too long or is not properly executed. Investing in high-quality onboarding and smartly automating those onboarding processes can limit that productivity loss and save the company a significant amount of money over time. Onboarding new employees is a perfect opportunity for MSPs to deliver incommensurable value to their clients. Not only that, but MSPs with well-rounded, mostly automated onboarding processes can save thousands of hours every year.
Let’s take a look at some strategies that can successfully make this happen.
DEVELOPING A FORMAL, AUTOMATED ONBOARDING PROCESSES
This may come as a surprise, but one survey found that 22 percent of companies lack a formal onboarding process, and that 58 percent of companies do not at all measure the productivity of their new employees.
Having a formal onboarding process in place allows MSPs to more efficiently get new hires set up and prevents wasted time for both clients and techs alike.
So for the onboarding process to be automated, managed service providers must work with their clients to develop formal, repeatable processes. MSPs that have an employee onboarding process blueprint that they can share with their client and help them customize will set themselves apart from the competition.
Reviewing and revising how you automate your IT process
IT pros should work with their clients to review their current onboarding processes, and to eliminate anything that can’t be automated.
When MSPs automate the onboarding process, they have the opportunity to go above and beyond for their customers by identifying important tasks in the onboarding process that might involve other departments, and by making sure customers get automated email reminders about outstanding tasks and ticket status updates. The result is greater efficiency throughout the entire process, and stronger communication with customers.
In an automated system, IT pros can also set up custom automated approval chains to expedite steps such as purchasing new technology and equipment, and they can easily automate sending tickets to the next tech when its status changes. Eliminating manual steps and enforcing these automations saves significant time and increases efficiency.
You can begin this fully automated process before the new employee begins the job, allowing you to get the work done quickly and avoid wasting your IT pros’ time.
Other examples of processes you can automate: collecting and entering employee data, collecting data for FAQ libraries, and creating accounts for new users in various apps.
MAPPING OUT EACH STEP OF THE AUTOMATED EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING PROCESS
Once you’ve got a big-picture look at what onboarding processes look like, you should then thoroughly map out every task required to get new hires fully onboarded.
Based on each step, you can set rules to automatically create tickets, send reminders, collect approval, etc. in your IT service management and orchestration platform.
If you’ve been thorough in analyzing your onboarding and developing a clear vision for what that process should look like, you will minimize chances of running into edge cases and roadblocks.
Keep the lines of communication open
When working with your clients, it’s important to maintain steady, reliable communication at all times so they can feel comfortable with how their processes are working for them, and so you can update them about any issues that arise and improve the process over time. Eventually, you can expect there will need to be tweaks made to your onboarding processes if they are to achieve and maintain maximum efficiency for the long term.
DeskDirector offers a first-class platform for MSPs that simplifies employee onboarding for your clients. Try it today.
