Despite smooth-running offices, hiring managers and recruiters often face chaos behind the scenes. Some problems include missing or otherwise isolated data, nonintegrated and non-automated processes, and inconsistent experiences for early-career new employees.
These fragmented systems create a less effective and more error-prone workflow for HR teams and new employee initial onboarding. This article shows how Abode's centralized system can solve these challenges and enhance the process of staffing early-career talent.
Manual Processes Are a Hassle
Manual onboarding is a real headache—time-consuming, stressful, and prone to mistakes. Here are some key statistics that highlight the issues:
- Two in five HR managers spend at least three hours manually collecting onboarding information. Imagine how much time could be saved with automation.
- 37% of HR professionals deal with heavier workloads, 35% feel more stressed, and 28% lose important paperwork. All because they're stuck doing things by hand.
- 22% of HR professionals report delayed start dates, and 9% say new hires walk away from the job due to manual onboarding processes.
- 26.5% of HR professionals say they lack onboarding tech. Process automation could save HR managers about 14 hours a week.
- 36% of HR executives say not having technology stops them from organizing and automating onboarding.
These stats make it clear: manual onboarding leads to inefficiency, errors, and stress. It can also delay start dates and even result in losing new hires.
The Pain of Disconnected Hiring Operations
Disconnected hiring operations can create many problems. Ben Siegel, Co-founder of Abode, highlights these issues: “Data ends up living in a million different spreadsheets. None of them are linked together. And since they're not attached to a system, they're not getting updated in real time. This means that if a start date or a manager changes, the spreadsheet data does not reflect that, which creates a ton of manual work to keep these things accurate and up to date.”
Scattered data across multiple spreadsheets leads to updates and maintenance hassles. Any change requires manual adjustments, which consume time and increase the risk of errors. This causes inconsistencies and confusion, both for the hiring team and the new hires.
Another major problem is the lack of access to systems for early-career teams. Siegel explains, “For example, they can't update the information in the onboarding platform. They've got to contact an HR ops team to update something, which takes forever to get done.”
Delays in updating necessary information can cause significant problems. If a policy needs updating but the early-career team can't do it themselves, it might take weeks to implement the change. Meanwhile, new hires might receive outdated or incorrect information, leading to confusion and frustration.
How Abode Centralizes Your Hiring Process
Abode’s platform is like a breath of fresh air for those dealing with the mess of disconnected hiring operations. Siegel explains, “We bring everything early-career teams need to do from communication to keep warm program management into one platform. So they're not having to update a million different spreadsheets. They can update the information whenever they need to. And the experience that gets created for candidates is much more seamless because it all lives in one place.”
Early-career teams often struggle with going through HR operations for every little update. Siegel notes, "The experience ultimately created for the interns and new hires is just bad. They're getting emails from tons of different systems and are being asked to answer the same questions in all these different places. It just becomes confusing and generally a bad experience for them."
With Abode, they get direct access to make changes themselves. This means faster updates and no more waiting around, so new hires always get the most accurate information right when needed.
Key features of Abode's centralized platform:
- Task assignment: Setting tasks with deadlines to ensure new hires complete necessary steps on time. This keeps everyone on track and reduces last-minute scrambles.
- Resource sharing: Distributing important content like videos and PDFs keeps new hires informed and prepared. This boosts confidence and ensures no one is left in the dark.
- Community building: Creating connections through directories, newsfeeds, and forums promotes a sense of belonging even before day one.
- Event management: Organizing events, tracking RSVPs, and gathering feedback keeps new hires engaged and excited about joining the team.
- Mentorship matching: Pairing new hires with mentors or buddies for guidance and support helps them navigate their new environment with ease.
- Data analytics: Monitoring engagement and making informed decisions using detailed analytics helps fine-tune the onboarding process.
- Yearbook creation: Compiling and sharing personalized yearbooks to highlight and track talent adds a personal touch and makes new hires feel valued.
The Perks of a Unified Hiring Experience
Siegel points out that a unified hiring process offers several benefits.
"Better candidate experience and clear data that lives in one platform that's automatically updating in real time without the need for human intervention,".
Centralized systems vastly improve the candidate experience. New hires receive consistent communication and know exactly what to expect, reducing anxiety and making the transition smoother.
An Early-Career Program Manager at a Fortune 500 healthcare company shared her experience with Abode: “Hiring interns is a challenge because there is a lot of dead time between when an intern may get an offer in the fall and when they start in the spring. This tool allows us to keep those candidates warm and allows us to set up and automate announcements and to-do's year over year.
She adds, “The platform has the ability to schedule ongoing notifications on a platform that also allows for the various types of content candidates prefer today: videos, attachments, checklists, virtual content, and more. Abode is a great product to help us organize, keep track, and manage the pre-onboarding experience for our interns.“
The basic advantage of having all data in one place is that it is always accurate and ready for immediate usage. This saves HR teams a lot of time and helps avoid mistakes. Automated updates mean that changes are reflected immediately, saving time and effort.
Conclusion
Disconnected and manual hiring processes create numerous challenges for early-career hiring managers. They lead to inefficiencies, errors, and a poor experience for new hires. Centralizing and automating the hiring process makes it more efficient and user-friendly.
Ben Siegel sums it up well: "A great experience for interns and new hires is not just a nice thing to do. It creates a better brand for employers, helps them hire better talent, and ultimately creates more productive employees who stay longer with the company."
When managers think about recruitment holistically and choose a central platform, new hires are presented with an intuitive and welcoming experience. This enhances onboarding efficiency while creating a solid foundation for career growth in the organization.
