Top 5 Employers Using Onboarding Software to Wow New Hires

Ever wondered how the world’s best employers become…well, the best?
Be inspired by the likes of Canva, Eventbrite, oOh!media, Medibank, and Scentre Group, who are using employee onboarding software for truly extraordinary results.

You’ve probably heard of the companies mentioned in this article. You may even know about their extraordinary company cultures, and that they are all considered great places to work. But what really happens behind the scenes when they score that talented new recruit?

Let us show you how each of these incredible companies is using employee onboarding software to create best-in-class, people-centric onboarding experiences. Then we’ll do some post-game analysis and find out what makes the onboarding experience at these five different companies truly outstanding.

5 Companies with the Best Onboarding Programs

#1: Canva

Canva, the creator of a fully online design application for non-designers, really knows employee experience. Voted “Best Place to Work in Australia” not once, but twice, your brain might just melt a little when reading through the list of things they do for their employees.

Canva’s work environment is the kind of place where people really matter. As just a tiny snapshot of what they get up to:

• New hires receive a cool pack of company swag including a cupcake with their face printed in the frosting;
• The company has carefully constructed programs dedicated to mentorship and fostering great peer relationships, keeping their new people connected and involved;
• They have a whole team dedicated to company “vibe”, charged with endlessly improving the look and feel of their building, and generally keeping happiness and satisfaction at work at its maximum level; and
• They’re just so darn thoughtful. For example, a superb complimentary breakfast and lunch menu is provided in-house for all employees (and you can even take the leftovers home for dinner!)

Canva uses employee onboarding software to:

• Power a comprehensive onboarding journey
• Enable them to extend their preboarding experience up to six months before someone starts their role, in the case of overseas hires;
• Automatically take care of the paperwork before their new hires even walk in the door;
• Activate an onboarding “boot camp” that includes dedicated face-to-face workshops for all new hires;
• Send personalized messages to new hires, keeping them informed, excited, and motivated; and
• Coordinate a mentorship program, where team members take new hires under their wing to show them the ropes

In short, Canva rocks.

#2: Medibank

Medibank is Australia’s second-largest provider of health insurance. When Medibank created their onboarding program, they set out to craft a world-class onboarding experience that would keep all hires closely connected to their teams, and maximize both employee engagement and preparedness for their roles.

Medibank uses employee onboarding software to:

• Trigger workflows and communications to support and enable critical moments that matter, including high impact events like the first day (“Day One”), or meeting key people;
• Send scheduled tasks and information to managers, allowing the organization to continuously upskill and support its people leaders in order to create a culture of engagement; and
• Measure and identify points of low engagement within their onboarding processes in real-time, allowing them to make continuous improvements.

Thanks to their use of employee onboarding software, Medibank transformed their onboarding experience from an inconsistent, disengaged, unmonitored, and sometimes optional process, into a slick, honed progression of events that met all of their lofty criteria.

#3: Ooh! Media

Ooh!media, a major Australian operator of “out of home” advertising products, realized early that preboarding, or connecting with new hires before Day One rolls around, was key to retaining their talented new recruits. They knew that they had to design a brilliant onboarding program that captured and maintained the engagement of their new hires but had to balance this with the workload of their managers and team members. They also sought to achieve an end-to-end onboarding experience that lasted for the first twelve months (!) of a new hire’s journey with them.

Using employee onboarding software, oOh!media:

• Sends preboarding communications to new hires that give them the “oOh!media experience” even before they step into the office;
• Uses interactive elements in their communications to allow new hires to take joint ownership over their onboarding experience, creating highly effective two-way engagements; and
• Automatically coaches and reminds managers of onboarding tasks, while making the whole process super easy for them.

Thanks to the help of employee onboarding software, oOh!media achieved their goal of a comprehensive, low-maintenance, high-engagement onboarding program that delivered on the promise of outstanding employee experience. They also achieved an incredible eNPS score, a near-perfect result at 92 out of 100. Clearly, they’re getting something right.

#4: Scentre Group

As the operator of the massive chain of 40 Westfield shopping centers found across Australia and New Zealand, Scentre Group really knows what it means to grapple with problems of scale. New hires faced inconsistent onboarding experiences, unprepared teams and managers, and a lack of information from their new employer. Recognizing these issues, Scentre Group knew they had to make a dramatic change for the better.

Aspiring to introduce real consistency and awesome employee experience into their onboarding, Scentre Group decided to revitalize their onboarding program. The organization spent three years carefully planning and rolling out their improved onboarding with the help of best-in-class employee onboarding software.

Scentre Group uses employee onboarding software to:

• Manage the entire onboarding process and communications with managers, new hires and other business stakeholders;
• Automatically kick off onboarding experiences for new hires once they sign their contract, thanks to the software’s integration with their HRIS;
• Automate business processes and communications wherever possible to minimize the risk of human error;
• Coach managers through a best-practice onboarding framework to make the welcome more personalized and to help facilitate interpersonal relationships;
• Engage with new hires at least 2.5 weeks before Day One, to get them excited and ready to hit the ground running; and
• Manage regional onboarding experiences and keep them consistent and compliant across the organization.

The results speak for themselves. Scentre Group transformed its employee onboarding program into one that delights and effectively engages new hires while also putting them at ease. They can now boast an “award-winning, stress-free new hire experience with best-practice manager coaching.”

#5: Eventbrite

Eventbrite is the world’s largest event technology platform. Every year, Eventbrite’s tech works behind the scenes to enable millions of events and experiences. It was only natural for Eventbrite to take their onboarding to the next level. So the team built an engagement-centric, automated onboarding program. The focus of all this effort? People and experiences.

By making the most of its employee onboarding software, Eventbrite:

• Easily and automatically manages all their employee, manager, and new hire buddy communication throughout the preboarding and onboarding journey;
• Automatically funnels new hires to the correct onboarding experience according to their role and office location;
• Automatically delivers and tracks the completion of all the necessary paperwork to new hires;
• Rolled out a highly engaging preboarding program, communicating a lot more information about the organization and culture to get new hires excited for Day One; and
• Automates tasks like IT requests, while sending reminders to managers to ensure they set goals, do 30-day check-ins, etc.

With that in place, Eventbrite produced an onboarding system that comprehensively supports managers, regardless of where they are in the world, in easily providing an awesome onboarding experience to new hires.

We’d say that’s a win.

What do all of these companies have in common?

Despite their differences, each of these companies had similar goals when it came to onboarding, that is, to utilize employee onboarding software to create a consistent, scalable, personalized onboarding experience that engages their employees at every turn. They each integrated the following principles:

Preboarding

Preparing and engaging with each employee before the crucial Day One at work, so as to keep employee engagement as strong as possible, and smooth out the process of arriving in a new role.

Onboarding software makes it easy to automate most preboarding communications, taking much of the workload from busy managers.

Just-in-time manager nudges

Using timely, efficient reminders that ensure employees receive ongoing personalized interactions from managers, in a way that managers find easy to implement and coaches them on how to engage.

Onboarding software runs like clockwork, automatically providing managers with all the tools and information they need to action tasks as and when they are needed.

Fostering employee connection

Creating a buddy system that provides both mentor support and peer connections, using the natural human resources at your disposal to enhance the engagement of your new hires, deepen their integration into the organization, and develop their skills and knowledge more rapidly than would otherwise be possible.

Onboarding software takes care of the onerous, repetitive tasks, freeing up time and facilitating moments that allow your team members, managers and new hires to build meaningful, human connections.

Extended onboarding periods

Onboarding isn’t over once you’ve ticked off the induction checklist, and have sat the employee down at their desk for the first time. On the contrary, onboarding should go for a minimum of six months past Day One, and sometimes even longer.

Onboarding software ensures communications with the new hire continues, even as they start to settle into their role. It can also remind managers to undertake tasks that are often forgotten, like regular one-on-one meetings, 30-day check-ins, and probationary review sessions.

Crafting employee experiences that WOW

Onboarding should be experience-driven, so that employees feel not only engaged but also supported, appreciated, respected, and valued. Employees should receive a memorable experience on both Day One and beyond that will cause them to feel all fluttery inside and ultimately turn them into a passionate advocate for your organization.

And by the way, they all use Enboarder

Each of these companies applied Enboarder, our best-in-class employee onboarding software, for truly transformational results to their onboarding programs. They each received outstanding boosts to key metrics such as employee engagement and retention, and generally just made everyone who arrived new to their organization feel more than a little bit special.

Do you want to create an employee onboarding program that matches the likes of these world-class employers? Experience Enboarder now to see how your onboarding can be transformed from mediocre to amazing in a very short space of time.