The importance of onboarding new recruits
Faced with a shortage of talent and the shifting expectations of job applicants, companies now need to pamper new recruits. This starts right from recruitment and onboarding, a process that facilitates their arrival through a range of inclusive actions.
The aim of onboarding is to help new employees find their feet in the company, to make it easier for them to understand the organisation and its challenges, and at the same time to boost their motivation and company loyalty. Onboarding also helps new staff perform more effectively when they take up their post and improves their commitment and investment in their job.
These advantages mean that companies must make sure they don’t skip this crucial first phase, which starts as soon as the employee is recruited. Even more so given that, according to a 2022 Ideuzo study, almost 20% of employees resign during their first three months. And according to a Forbes study, a bad induction experience is often the main culprit.
To avoid new recruits jumping ship and paying dearly for ineffective recruitment, companies in all sectors agree that automation would improve the employee experience. But, according to Boston Budget Aptitude Research, only 20% actually embark on an automation process.
Electronic signatures to modernise and simplify onboarding
One of the major solutions for simplifying onboarding is the electronic signature. As soon as the candidate accepts the job offer, it becomes a precious aid because the company can now automate the sending of the contract for signature. The new employee receives it in their personal digital safe where they can consult it and sign it directly online. There’s no longer any need to send the contract by post or make an appointment to sign it – everything can be done virtually. As well as being an effective solution, electronic signatures are secure and allow several documents to be signed in a set order, either by an individual or a group.
While they are waiting to join the company, new employees can receive digital documents for signature, to help them better understand how the company works and to ensure that they comply with certain rules. These documents could include the teleworking charter, the internal regulations, the GDPR policy, the introduction of a health insurance scheme and the annual review reports, for example.
Efficiency and financial gains
For companies, electronic signatures are also synonymous with efficiency and productivity gains. No more time-consuming sending and receiving of documents, with the risk of loss. Thanks to a dashboard, HR departments can monitor the status of signature requests, send out batches of documents for signature if necessary, and opt to sign several documents simultaneously.
This solution also significantly reduces printing, mailing and paper consumption costs which reduces environmental impact. And of course it is a first-choice solution for remote employees.
Legal value and secure records management
Finally, there is another major argument: in the EU, a qualified electronic signature has the same legal standing as a handwritten signature, according to eIDAS Regulation (910/2014).
This means that electronic signatures are an asset for the whole company: easy for the employee, who no longer needs to go to the office to sign documents; efficient for the manager, who can monitor signatures using specific software; and more reliable for HR teams, who have a global view of each employee and can rely on secure digital records management.
Would you like to integrate electronic signatures into your HR document management process? Contact our experts to help you with your project.