Everything You Need To Know About Onboarding Compliance

Find Out Why Clarity, Company Culture, And Connecting With New Hires Matter For Your Employee Onboarding Process

Whether you’re the hiring manager for a large company or work in the HR department for a small business, you know that the first day for new team members can be overwhelming. 

Sure, they know what to expect from the job description, but that information is a drop in the bucket compared to what it takes to take on a new role. 

From learning new processes to gathering necessary information, day one is essential for setting the tone with new hires and significantly impacts employee retention. 

In fact, 29% of newly hired employees report feeling wholly prepared to tackle their role successfully after the onboarding process. This means the majority of new employees don’t feel supported once onboarding ends. 

Onboarding is an opportunity for any company to offer essential training and development to new employees that will help them understand the nuances of their new role and ensure they stay compliant with company policies. 

Let’s take a closer look at onboarding compliance, who is responsible for it, and how you can streamline your onboarding process to ensure compliance.

What Is Onboarding Compliance?

Onboarding and compliance training are typically two different things. 

Onboarding is the process that helps new hires adapt to the company, while compliance training helps them understand the regulations, laws, and policies that help your company function properly. 

All companies have both written and unwritten rules and guidelines that all employees must follow. While existing employees will know these, new hires being bombarded with new information may need special training sessions to ensure compliance with these rules. 

Integrating compliance training into your onboarding process is extremely valuable to new hires. It takes away the trial-and-error compliance process and gives them all the tools they need to succeed within your organization. 

This means that new employees will receive all the tools they need to immediately comply with essential regulations and best practices and have enough time to implement them as they acclimate to their new role. 

Who Is Responsible For Onboarding Compliance? 

Onboarding managers, hiring supervisors, or managers are typically responsible for onboarding. 

They must design and implement a streamlined onboarding process that offers new hires all the tools they need to become functioning company members. Additionally, these managers must oversee new hires during a specified transitional period and help them acclimate as quickly as possible. 

Typically, a compliance manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of company compliance, as well as the administration of compliance training. 

But some companies do not have a dedicated compliance manager, leaving this responsibility to those who oversee new hire training. So HR professionals must consider adding compliance training to the onboarding process. 

Should HR Professionals Integrate A Compliance Program Into The Onboarding Process? 

Hiring managers and other HR professionals have a lot on their plate. Between managing HR workflow and doing their due diligence to limit liabilities, onboarding new employees can seem like an additional task on their to-do list. 

However, onboarding is crucial for increasing employee retention and developing high-performing team members who can help your company reach its goals. In fact, the more intensive your onboarding process, the faster you will produce a fully proficient employee. 

According to HR Cloud, a lengthy onboarding & compliance training program helps new hires become high-performing employees 34 times faster than shorter programs. This means it’s more effective to offer support and training to new employees for extended periods of time. 

Optimizing your onboarding process and compliance training will help ease new employees into their roles and allow them to become more productive than a short-lived onboarding program. 

Let’s look at some more ways human resource management professionals can streamline their onboarding programs to make valuable connections and help new hires transition 

How To Optimize Your Company’s Onboarding Process 

The purpose of the onboarding process is to fully integrate new employees into the fabric of your company. 

It gives them a glimpse of their new role, what responsibilities they will have, and introduces them to their new team. 

Onboarding is also essential for HR managers because it allows them to complete critical paperwork, have new hires sign off on company policies, and administer necessary compliance training to ensure workers are compliant from their very first day. 

So how can you streamline your onboarding process to ensure compliance at every step? Let’s find out. 

Integrate Compliance Training Into The Onboarding Experience

As we mentioned before, it is in everyone’s best interest to have new hires aware of compliance regulations as close to their start date as possible. 

It’s extremely important because it allows new hires to follow company policies immediately and ensure they know how to succeed in their new job. But there may also be training topics required by the state, such as sexual harassment training or customer acquisition guidelines. 

So take the time to create a specialized compliance presentation for your onboarding program and add it to your new employee’s schedule. You can also add a module to your online training and onboarding programs or host a webinar dedicated to company compliance. 

This allows new employees to take note of important protocols and integrate them into their workflow as they settle into the position. 

Consider offering microlearning opportunities that will enable employees to access compliance training in smaller chunks, making it easier for them to retain the essential information. 

Start The Process By Having New Hires Fill Out Required Paperwork 

While compliance is important, paperwork is vital for HR professionals to onboard each cohort of new hires. To help with this process, develop standardized workflows that allow your HR staff to easily administer and collect necessary paperwork, such as: 

• HR Payroll Paperwork 

• W-4 forms

• ID/Badge forms 

• Employee handbook acknowledgment of receipt 

• Technology acceptable usage policy 

• Employment contracts 

• State-required notifications 

• Enrollment forms for benefits 

• Procedures and policy forms 

Frontload the paperwork at the start of the onboarding process to ensure the new employees can devote their full attention to compliance training and other aspects of onboarding. This will give your HR professionals time to double-check and process the paperwork.

Additionally, consider using an online document management database to organize all paperwork. This will allow for automation and make it easier for employees and HR professionals to handle essential paperwork. 

Present Company Policies And Set Clear Expectations

When starting employment at a new company, new employees are eager to learn the company culture and better understand their roles and responsibilities. 

However, unless it is explicitly stated in the onboarding process, it can be challenging for new hires to understand key company dynamics and become part of the team. 

Share information about your company’s history, values, and mission. Create a welcome packet that outlines important information that will make it easier for new hires to integrate into the company culture. Host webinar training sessions packed with engaging features to help build relationships and allow for networking amongst new hires and existing employees. 

During these training sessions, set expectations to help new employees adapt to their new roles. If possible, assign mentors or provide a point of contact for any questions that arise during this transition period. 

Communication is key for positive employee-to-company relationships, so ask new hires to set some expectations. Ask them about their preferred method of communication, how they would like to receive performance management feedback, and what kind of support will help them to succeed. 

Upgrade Your Required Training To Prioritize Employee Engagement 

Employee engagement is a huge factor in retention. Offering a live version of your employee handbook isn’t going to cut it during onboarding. 

Choose a learning management system that allows you to offer engaging features that will captivate your new hires, such as gamification, live polling, and interactive webinars.

You could even integrate social media into your onboarding efforts to help boost your company’s marketing efforts and excite your new hires for their new position. 

The more support you provide on the front end, the more likely your new employees will be successful in their new roles. 

Considering the information you’ll need to cover, consider designing an onboarding checklist to ensure you’ve provided all the necessary onboarding and compliance information your new hires need to succeed. 

BeaconLive Can Help Your Company Create An Effective Onboarding Process 

From the names of new colleagues to computer login information to job responsibilities, there’s a lot to remember when you start a new job. 

HR professionals need to prevent additional stress by crafting a comprehensive onboarding program that’s designed to create a welcoming environment for new hires. 

However, you must optimize the onboarding process to ensure you obtain all the necessary information while imparting key knowledge to help new employees understand and implement key compliance procedures. 

BeaconLive has the tools to make new hire onboarding a seamless experience. From engaging compliance webinars to automated onboarding training to workflow automation, our platform offers scalable solutions to help HR professionals like you optimize your company’s onboarding process. 

Contact us today for more information on how our cloud-based solutions can help you take your onboarding program to the next level. 

References

Parish, K. (2022, November 2). Employee Onboarding Statistics You Must Know in 2022. HR Cloud. https://www.hrcloud.com/blog/employee-onboarding-statistics-you-must-know-in-

Slattery, C. (2022). 10 employee onboarding statistics you must know in 2022. Kallidus. https://www.kallidus.com/resources/blog/10-employee-onboarding-statistics-you-must-know-in-2022/#:~:text=Data%20suggests%20that%20new%20hires,third%20month%20on%20the%20job.