Montreal-based software company GSoft is launching a new product aimed at making the employee onboarding process more engaging and consistent with the new standard of hybrid and remote working.
Softstart is a platform that enables human resources and employee experience professionals to connect new employees to their colleagues, company processes and company culture, regardless of their location.
The platform uses embedded video, centralized documentation, and automatic onboarding progress tracking.
Guillaume Chalifoux, director of acquisitions at GSoft, said the company has identified a problem that many companies face when onboarding new employees.
“What we saw was that the onboarding phase in companies was mostly neglected. It was done in an unofficial and unstructured way. And most of the time it was supported by HR departments. It was something that was more about compliance, making sure the contract is signed, the new hire has their laptop, and they’ll be good to go,” he said.
But in reality, once the contract is signed, the real onboarding experience is connecting with people, mastering new work tools and understanding the environment of a new workplace, he said. added.
Softstart updates outdated onboarding methods such as generic spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and emails with tasks new employees need to complete. And now that remote work has put a damper on in-person collaboration, engaging onboarding experiences are even more important to help new hires feel connected to their workplace.
How Softstart works:
New employees are encouraged to join Softstart through messaging platforms such as Slack. Once on the platform, employees receive a “to-do list” that includes many resources.
“So you go through different activities, but we’re not throwing you a month of activities at a time. We’re starting with a few, we don’t want you to get overwhelmed… And the first thing you’ll notice is that for each activity you’ll have loads of resources like handouts and videos,” Chalifoux said.
One of the first things employees often see on the platform are videos of executives and team members introducing themselves in a series of short video clips.
Chalifoux said by reviewing data submitted anonymously by employees globally, Gsoft was able to discover that many of them missed face-to-face connections during the pandemic.
“The notion of smiling has completely disappeared. So we’re bringing it back with Softstart and it makes all the difference to be greeted with a smile. Building good relationships breaks the ice.
The big resignation
Chalifoux also said platforms like these and stronger interactive employee engagement are key to retaining employees. In early 2021, American employees began voluntarily quitting their jobs, resulting in a phenomenon known as The Great Resignation.” In November 2021 alone, 4.5 million workers left their jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s latest report on job openings and employee turnover.
A Computer World report cited lack of benefits, lack of work-life balance, and dissatisfaction with how employees were treated as some of the reasons for the big quit.
Chalifoux spoke with employees who have had difficult onboarding experiences and found that in some cases an employee was not given a work laptop for the first two weeks and had to use their own, which was not wasn’t powerful enough to install the necessary software. to do their job. In another example, an employee felt his team members almost “forgot” about him after an onboarding session.
“When a new employee joins a company, there is a critical moment where you have to show that you care about them. That makes all the difference. If you join a company and everything is structured, you feel welcome,” he said.
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