The document discusses key aspects of an effective employee onboarding program. It emphasizes the importance of onboarding in retaining talent and instilling company culture. An effective onboarding program should be consolidated, social, reflect company values, create community, and empower employees. The rise of Millennials in the workforce means onboarding needs to have a social user experience, be online-focused, and help retain institutional knowledge. A social intranet can help meet all these needs by centralizing information and enabling collaboration.

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The Importance of Employee Onboarding
How the Rise of Millennials Should be Affec'ng Your Onboarding
Retaining IP
Company Values
A Social Work Experience
Taking it Online
What Makes an Onboarding Program Great?
It’s Consolidated
It’s Social
It Reflects Company Values
It’s Creates Community
It Empowers Employees
How a Social Intranet is the Answer
IP and onboarding materials all in one place Social
UX appeals to the Millennial Genera'on Company
values are front and center Community is baked
right in
Makes experts and informa'on easily discoverable
Enables personalized monitoring and engagement
Keeping Up With the Changing Times
Get Started!
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Table of Contents

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The Importance of Employee Onboarding
In the world of new hires, there are two all-important “O” words for successfully
incorpora'ng new employees into the workplace: “orienta'on” and
“onboarding.” Gecng both right is cri'cal if you want to retain top talent and
ins'll your company culture and values right from the start.
But many companies struggle to hit the right notes, par'cularly with onboarding. While orienta'on is
important with its paperwork, policies and protocol, onboarding is a much longer process with deeper
business and boeom line implica'ons that offers organiza'ons an
opportunity to create a great first experience for new hires that (hopefully) extends throughout their
tenure with the company.
Orienta'on is just the first step of the ongoing onboarding process that equips an employee with
everything necessary to produce the work expected and to do so in a produc've manner. Effec've
onboarding promotes company loyalty, lowers stress levels, increases employee sa'sfac'on and
improves produc'vity.

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Having an effec've onboarding process in place helps new hires:
• More quickly contribute to the team
• Form a bond with the company, fostering loyalty
• Know where to find vital company and posi'on informa'on
• Learn to use the proper tools and processes from the start
• Integrate more easily into your organiza'on’s current culture and employee base
A poor onboarding process can actually be a detriment to your company’s boeom line. Miss the mark
and you could end up cos'ng your organiza'on more than just an ineffec've employee.
• Onboarding costs a company up to 30 percent of that new hire’s annual salary
• Companies shell out an average of $11,000 to fill vacancies
• A good onboarding process may help prevent early turnover for as many as 1 in 4
new hires
Having an effec've onboarding process that accurately represents your company values and
culture and sets the right tone for new hires is essen'al to retaining top talent – and your money!
According to the Aberdeen Group, organiza'ons with “structured onboarding
programs enjoy a 60 percent year-over-year improvement in revenue per full-'me employee.”
If it’s been a few years since you revisited your onboarding process and you’re s'll stuck in the realm of
outdated company material packets and boring training sessions, maybe it’s 'me to rethink your
methods and make your onboarding process work for you instead of against you.
Adop'ng a technology-driven onboarding process that’s reliant on a social intranet can rescue your
organiza'on from the depths of paperwork, slideshows and boring training sessions.
Social intranet’s more collabora've infrastructure helps drive a process that makes a great first
impression of your organiza'on, communicates company culture, helps build community among all
employees, makes training more engaging and equips new workers with the resources and
informa'on needed to be valuable team members.
Now, what company doesn’t need that for its new employee onboarding?

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How the Rise of Millennials Should be Affec'ng
Your Onboarding
The work world is changing, and Millennials are leading the way. This demographic is slowly
domina'ng the workforce. By 2025 they’ll comprise 75 percent of the workforce – and they’re
bringing along new expecta'ons and behaviors.
The average Millennial will stay with any given employer for two years or less, during which 'me
they’ll expect a socially oriented work environment, prefer to work remotely and mainly online, and
want to feel like their personal values align with those of their employer.
Onboarding is the perfect opportunity to deliver on all of these wish list items while solving challenges
presented by the rising Millennial workforce. This workforce shiq presents a chance for organiza'ons
to reassess their onboarding processes – including any associated technologies. Introducing a social
intranet – with wikis, blogs, news feeds and chat capabili'es
– helps streamline the process and makes it more social and transparent – checking off two of the key
boxes for Millennials’ workplace wishes.
Retaining IP
Because Millennials have such short tenures and job hop frequently, retaining IP is becoming an
increasing concern for employers. When any employee leaves, they take with them key details,
personal knowledge and job nuances that are oqen difficult to capture with private emails, siloed
departments and work that’s stored only in personal folders. Losing that important background,
knowledgebase and developed materials costs a company 'me and money and makes it much more
difficult to efficiently onboard a new employee to replace them.
Using a social intranet for your onboarding process can kill two birds with one stone – it starts
employees off on the right foot by condi'oning them to conduct all of their work through the
plasorm, thus crea'ng a way to capture and retain all IP, and it creates a more “Millennial friendly”
and efficient onboarding process.

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Company Values
A 2013 CandE survey found that nearly 50 percent of “prospec've employees looked to company
materials to get a feeling for the company’s values, a good indicator of cultural fit.” The
onboarding process is the perfect opportunity to present new hires with materials to
communicate company values and culture. Not only is the content of these materials important,
but the way you deliver them is equally as impacsul in conveying the tone and culture of your
organiza'on.
A social intranet provides an easy-to-access means for new employees to find company manuals,
standard paperwork and even historical documenta'on for their current posi'on. With everything
readily available, new hires can quickly immerse themselves in their new work culture and even have
ready access to company management right from the start via the intranet’s messaging, commen'ng
and news feed func'ons.
A Social Work Experience
Which brings us to the point of a social UX in the workplace. Millennials grew up using social tools as
part of their everyday lives, from Facebook and Twieer to Instagram and LinkedIn. They are used to
instant messaging, social collabora'on and video chacng – and expect those same capabili'es in the
workplace.
Conduc'ng your onboarding process in a socially oriented and collabora've manner can help beeer
meet Millennial expecta'ons and create a social culture from the very start, which can lead to higher
employee sa'sfac'on and reten'on. And while all new hires aren’t Millennials, all employees benefit
from the social experience.
Taking it Online
Not only are workplaces becoming more social UX-based, but they’re also becoming more online-
focused and inclusive of remote workers. Millennials want flexibility with their jobs – the ability to
work whenever they want and from wherever they want. Consequently, conduc'ng most of their work
online, from video chat mee'ngs to online document collabora'on, is

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becoming more and more essen'al. This also includes moving part of the onboarding process online as
well.
While onboarding will – and should – always maintain an in-person component, a social intranet
plasorm makes it possible to conduct most of the onboarding process online. Centralized
human resources (HR) document collec'on and storage, group forums for new hires and video
chat training sessions and check-ins all become a possibility with an onboarding process that is
more social and online-focused.
What Makes an Onboarding
Program Great?
There are a lot of methods and choices of onboarding
programs out there for HR and hiring mangers. Everyone has a
different opinion on which ones work best and
are most effec've at incorpora'ng new staff into your
organiza'on. While exact methods and formats might vary,
there are some consistent characteris'cs of a great
onboarding program that should not be compromised.
It’s Consolidated
A great onboarding program will make HR and hiring mangers’
jobs easier by consolida'ng paperwork, onboarding materials,
new employee training forms, project history briefs, training
documents and more in an easily searchable place. Both
managers and employees alike waste countless hours each
week digging through folders and different plasorms for HR
paperwork, company materials, employee handbooks and old
IP to bring a new hire up-to-speed.
The Challenges in
Onboarding: Tips to Keep in
Mind
Onboarding is not an easy task! From
dealing with different personality dynamics
to making sure each new hire is being
adequately brought up-to-speed and
assimilated into the workplace culture,
hiring and HR managers have a lot on their
plates. Here are some oqen- overlooked 'ps
to keep in mind in the thick of onboarding.
• Naviga'ng a new workplace
culture is scary, so make sure new
hires have a go-to group or
community to socialize with.
• Get new hires in the habit of
storing IP in a consolidated and
accessible loca'on.
• Make company processes and
direc'ves clear from the start.
• Make an effort to talk “with” new
hires instead of “at” them.
• Engage new hires in training and
orienta'on that is interac've and
representa've of company values.
• Conduct short but frequent check-
ins to monitor new hire progress and
pinpoint individual needs.

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With an onboarding program facilitated on a social intranet that’s also easily searchable, HR saves 'me
and new hires have an easy way to find per'nent informa'on for their new roles, helping them more
quickly become a valued team member. This characteris'c becomes doubly important in light of the
fact that 75 percent of companies are mo'vated to have great onboarding programs specifically to
accelerate new employee performance.
It’sSocial
A social onboarding process is an especially important characteris'c for the Millennials who will soon
be filling your office space. They’re used to working and living in a social, online world and operate
most efficiently when they can do the same at work. Having an onboarding
process that incorporates elements of a social UX such as video chat, instant messaging, group forums
and document collabora'on can make Millennial new hires feel at home and like your organiza'onal
culture fits their values.
It Reflects CompanyValues
Your organiza'on’s onboarding program should be a reflec'on of your company values and
culture. The onboarding process is a new hire’s first and most extensive impression of your
workplace, and you don’t want to risk blowing it with a process that depicts a bad workplace
environment.
Is your onboarding process inclusive, caring, aeen've, individualized and engaging? Millennials in
par'cular are very concerned with their employer sharing similar values and will be put off by
onboarding that doesn’t value the individual, that’s overly hierarchical or one that doesn’t convey
those shared values.
It CreatesCommunity
Onboarding should be a 'me to easily and slowly integrate new hires into your exis'ng employee
base. It can be in'mida'ng to be the new guy on the block, and some'mes hanging out gossiping
around the water cooler isn’t the easiest way to assimilate oneself into the company’s social
landscape.

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HR teams and hiring managers can liq this burden by providing an onboarding program with a built-in
structure for socializing and crea'ng a sense of community, whether it’s through an
online forum reserved just for new employees or group ac'vi'es. Providing the opportunity for
employees at all levels of an organiza'on to readily interact online quickly and easily enables everyone
to find common social ground that easily carries over into the real world.
It Empowers Employees to Seek Out Experts and Information
Any onboarding process worth its salt should provide tools that empower employees to help
themselves. Not that asking ques'ons should ever be discouraged, but equipping new employees to
find informa'on on their own and who to direct what ques'ons to can save everyone 'me and
make newbies feel less dependent and direc'onless. A social intranet
that organizes employees into spaces and topics can help provide structure and guidance for
employees trying to become acclimated to a new work environment.
How a Social Intranet is the Answer
For every ques'on there’s an answer, and a social intranet proposes a robust solu'on to the
onboarding and rising Millennial workforce challenge. Social intranet use is con'nuing to grow in
popularity as employers realize a paradigm shiq is occurring in the workplace and the need to meet
Millennial employment expecta'ons.
This socially powered and collabora've way of working equips your workforce with the tools they
need to excel, while also helping your organiza'on navigate a quickly changing employee base. It’s a
win-win all around, and the perfect solu'on to the complexi'es of onboarding that meets all the
criteria of a great onboarding process.
IP and Onboarding Materials All in OnePlace
The Interna'onal Data Corpora'on es'mates that the average professional spends roughly 15 to 30
percent of his or her 'me at work tracking down documents and informa'on. What a loss in
produc'vity and efficiency!

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With a social intranet plasorm, materials and IP are all stored in one centralized and consolidated
loca'on. This saves HR managers and new employees alike 'me searching for background documents
and onboarding materials by keeping it consolidated, organized and easily searchable through an
intelligent universal search func'on. It’s like using Google search on your company!
This empowers employees to find the content and background they need to be produc've and
contribute to their teams, while also condi'oning them to work in a manner that ensures their IP is
captured and retained in an accessible and permanent loca'on. Losing IP when
an employee leaves can be incredibly damaging to a company, but with social intranet, new hires have
the benefit of former employees’ knowledge at their disposal, just by searching the collec've
braintrust.
Moreover, HR and hiring managers can save 'me and provide a beeer onboarding experience by
keeping important documents like new employee paperwork and training materials in an easy-to-find
loca'on. Gone are the days of scaeered, mountainous piles of paperwork that take ages to find or are
simply permanently lost. Having everything organized and consolidated creates a beeer onboarding
experience for everyone, and cloud-based social intranet plasorms enable you to access this important
informa'on from anywhere, on any device.
Social UX Appeals to the Millennial Generation
Because Millennials are used to socially powered interfaces and connec'ng online, social intranets will
help them more easily adjust to a new workplace and work more efficiently. When you transi'on at
least part of your onboarding process to a social intranet, you acknowledge that a social UX is important
to your work culture, making this employee demographic feel understood and valued.
The added bonus? Checking in with new hires via instant message or video chat is right up their
alley and will make them feel comfortable and at ease during what is a poten'ally unnerving
phase.

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Company Values are Front andCenter
When a company employs a social intranet, it says, “We understand the new and changing digital
workplace, and we’re onboard!”
It implies your organiza'on is aeuned to shiqs that are occurring in workplaces and isn’t resistant
to change, but is instead concerned with mee'ng new employee needs. Using a social intranet for
onboarding communicates this message up front and conveys that your organiza'on is suppor've
of social and collabora've environments, cross-func'onal teams and of everyone being able to
contribute input and ideas.
With enterprise social collabora'on, siloed informa'on and inefficient hierarchies and barriers are
broken down, empowering any employee to contribute and drive innova'on. Your onboarding process
has the power to make a big splash in terms of first impressions, and a social intranet plasorm enables
you to start off on the right foot.
Community is Baked RightIn
A Gullup poll recently found that when employees feel like they have good friends and community at
work, they are 35 percent more likely to have a “commitment to quality,” among other boeom-line
business benefits. Aside from all of its other features and func'ons, a social intranet enables you to
organize people into groups or ‘spaces,’ host group chats and facilitate community building.
Much in the same way that universi'es and colleges “host” Facebook groups for members of each
new incoming class to establish a sense of community, companies can use social intranets in a
similar fashion to ease integra'ng new hires into the current employee base.
Casual instant messaging is a lot less in'mida'ng for a new hire than striking up a conversa'on with a
random employee and provides a low barrier means for new team addi'ons to get to know other
employees. Public employee profiles are the perfect place to express likes and hobbies and find other
employees with shared interests.

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Makes Experts and Information EasilyDiscoverable
The Aberdeen Group found that 89 percent of new hires report that they don’t have enough of the
ideal knowledge necessary to do their job. One of the greatest challenges a new hire faces in a new
workplace is knowing where to look and who to ask for what informa'on. An efficient onboarding
process will empower new employees to seek out this informa'on on their own instead of relying on
others as a crutch. The sooner they can become self-sufficient and easily find relevant materials, the
sooner they’ll be contribu'ng to the organiza'on and become valued team members, func'oning at full
capacity.
A social intranet makes it easy for team leads and HR managers to equip new hires to know exactly
where to find what informa'on. Instead of having materials spread across various siloed desktop
folders, social intranet enables teams to catalog, store and collaborate on documents in a centralized
and easily searchable loca'on. With an intelligent search func'on, new employees can search for
informa'on or even subject maeer experts in the company by keyword, document 'tle or topic.
Enables Personalized Monitoring andEngagement
An added benefit of making a social intranet the basis for your onboarding program is that it allows
HR managers to track how well an employee is assimila'ng into the new work
environment and provide 'mely and relevant feedback on employee performance. Managers can
easily monitor which new hires are engaging and where. Are some spending less 'me in chats, making
wikis and blogs or pos'ng content?
If a manager no'ces engagement is low, it might be an indica'on that a new hire doesn’t yet feel
welcomed or comfortable, is confused about his or her role or doesn’t have adequate background to
be a contribu'ng team member. By monitoring and pinpoin'ng these pain points and areas of
poten'al struggle, managers can provide customized assistance and training for new hires, thereby
increasing engagement and ensuring that the employees are made to feel more like part of the
team.

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Keeping up With the Changing Times
A recent study found that 71 percent of companies surveyed were in the process of upda'ng their
onboarding process.
In the same study, the use of technology in onboarding was iden'fied as a characteris'c of a good
onboarding program, yet only 67 percent of respondents are actually currently using technology for
any part of their onboarding process.
As more and more Millennials dominate the workforce and office landscapes con'nue to evolve,
companies that are unwilling to adapt will get leq behind. The best and brightest talent will defect or
gravitate to companies that make an effort to align themselves with new hire expecta'ons and values
and acknowledge that a social UX is the way of the future.
Organiza'ons that are open to change and update their onboarding programs on a con'nual basis are
in a beeer place to uncover and act on industry and employee trends, placing them ahead of their
compe''on in securing – and keeping – top talent and innovators.
Ready. Set. Get Started!
If you’re wondering where to begin in incorpora'ng a social intranet into your onboarding process,
look no further. Incen've’s social intranet plasorm offers an array of features and integra'ons that are
perfect for onboarding. From wikis, blogs and document collabora'on, to private and video chat and
enterprise social networking, it offers everything you need to meet the expecta'ons of a changing
workforce.
On top of a complete and consolidated set of features, Incen've is completely secure with on- site or
cloud-based deployment op'ons, and affordable for any sized team.

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Freemium offer
If you’re not quite sure a social intranet is right for you, we invite you to take Incen've for a test drive.
Our freemium offer is available for up to 15 users , no strings aeached.
ü Document Collabora'on
ü Wiki’s & Blogs
ü Enterprise file sharing
ü Task Management
ü Powerful Search
ü Microblogging A.K.A Status Updates
ü Enterprise Social Networking
ü Mee'ng Notes
ü Desktop & Mobile Apps
ü Polls
ü Image Galleries
Sign up here: hep://incen've-inc.com.
Want ahelping hand?
Do you any have ques'ons about more effec've onboarding or gecng started? Contact us, and we can
answer any ques'on you might have or get you connected. Email me : David@Incen've-Inc.com
12575 Beatrice Street, Los Angeles, CA 90066 | Tel +1(310) 752-9954 | info@incen've-inc.com | L @Incen'veInc
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