Guest Post: Why onboarding needs Aboard

If you’re a Founder running an early stage business, or an HR practitioner running a lean People Ops team with little to no HR software, I know that taking care of your people isn’t always easy. Especially if you’re doing a ton of hiring. Yet, we all know effective onboarding is critical to a new hire’s ability to become ingrained with the new team and learning about the culture, but also becoming productive as quickly as possible.

Employees who are able to bond with their new company feel more committed to the organization, more connected with their new co-workers, and actually integrate better with the culture. So why don’t more leaders take time to develop a more engaging and effective onboarding program? Likely because they don’t have the proper tools to build a long-lasting program effectively.

There are a lot of HR tools

There are plenty of HRIS systems that can create basic onboarding programs for you, but they tend to lack the engagement that’s necessary to really draw people in and create that 'wow' factor. They’re nothing more than a checklist for HR.

Reality is, the first 30 days for a new hire is that honeymoon period where you have an opportunity to create something pretty kick-ass so your newbie feels welcome, engaged and excited about not only the opportunity, but also the company they joined. It’s an opportunity to validate their feelings that they joined the right company and the company truly cares about them.

If you’re that founder or HR practitioner that wants to create a unique experience for all your new hires, you’ll want to check out Aboard, an onboarding platform that focuses entirely on the new hire’s experience.

Why Aboard you ask?

You’ll have the capability to build out a new hire journey that takes onboarding to a whole new level, whether you’re creating a new intern onboarding program or something more elaborate for a team leader. Aboard allows users to select from pre-packaged programs in case you’re intimidated with putting together an entirely new onboarding program from scratch. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel with plenty of exciting options and tools to select from. The software is intuitive, easy to use and made for businesses that know they’re lacking in their onboarding department.

It’s also affordable for early-stage startups that are constantly weary of their burn rate but looking to create a powerful and impactful experience. As a leader that hires for early stage companies all the time, I know the criticality of ensuring every person that joins during those first early years of a company’s life cycle that their role is paramount to the success of the company.

Even better for companies that have little to no HR software for their employees. You can create a simple Google or Excel spreadsheet to track your employee data but it’s more difficult to build an effective onboarding journey and experience using a spreadsheet.

My experience

The goal is to make the onboarding experience count. Not only do I love Aboard, I implemented it at Notch when all we seemed to be doing was hiring, but I was also excited to join Aboard’s advisory board last year. The company is led by two exceptional co-founders, Evan Hallward and Lee MacDonald, who are changing the way companies think about the onboarding experience and engaging employees.

If you’re like me, and you like to check out the software to do your own exploring before committing, sign up for a free trial so you can navigate the platform and see what epic journeys you can build for your growing company. Start the short process here.

Happy to share any feedback for those who would like to chat about my experience with Aboard, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn!