How to Onboard Smarter to Retain Top Talent

You’ve got the signed official offer letter and a confirmed start date—your hard recruiting work has paid off. Like the experienced cannabis business leader that you are, you decide to get the onboarding process started.

If you are like most top employers, you know that onboarding begins before the candidate’s first day of work.

You don’t send the new employee a bulky packet or an email overflowing with attachments to sign and date. Instead, you turn to a back-office function that allows the user to take on the paperwork virtually. Maybe your organization hasn’t caught on to the virtual onboarding trend quite yet. In which case you may be asking “Why are we so obsessed with virtualization in business today?”

It’s simple – we virtualize so that we can measure, increase efficiency, and maintain social distancing efforts where possible.

How exactly does a virtualized onboarding process work?

We measure factors in the interview, onboarding, and employee training stages to catch potential hindrances and make them better. In case you still aren’t sold on this effective onboarding strategy, here are a couple of key reasons why you should virtually measure your process:

1. Streamlined processes are efficient and ensure complete data.

By automating and analyzing your onboarding paperwork, your HR manager or department can monitor the amount of time it takes the average new hire to fill out each section and make sure all required documentation is received.

This time frame can be used to tell new employees up front how long each module usually takes to fill out, and how much time they will need to set aside to complete it, which will give your new employee a great first impression of how efficiently work gets done at your cannabis operation.

This also means that your HR department can draw conclusions from the data about why certain sections take more time than they should. Better yet, your company can start figuring out how to clarify the instructions and make the paperwork process less tedious for your new employees.

2. Your training is up to speed. 

Just as you can automate and track your new hire’s paperwork progression, you can track and analyze their online training courses using the same method.

Regardless if your new talent is working in a hands-on production position like bud tending, or in a customer-facing role on the retail side, there are always aspects of every position that require training and guidance. Formalizing this process ultimately saves management time, and ensures new hires are armed with the latest information.

Using automated modules allows the new hire to complete engaging training sessions at their convenience throughout their day. This analysis can help you tailor your training modules, and find the perfect segment time flow.

By simplifying everything before the start date, team members are given time to get settled in their new environment instead of being buried in endless onboarding packets. Nothing says “Welcome” like a pile of HR forms on a new hire’s workstation on day 1, right?

The benefits of smarter onboarding.

Bringing virtual convenience and analysis to your onboarding program allows more time for “transformational” tasks like mentorships, expectation setting, and goal mapping. This is especially important for the current realities of stressed employees working during the COVID pandemic.

Bonus: After these tasks have been completed and all goals/expectations have been set, automated onboarding systems can track and analyze the employee’s progress. Your talent will have the feedback and numbers they need to plan for future success on their career path, leaving them more engaged and excited about their role in the cannabis operation.

Getting started with smarter onboarding.

There are a number of third party solutions on the market that work as an internal applicant tracking system (ATS) for employers.

Another option is to work with an outsourced HR partner like Greenleaf HR. As a Greenleaf HR client, your cannabis business would have access to our HRIS system, Vfficient.

Vfficient is our cloud-based, client-centered human resource management solution designed to manage payroll, human resources, and benefits administration from a single robust HR platform. With this platform, cannabis business leaders and their HR team have a comprehensive tracking and onboarding solution that ensures each new hire has completed required tasks and provided all the details your company needs.

The onboarding process has had a bad reputation in countless industries over the years. Let automated functions and data analysis change that for your company so that you can attract and retain the best talent.

If you’d like to learn how to maximize productivity and efficiency with your onboarding process, speak with one of our HR consultants today.