New employees are being sought in all industries - through impressions from the HR Innovation Roadshow, we know: “New Workforce” is currently a focus topic for HR professionals! We demonstrate, using our own blink.it team as an example, how onboarding can be effectively, flexibly, and beneficially accompanied online for employees and companies.
Update February 2019
Guide: Blended Onboarding for Companies
Onboard new employees using a mix of personal meetings + online courses! How exactly this works and how you can create an initial "Blended Onboarding" in 3 weeks is explained in our new guide.
Concentrated Startup Power at the HR Innovation Roadshow
To discover trends, sometimes you have to look more than once - and often look in different directions. That’s exactly why we were at the HR Innovation Roadshow for the third time this year.
After our great kickoff in Frankfurt, we headed to Stuttgart via Cologne on October 9th this time.
The concept of the HR Innovation Roadshow has remained true to itself: Various startup companies present their innovative ideas for businesses in short presentations.
The focus is on utilizing new digital concepts to find solutions to old or current problems in the HR sector. And through exchange, gaining new impulses for the still young products. Just like the motto: Learning by presenting!
Recruiting and New Talent in Focus
As different as the event cities are, the audience and the most pressing topics were equally varied.
Hans-Martin represented blink.it on site and shares his impressions:
In Frankfurt, a large part of the visitors was from the banking or insurance sector. A lot of it was about further education and training. In Stuttgart, there were many HR professionals from the technology and automotive sectors, and the focus was very strongly on the topic of Recruiting and Hiring.
Where recruiting is at the forefront, the goal is to bring as many qualified employees into the companies as possible - to improve processes, better distribute tasks, or simply grow with positive company developments.
And where many new employees are hired, important questions for leaders and companies arise:
How do you onboard new employees so that they are as quickly independent and productive as possible?
How do you convey comprehensive knowledge about the company and the workflows and structures?
How do you find a balance between support and independence for new employees?
How do I bring new employees together with colleagues and supervisors?
Every employee and leader who has ever trained someone new knows: Accompanying a new employee all day long takes a lot of time and requires constant attention - there is a risk that other important tasks remain undone.
Moreover, new processes take time to be fully understood and implemented independently - questions and multiple repetitions until the new knowledge is secure must also be planned.
Tip: Which methods exist for onboarding and what advantages are offered for companies, colleagues, and new employees, we have prepared for you in two examples here - get inspired: Smart Onboarding with Blended Learning
We at blink.it conduct our onboarding of course… with blink.it!
Since personal experiences say much more than examples, I want to show you today how a smart onboarding process can unfold - firsthand, as I have just gone through our “twice-supported onboarding” (or am still in the middle of it).
The idea is based on the concept of "Blended Learning". What advantages the integration of face-to-face and online learning offers you and how versatile Blended Learning is for your team or company, you can find out here:
How does a “Blended Onboarding” proceed, how does it feel from the perspective of the new employee, and what can you learn for yourself and your company from it?
Practical Example 1: Onboarding in Video Diary
The focus here is to keep track of the learning progress of the new employees, to promote self-reflection and repetition of newly learned concepts, and to establish a good getting to know between the new employees and their colleagues.
For this, new employees at blink.it record a short selfie-video (maximum 2 minutes) with their own phones at the end of each workday during the first 2 weeks, reporting what they did and learned that day. From the third week on, the videos are uploaded weekly. The videos are submitted to a video diary course and all employees can watch and comment on the videos. Or also upload response videos with ideas, suggestions, and praise.
Onboarding Video Diary - Laura & Jessi. A short introduction and one chapter per week with personal report videos and direct feedback from Konstantin
Filming a video every day - that sounds like a lot of work. But it isn't! After 2, 3 days, you get the hang of it, it takes a maximum of 5 minutes< to shoot the video and upload it to the blink.it course - and for the colleagues, a maximum of 2 minutes to watch it and know what the >newcomers> to shoot the video and upload it to the blink.it course - and for the colleagues, a maximum of 2 minutes to watch it and know what the >newcomers< are actually doing and capable of.
Perfect for: Reflection. Repetition of new knowledge. Feedback.
Practical Example 2: Onboarding in the blink.it Course
In addition to personal discussions and orientation on various topics surrounding the company, workflows, and projects, an online course is suitable for formal and content-related aspects.
All content that is essential for the new employee (i.e. me) in the first days or weeks is summarized in a blink.it course. Various topics are divided into chapters. When selecting between texts, documents, links, and videos, there is a suitable medium for every piece of information. The content is released gradually, tailored to the learning process in daily work.
Onboarding in Inbound Marketing: Personal introduction, various chapters, and brief impulses
Active learning in the new job and e-learning integrate closely to allow for a quick, effective, and sustainable learning process - which, from my personal experience, is also a lot of fun. Meanwhile, the learning content will naturally remain accessible and can be utilized repeatedly. This saves time during the next onboarding and brings all employees in the team up to speed.
Perfect for: Basic knowledge. Processes (Top: Videos!). Impulses. Exercises.
Personal Experience with “Blended Onboarding”
During onboarding, Blended Learning can leverage all the advantages it also has for further training and advanced courses:
In personal coaching, procedures and important basics are imparted, which are then repeated in the online course and reinforced with impulses and materials. The content can be worked on independently and accessed and repeated as needed.
As a “newcomer,” one feels directly integrated and supported with information, inputs, and feedback. The learning curve is steep, the knowledge is embedded firmly, and the onboarding goes quickly - and it has been a lot of fun for me and all other colleagues!
The result with and at blink.it: Independence and bonds to the new company are perfectly supported from day one. And saves the responsible parties (team leaders and executives) a lot of time and money!
Conclusion: Creativity Enables Countless Applications
Thanks to the HR Innovation Roadshow, we have again taken away many ideas. And the conviction: blink.it offers you diverse opportunities to develop and support innovative and creative learning processes. Not only for training and further education but also for countless other areas in the company:
Onboarding? Transition of job areas? Taking on new tasks? Or a little help for the next vacation replacement? Get creative and use blink.it in a diverse and individualized way!
Please leave us a comment on how you would use blink.it or how you are already using it to support your colleagues or participants. We are curious!
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