{"id":1548,"date":"2020-09-29T22:48:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T02:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog2wrkdev.wpenginepowered.com\/onboarding-automation-guide\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T07:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T11:48:39","slug":"onboarding-automation-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog2workato.wpengine.com\/onboarding-automation-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Onboarding Automation: A Complete Introductory Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Poor onboarding experiences can negatively impact employee retention, productivity, and the employer’s reputation. Research on 1000 employees<\/a> shows that one in three have had an underwhelming onboarding experience. You can prevent bad onboarding experiences by engaging in onboarding automation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post, we’ll discuss the parts of onboarding that you can automate and the benefits of performing this type of HR automation.<\/a> We’ll also demonstrate how you can implement it at your organization. But to start, let’s review the drawbacks of a traditional, manual approach to employee onboarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n

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Automate your onboarding process end-to-end with Workato<\/h4>\r\n

Learn how Workato, the leader in enterprise automation, can help your team automate employee onboarding in a matter of minutes and without having to write a single line of code. <\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t Schedule a demo<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t\t <\/div>\r\n\n\n\n

The Challenges of Onboarding Employees Manually<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The following factors explain why most employees don\u2019t think that their employer follows a good onboarding process<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The Employee Onboarding Process Feels Impersonal<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Your employees need to start engaging with colleagues as soon as possible to be productive<\/a>. However, when your HR team performs individual tasks manually, satisfying this need becomes nearly impossible. It involves introducing new hires to their colleagues, scheduling one-on-one lunches, organizing offsites, etc. All of these tasks overwhelm an HR department that already has limited time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The Employee Experience Falters<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As your employees start their new jobs, they\u2019ll need answers to many questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without an easy, automated means of providing them, they\u2019re either left in the dark or investing too much time searching for answers. Equally bad, they might ask colleagues (especially those in IT) the same set of questions over and over again. This can quickly take up the latter\u2019s time and prevent them from performing more business-critical tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3. Administrative Tasks Move Slowly And Leave Your Team Vulnerable To Making Significant Mistakes <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Manually provisioning employees’ access to facilities and apps and procuring equipment can be time-intensive and challenging to do accurately at scale. As a result, many of these tasks may be delayed, and even once they\u2019re complete, there\u2019s a chance they\u2019re executed poorly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In either case, the results can be disastrous. For example, new hires may inadvertently gain access to confidential employee data, putting your company in potential legal trouble. The process of completing each new hire’s I-9 document may extend past three days from their start date, leading your organization to face costly penalties<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this context in mind, we\u2019re ready to dive into onboarding automation, starting with its definition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Onboarding Automation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Onboarding automation is the use of automation to streamline onboarding-related workflows<\/strong>. Its implementation involves a platform that can listen for a predefined business event, where once it occurs, the platform triggers actions that can work across your apps, data, and teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onboarding automation can handle the tasks required to prepare for a new employee. This can be any of the following (and a whole lot more):<\/p>\n\n\n\n