Onboarding staff is one of the most lengthy and costly parts of hiring for small and medium businesses. When it’s done poorly, it can have a significant negative impact1 on your business. This can include lower productivity, increased turnover, increased absenteeism, and decreased employee engagement (which can cost a business up to 18% of that employee’s salary2).
But when it’s done well studies have found it can make an incredibly positive difference in your business. In fact, a robust strategic onboarding process leads to:
- 82% increased employee retention3
- 70% higher productivity3
- increased employee engagement4
- better overall performance, 77% of employees meet first performance milestone5.
A robust strategic onboarding process can take three to four months or even up to a year. And it can include a range of factors, including pre-boarding, administrative onboarding, orientation and training, foundation building, development opportunities, mentoring and much more. Plus, these things are constantly evolving.
How employee onboarding is evolving
Employee onboarding is evolving at pace. One of the main ways that onboarding is changing is through automation and the application of artificial intelligence (AI).
Using automated onboarding tools can create a seamless, structured onboarding process. This is especially useful for small and medium businesses who require robust, compliant yet nimble processes.
As we know, there’s more to employee onboarding than just super, so you could also consider incorporating AI which could help you with:
- Self-paced and manageable training
- Synced online tools and workflow accounts
- Remote onboarding challenges
- Social and community engagement
How to use automation for super in your onboarding processes
Using automation in your business onboarding is easier and more accessible than ever before. Beam offers small and medium sized businesses at no cost a digital employee onboarding tool, called Super Fund Onboarding (SFO). SFO allows employers or the payroll team to add new employees, invite them to validate their personal details, record their choice of super fund and their Tax File Number (TFN) declaration in one secure place.
Reimagining your employee onboarding with SFO
Employee onboarding has always been a time-demanding and resource-heavy administrative process for many businesses. This has only increased with government regulations that all employers must follow and meet, like the stapling rules.
SFO enables employers to provide employees with a simple online onboarding experience that helps reduce endless paperwork. It also provides a fully trackable process, eliminates errors and data inaccuracies. This enables employers to set up their employees’ super payments easily, which then reduce the admin burden placed on employers or their HR/Payroll team (or person!).
It also ensures that costly mistakes aren’t made. And it gives you a leg up in creating a strategic onboarding that will drive increased employee engagement across the board – and provide the benefits that come with it!
Features and benefits of Beam’s SFO digital tool
- A mobile responsive web-based user interface that can reduce administrative burden.
- Easily add new employees by inviting your team to validate their employee details, record their super fund choice and their Tax File Number (TFN) declaration in one secure place.
- Easy for new employees to choose their super fund, which empowers them to choose their preferred super fund and removes the admin of you having to confirm their existing super fund with the ATO – saving you time and effort.
- Complete visibility on the status of your employee’s onboarding activity – so you can easily track and remind your team to complete their onboarding journey.
- Send personalised SMS and email notifications to your employees to invite them to complete their onboarding journey online. As an employer, you have full control of the super fund onboarding process to send an onboarding invite, resend an onboarding invite or cancel an onboarding invitation.
- New employees can declare their TFN online so there is less manual paperwork to complete. Plus, SFO enables you to set-up and make super payments easily, while ensuring that your team don’t pay more tax than necessary.
Pinata Farm’s SFO experience
Don’t just take our word regarding why utilising the Beam SFO tool is so beneficial. Samantha Ford from Pinata Farms outlines how it’s helped them:
“Using the SFO tool has helped to streamline onboarding of our new employees, both local backpackers and our large number of seasonal workers. Opening a new super account is quick and easy. If an applicant already has an ART account number, the tool tells us their existing client number. The SFO tool is incredibly simple and straightforward to use.”
Onboarding is worth your attention
Having a strategic onboarding process will help to set your business up for success. Automations are a part of the future for most businesses and can save you time, budget, and missteps. That’s why with SFO employers can say goodbye to endless paperwork, and hello to peace of mind of being able to stay on top of their super obligations.
To find out more, including how to access SFO right now visit beamconnect.com.au/superfundonboarding
Important information Any opinions expressed on this article by individuals and/or third parties are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Precision. No responsibility is taken for the accuracy of any of the information supplied and you should seek advice for your circumstances.
1 Gallup, Jim Harter, “Employee Engagement vs. Employee Satisfaction and Organizational Culture,” August 2022 (accessed 25-Jun-23) gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employee-satisfaction.aspx
2 Gallup, Jake Herway, “Increase Productivity at the Lowest Possible Cost,” October 2020 (accessed 25-Jun-23) gallup.com/workplace/321743/increase-productivity-lowest-possible-cost.aspx
3 Glassdoor, “The True Cost of a Bad Hire” August 2015 b2b-assets.glassdoor.com/the-true-cost-of-a-bad-hire.pdf
4 SHRM, “Understanding Employer Onboarding,” (accessed 25-Jun-23) shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/understanding-employee-onboarding.aspx
5 Aberdeen Strategy & Research “Perfecting the Onboarding Funnel” September 22 (Accessed 25-Jun-23) aberdeen.com/blogposts/perfecting-onboarding-funnel