Beyond the Paperwork Pile: How ServiceNow Changes HR Onboarding & Offboarding

Think about it: the journey that an employee goes through, from the very first day up to their last, really affects the way they look at the company and how the business operates. But for many places, those important aspects of bringing new people in and assisting others out of the company are still drudgery and errors abound. 

It's not just about shuffling papers. It's about giving someone a good start. Wouldn't it kill the enthusiasm of a fresh hire if their laptop showed up late or access was never set up on Monday? Or what if someone left and their access wasn't turned off immediately? Should I say that what were supposed to be exceptions have now become far too frequent?

The Headaches of Old-School Employee Transitions

HR offices have been complaining about how time-consuming these changes to employees are for years. Here are some typical issues that can make something that should be a seamless process into a messy situation:

• Buried in Manual Work: HR staff are usually bogged down by endless email threads and sloppy spreadsheets, just to keep departmental responsibilities straight. This devours monumental blocks of HR's precious time.
• New Employee Slow Starts: New staff will spend their initial time waiting for the equipment they require – laptops, phones, or simply access to software. That disappointing opening impression influences how soon they can get started.
• Risk Compliance Gaps: Getting all new employees to sign off on policies, or getting all departing staff's access properly locked down, can be a compliance disaster. Slippage in this case generates enormous security risks.
• No Master Location: Without a single master location, there is no means of actually knowing where an onboarding or departure checklist is at any given time. It is impossible to manage ahead of time in practice, leading to delays and frustration for everyone involved.

In total, these issues make for a bad first day for new hires, HR and IT jams, ongoing security concerns, and all-too-wasteful employee transitions that cost both time and money.

Finding Your Way with ServiceNow: One Smart System

This is where applications such as ServiceNow HR Service Delivery (HRSD) step in. They automate these intricate manual routes and make them smooth, automated methods of operation. By having all the onboarding and offboarding processes in one simple system, organisations can reduce the risk of losing or forgetting a single step, automating it instead, and having it simply stitched together for all departments.

Here's how an average ServiceNow solution will assist:

•  Easy Service Requests: Onboarding/offboarding services may be requested simply by new employees or managers through an easy-to-navigate HR Service Catalog and Employee Center. This halts the email frenzy from day one.
• Automatic Task Management: According to pre-defined processes, ServiceNow automatically routes and assigns all the right teams – HR, IT, facilities, finance, and even security. Forget check-ins and lost things.
• Smooth Tool & Access Setup: Through smooth integration into IT Service Management (ITSM) frameworks, ServiceNow can be set to automatically order the purchase of IT hardware and access to software. New employees are therefore day one ready.
• Helpful Employee Portals: A friendly Onboarding Portal provides new employees with immediate access to welcome kits, critical policy documents, and a task tracker. It makes their first impression simple and inviting.
• Automated Checklists & Documents: Auto checklists carry out crucial HR, IT, and manager tasks to ensure they are filled in a timely manner. Built-in document management takes care of uploading contracts, policy acknowledgement, and exit forms, all stored digitally and securely.
• Improved Security: A close association with identity and access systems implies user access granted instantly, and more importantly, switched off as soon as a user moves away. This radically reduces security threats from legacy access.

Real Benefits: Clear Improvements You'll Notice

Organisations that make the move to automated onboarding and offboarding using ServiceNow enjoy large, obvious gains that benefit the entire organisation:

• Quicker New Hire Begins: Picture reducing the amount of time it takes to bring someone aboard by 50%. This translates into new hires becoming productive much quicker, assisting the company more quickly.
• Less HR Workload: Up to 30% lower HR operational workload for businesses. That leaves the HR team free to do more useful planning rather than admin. 
• Far Better Employee Experience: New employees always receive their kit and system access on the expected day. This produces a much-improved first-day experience and a solid foundation for their entire time in the business.
• Improved Security & Rule Compliance: Achieving 100% revocation compliance at the time of exit significantly reduces security threats, with sensitive content being protected. Electronic documents also offer readily audit-trail, which helps to achieve enhanced compliance with all rules.
• Finer Sighted Than Ever Before: HR leaders receive real-time data in the form of bite-sized dashboards. They can glance at the status of all onboarding and offboarding processes. This assists them in managing beforehand and getting things done faster.

Time to Make Your Employee Journey Smoother

Those messy, labor-intensive HR days are gone, traded for intelligent, automated processes. With ServiceNow HRSD, businesses aren't simply handling employee changes; they're streamlining them to be as efficient, secure, and best for the employee as they can be. This change empowers HR to go from merely being a cost center to being the business's talent development central driver and the central enabler of the business.