1. Provide a secure SharePoint pre-hire site

When a person first confirms that they are accepting a position, there is often a lot of paperwork they must complete before their first day, as well as information to provide and reading to do. Completing this before their first day is usually essential because it helps get everything prepared, including setting them up on different systems, ordering IT equipment and so on. It can also allow them to learn about the company and even meet their new colleagues.

Often “pre-hire” activities are carried out by email with documents that need to be digitally signed, huge PDFs of the employee handbook to read, and links to anonymous forms. The process is inefficient, and the experience is impersonal and unengaging.

Creating a secure SharePoint site with external access that new hires can access before their first day is a great way to provide all the necessary information and documents new starters need in a clearer and more efficient way.  Forms can also be created for any information that needs to be submitted; here digital workplace teams can use embedded Microsoft Forms with workflows from Power Automate to help IT and HR functions get all the information they need to complete any pre-first day tasks.  A pre-hire site could even include embedded learning, present content in a more engaging way, and even have a welcome video.

It’s possible to create a SharePoint site with guest access, but also use the Microsoft Power Pages on the Power Platform. Some organisations can also choose to provide full Microsoft 365 access early, although there is always a small risk of a person not joining before the first day.

Overall, a pre-hire site can prove to be far more efficient than using email and helps a new hire make a flying start when they join, rather than spending their first day filling out forms and reading documentation.

2. Create a personalised hub for your new hires on your SharePoint intranet

A SharePoint intranet often contains valuable information that new hires need to know regarding the company and its processes, its strategy and values, tools and apps, how to get things done and so on. A personalised hub and resource site for new hires is a common use case for a SharePoint intranet that delivers real value.

A new hire hub might highlight all the content spread throughout an intranet that is valuable for a new starter, such as information on company strategy.  A site will also add specific resources for the new starter community. This might include checklists of things employees need to do, a welcome video from the CEO or presentations which feature in onboarding and induction sessions. It might also display a calendar of all the milestones an employee needs to be aware of in their first 30 days.

Here the variety of web parts available in SharePoint Online comes into its own with the ability to add all of the above plus task lists, a new hire community from Viva Engage (see below for more of this), policies and learning sources. 

However, there can still be a few gaps with out-of-the-box SharePoint web parts. For example our with our Lightspeed365 intranet product we’ve added an employee handbook web part that is perfect for presenting collections of content to new starters, as well as a page tour for new starters to get used to the intranet itself.

For maximum value, a new hire hub should have web parts that are targeted and personalised to ensure resources and links are relevant to each new starter’s location, department and role.

3. Build a custom set of personalised tasks with automation and workflow

When new starters join a company, there are a lot of tasks to complete, including forms to fill out, policies to read, learning to complete and courses to attend. Aggregating all these tasks into a targeted list can be extremely helpful in making sure the new starter keeps on top of what they need to do.

There are different ways to create a set of personalised tasks that appears in your SharePoint intranet. For example, this could be done through PowerApps and Power Automate to deliver the right workflows.  Building a personalised list of task into your intranet homepage can also ensure they are front of mind for the new starter.

4. Get mandatory reads on your policies and procedures

When a person joins a company, there is often a lot of reading to get through, some of which might be mandatory. They may need to read a professional conduct policy, an IT policy, a social media usage policy, health and safety procedures and so on. As part of the onboarding process, an HR function or individual line managers may need to monitor new starters to ensure they have read and understood any mandatory policies and procedures. There may even need to be external reporting on this for compliance reasons.

It’s possible to use SharePoint and Microsoft tools to enable personalised mandatory reads and accompanying employee attestation functions where a new starter can:

• View and access the policies they need to read.
• Complete a checkbox or form to then also confirm that they have read and understood the policy.
• Receive notifications if this hasn’t been done by a certain date.
• Produce reporting to track overall completions.

Creating this functionality will require custom development, for example involving PowerApps in conjunction with SharePoint document libraries, Power Automate workflows, Power BI reporting and potentially Microsoft Forms. However, you can also potentially use a SharePoint-based product like Xoralia policy management software where mandatory reads and employee attestation is pre-built and integrates seamlessly with your SharePoint intranet. Xoralia also comes with multiple other features that you can use to support the employee onboarding process.

5. Create learning for employee onboarding

Learning is usually a huge part of the onboarding experience. As part of the induction process, a new starter may need to take a series of courses or training programmes so they can settle into life at their new company and carry out their role. Some of this learning is likely to be mandatory. Typically, it may include:

• An introduction to the company, its strategy, culture, values and core processes.
• Health and safety procedures.
• How to use technology platforms
• Specific role-based training, often technical or specialist in nature, for example on sales or about products and services.
• Mandatory compliance training across different areas.

The best way to incorporate learning directly into your SharePoint environment is to use a learning platform like Learn365 from Zensai that integrates seamlessly with SharePoint and Microsoft 365 because it’s based on SharePoint itself.  Many teams have established a whole onboarding programme within Learn365.

6. Create a new hire community

Meeting people and networking helps new employees settle quickly. Creating a community for new starters is a strong element for any onboarding programme.  New hires can support and network with each other, as well as connect with HR and other support functions to ask questions.

With SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365, a Viva Engage community with an embedded feed in your new hire area on the intranet can work very well, although some organisations might prefer to use Teams for community interaction.

7. Get feedback on your employee onboarding programme

An important method of improving your employee onboarding programme is to make sure you ask for feedback from the new hires who have just gone through it. Getting specific feedback and input can help identify issues that need fixing, highlight elements that are working well and elicit ideas for improvements.

There are multiple ways to get feedback using SharePoint. You could embed a Microsoft Form to ask specific questions or seek more detailed feedback or  use a Viva Engage new hires community embedded in a SharePoint page to generate a discussion. You can also use SharePoint commenting to generate comments and ideas. However you choose to do it, getting feedback can make all the difference, and sends a positive message that feedback from users is valued.

Other ways to improve employee onboarding using Microsoft 365 tools

Microsoft 365 provides interlocking tools that can be used in creative ways and combinations to support and improve employee onboarding including:

• Using Microsoft Viva Connections to ensure that any SharePoint-based new hire hub can also be accessed via Microsoft Teams
• Using PowerApps to deliver a custom new hire app that can be accessed on Teams, browser or mobile
• Using the Microsoft Viva Connections dashboard to create a dashboard that contains onboarding tasks, for example for new frontline workers
• Using Microsoft Co-pilot Studio in conjunction with a collection of relevant documents to create a dedicated onboarding chatbot to answer questions.
• And more!

Designing employee onboarding using SharePoint

Employee onboarding is a key process in employee experience, and can make a tangible contribution to talent retention. SharePoint and the wider Microsoft 365 toolset is a strong and flexible foundational technology to design onboarding experiences and deliver related content and features. If you’d like to discuss using SharePoint for your employee onboarding programme, then get in touch!