What should you know when onboarding employees to a new software? The idea is that you want this user to adopt the new software and continue to engage with it – that last part is often the hardest to tackle. However, there are some things you can do to increase both user satisfaction and long-term use or retention. In this article, you will learn the importance of onboarding, the benefits of good onboarding, user onboarding best practices to follow, some mistakes to avoid, and more. 

Definitions: onboarding vs. adoption

Before we go any further, let’s clarify what we mean by onboarding and how it’s different from adoption.

Here are some quick definitions to get started:

• Onboarding

A process by which a new person, product, or tool is introduced and integrated.

• Software Onboarding

Integrating software into the daily workflows of new employees or users.

• Employee Onboarding

The introduction and integration of employees into the workplace.

• Software Adoption

Implementation and integration of new software, including onboarding.

• The Digital Workplace

The digital components in a work environment, including the tools, workflows, and so on.

• Digital Transformation

Digitally driven organizational changes that leverage new technology to transform a company’s operations and customer service.

• Digital Adoption

Employs software to streamline the digital workplace and maximize software ROI, utilization, efficiency, and productivity.

First impressions last

Onboarding’s importance lies in that it is often the beginning of a relationship between a user and a particular technology. And, as we know from the physical world, first impressions matter. If an employee detests a new system (whether they are required to use it or not) or is onboarded incorrectly from the start, their engagement levels with that software system will likely be minimal at best – and it’ll end up costing you.

Take these statistics for example:

• A lack of technology is blamed by 36% of HR professionals for their inability to automate and organize onboarding programs (Businesswire, 2018).   
• The likelihood of an employee staying for three years increases by 69% when they participate in a structured onboarding program (ClickBoarding, 2020).
• Businesses that offer formal onboarding training are estimated to retain 50% of their employees (Harvard Business Review, 2018).
• Employees who have a poor onboarding experience resign from their companies approximately 10% of the time (Business News Daily, 2020).

Benefits of good onboarding

Good onboarding can not only gain you significantly more employees, it can gain you loyal employees. That means promoters – people who will essentially advertise for you. That’s because people love to talk about their good experiences. But, be warned, the same goes for bad experiences. 

If someone has a terrible time doing anything, they will tell someone about it, whether it’s a colleague, friend, family member, or even their dog. So, if your goal is to retain loyal employees that love your company and will even act as advocates for you, onboarding is not a step to take lightly. 

Common onboarding mistakes

While the range of mistakes you can make in planning an onboarding process is almost endless, these are some of the most common (and, perhaps, most detrimental) to be mindful of:

Not understanding that onboarding is ongoing

Onboarding is not just a sign-up page, a welcome email, a virtual company tour, and “good luck!”. It’s an ongoing process that requires nurturing, education, and guidance, not to mention support. There aren’t many things more frustrating than finishing an introductory training video and finding that you have no further instruction beyond an external help center or an unapproachable colleague. 

Failing to set expectations

What often disappoints people in new jobs (and life in general) is a gap between expectation and reality. To avoid this, be upfront with your new hires. Let them know what they can expect from their role, what is required from them, where they can find support, and so on. In the absence of this, they will make assumptions based on who-knows-what. 

Having hard-to-use or missing support options

Have you ever started a new job, needed help, and couldn’t find it? If so, then you know it can be disappointing at best and disheartening at worst. It’s crucial to make support options visible, accessible, and user-friendly to ensure a smooth hiring experience. 

Not measuring or monitoring

It’s quite common that users will get stuck on one or multiple stages of an onboarding journey. However, if you don’t know where, you have no chance of fixing it. Monitoring and measuring the user journey can make a huge difference to your success rate, since it gives you the flexibility to make changes where needed. Tweak by tweak, the employee experience can be truly optimized for success.

Software onboarding best practices

Design a user journey

The first step to mapping out your desired user journey is knowing thy employee. This should include personas, needs, ambitions, and anything else that will help you resonate with them. Once that’s clear, design the user journey in a way that is clear, helpful, and delivers value.

Welcome & set expectations

Beginning the employee journey with a warm welcome and setting expectations is a great way to ensure a smooth experience. Negative surprises will only steal from a great first impression. 

Provide a product tour + more

Concise but detailed walkthroughs can be the perfect way to acquaint new hires with new software. Like this, you can take them step by step, hand-in-hand through the user journey to remove any confusion or frustration. This is your opportunity to explain all the important details, including where to go for support and how to use critical software functions. 

Offer clear value 

By the time the user has finished the initial set-up process, they should have no further questions as to what they need to do and where they need to do it. Naturally, they may still have questions about how they should be doing certain processes, but that’s expected. If you find there is still room for improvement after doing a test walkthrough yourself, take the time to smooth out the edges before rolling it out.

Be a guide

Beyond the help resources and tour, what other guidance do you offer your new employees? A great way to add an extra layer of support is to include pop-ups and clickable bubbles that provide users with on-the-go guidance. Having these as options can make an incredibly seamless user experience, since they won’t have to exit software or open a new window to find the help they need. 

Monitor struggle-points and adjust

Having visibility over your user journey is the best way to optimize your employee experience. If you can see where users are getting stuck, you can make the necessary changes to avoid it. Let’s say you notice a drop off on a particular form handler or process often, you investigate it, and find that there is a bug that is rejecting all email addresses, whether typed correctly or not. You have immediate insight into what’s impeding user signup and you can deploy your team to fix it in minutes, not hours or days. Employee productivity monitoring capabilities such as the UI intelligence offered by Walkme is truly game changing.

Optimize for mobile

Mobile phones now account for almost 55 percent of all our online time, according to GWI’s latest research (We Are Social, 2022). However, you didn’t need to know that statistic to know how prevalent mobile use is now, did you? What this means is that mobile optimization is no longer a nice addition to your offering – it’s a requirement. In absence of this, you are bound to lose users quickly and forever.

Gather employee feedback

In any business, feedback is an incredibly important and valuable resource, and it’s not to be taken lightly. In order to make it truly frictionless, you can build it into existing processes and simply make it part of the journey. Still, for it to be effective, you need to turn that feedback into action. 

Guiding questions to fall back on

So far, we have provided a decent amount of information to get you started on your journey of onboarding new employees to your team. However, if you are in doubt of your progress at any point, here are some important, guiding questions to keep in mind:

Have you kept the interface and employee journey simple?

Is your interface and user journey simple and logical or does any part of it cause hesitation or confusion? If any of the latter is remotely true, make the necessary changes.

Has your onboarding process remained relevant to user goals?

Have you kept the range of predetermined user goals in mind during the creation of your user journey? Or have these goals gotten lost in the process? 

Have you provided sufficient support options?

At each and every stage of your user journey, is it clear where users can turn to for support? Do they need to go digging for a help button? Does clicking on said help button make it easy or difficult to return to what they were doing? 

Is your value proposition crystal clear?

Is it 100% clear from the get-go what the exact type of value your software offers your user? Is your copy clear? Your story straight? 

Is your user journey optimized?

If your user needs to access your software from mobile, how will it look? If there is an option to export documents, are there a range of formats to choose from? Are your images so large that they take more than an instant to load? 

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has provided you with the confidence to go forth and create an incredible employee experience using these onboarding best practices. We have covered the beneficial impact of good onboarding, common mistakes to avoid, best practices, and beyond. Whether you are planning to set up your onboarding manually or with WalkMe’s digital adoption platform, these tips will help you on your way. 

The cross-industry need for digital transformation (DX)

According to our 2022-2023 State of Digital Adoption report, 67% of enterprises are under “incredible pressure” to accelerate digital transformation (DX).

What is DX? 

Simply put, digital transformation is the implementation of tech systems to maximize efficiency and productivity while delivering business value and driving innovation.  Further benefits include that it:

• Improves organizational efficiency
• Boosts employee productivity
• Limits costly human error
• Raises customer and employee satisfaction
• Increases cross-enterprise agility
• Provides access to valuable enterprise data
• Enables scalable training & onboarding

For detailed insight into DX, including its role in various industries, visit our glossary page here.

Enterprises that achieved digital transformation

When trying to make a change, it’s always helpful to review some examples of success stories. Here are three noteworthy digital transformations by major enterprises to gain inspiration from. Keep reading to learn how these companies did it. 

Comcast

Comcast innovated new products including voice-activated controls and a cloud-based video platform for watching TV. However, this didn’t result in the boost in customer satisfaction they expected. So, citing the “accelerated adoption of digital technologies brought on by the pandemic”, the $84-billion U.S media and communications company reorganized, putting product innovation and customer experience together. 

With this transformation, the company was able to create a highly personalized experience that uses machine learning to recommend content. Additionally, Comcast tracked the impact of their offerings through IT investments, customer care, technology usage, and accounting to ensure a smooth and cost-effective customer experience. 

This example shows how basing digital transformation on the customer experience lets companies understand and address all their touch-points and how they interact with their audiences—from the marketing campaigns they see, to the sales personnel and processes they encounter, and to where they first connect with a company.

Netflix

Where Blockbuster went wrong, Netflix went right. Netflix based their digital transformation strategy on the customer.

Netflix, who originally began with a business model based on direct mail, unlocked their superpower potential when they moved to a cloud-based, on-demand model. Even before that, with a focus on the customer experience, they deployed an online recommendation engine to help customers find shows they like based on their interests and tastes and let customers know which videos were out of stock—meaning they could avoid going to video rental stores altogether. 

In 2002, Netflix had 857K subscribers and $152.8M in revenue. In 2019, they had 151.5M subscribers and $15.794B in revenue. Their biggest competitor in 2002, Blockbuster, tried to protect its bottom line with tactics like late fees, but this ultimately garnered hostility, was disliked by customers, and the rest is history.

Nike

When Nike felt they were getting a bit dated and sluggish, they underwent a digital transformation. Nike transformed the company’s mindset, supply chain, and brand to better connect with its customers during the pandemic. 

The brand focused more on data analytics, updated their e-commerce strategy, developed stronger digital marketing campaigns, and amped their direct-to-customer sales. The brand took production capabilities in-house to allow for market agility and invested in robotics as well as 3D printing.

With this, Nike was able to open concept stores, create more membership opportunities, and improve the overall customer experience by using digital consumer data more effectively alongside an omni-channel approach. 

Nestlé

The largest public food company in the world, Nestlé underwent a major digital transformation in order to enable advancement and scaling within the enterprise. The strategy they followed was named ‘Vision2Life’, and its purpose was to:

1. Bring value to receivers of IT services
2. Main global synchronization while operating locally
3. Merging product management and business stakeholders
4. Made the IT department an innovator, not just a service provider

In Nestlé’s annual investor report, they stated that the changes were about creating business value driven by data and technology. Their goal? To create an exceptional customer experience through engagement and more efficient operations. The conglomerate strives to achieve this using future-forward technologies, including AI.  

In their words, Nestlé will achieve this by “creating channel-less ecosystems, advancing always-on analytics, expanding connected operations, and supporting sustainability”. 

Discover how Nestlé partnered with WalkMe to boost employee digital adoption and drive organizational transformation. 

Spotify

In order to provide superior customer value and scale internally, Swedish streaming platform 

Spotify shifted their focus to customer engagement metrics and their internal structure. Having seen success from expanding their offerings – from just music to adding podcasts, live audio, and audio books – the enterprise knew that further transformation couldn’t hurt. 

In the first phase of the plan, Spotify took their team structure back to the drawing board. 

Having reworked it entirely, they ended up with an organizational layout that created a culture that rewards creativity and experimentation. 

Each product within the Spotify ecosystem is owned by a team made up of individuals with varying expertises. This structure allows diverse skill sets to come together, resulting in exceptionally well-designed products that enhance user experience – the cornerstone of successful digital transformation. 

Sephora

In 2015, beauty store extraordinaire Sephora made a serious commitment to innovating when they turned one of their warehouses – previously a test site for retail stores – into a digital transformation hub. The hub was dedicated to developing digital solutions that would create seamless customer experiences across physical and online spaces. 

On top of their innovation lab, Sephora released a myriad of new offerings including:

1. The Pocket Contour app, which provides contouring tutorials based on users’ individual face shapes
2. Beacon-driven (IoT location-based broadcasting devices) notifications to provide on-time and personalized notifications to in-store customers
3. Sephora Flash for ultra-fast, free shipping
4. Virtual Artist app (2016), which uses augmented reality (AR) to let users try on makeup virtually before buying

In the digital space, Sephora added features such as AI-driven chatbots that enable users to book appointments and the ability to effortlessly find and buy makeup tested using Virtual Artist on the Sephora app and website.

The result of all of these introductions was a frictionless, personalized customer experience thanks to a true omni-channel experience.  

UPS

In a bid to improve customer experience, courier company UPS has designed a comprehensive digital transformation strategy. In fact, digital transformation is not new to the company. Having invested for decades in technology and IT infrastructure, UPS was able to maintain an incredible on-time delivery rate throughout the COVID-19 pandemic – even when industry rates dropped.

In 2018, it was announced that UPS would invest $20B into e-commerce. A large part of that sum has gone to data and analytics command centers featuring IoT sensors, cameras, and Network Planning Tools (NPTs). These technologies allow the company to track the whopping two million packages processed per day in their facilities. Additionally, UPS rolled out ‘ORION’ – “on-road integrated optimization and navigation”, a fleet telematics system using advanced algorithms to constantly optimize delivery routes based:

• Distance
• Fuel
• Time
• Environmental impact 

The result of all these initiatives? 90% of Americans are now experiencing a reduced delivery rate of 3 days or less and experience significantly less mixups. 

Key takeaways

What we have learned from how Comcast, Netflix, Nike, Nestle, Spotify, Sephora, and UPS achieved digital transformation is that a customer-centric approach is the key to success. Each of these enterprises strayed from the traditional business model that follows a typical ‘spray and pray’ approach – mass production and mass distribution. However, the other element shared by these companies’ digital transformation journeys is data. 

All seven enterprises highlighted provided their employees with copious amounts of customer data and implemented systems that improved their workflows. This goes to show that digital transformation begins when employees are empowered with systems and technologies that enable new levels of efficiency. Additionally, following the changes they made to their business models, each of these enterprises experienced significant data-fueled growth based on exceptional user experience. 

To learn how WalkMe helped our customers achieve successful digital transformation, explore our customer stories.

Tools for success

Salesforce implementation is the best way to jumpstart your sellers’ productivity and efficiency, enabling them to take it to the next level. Salesforce and other CRM platforms are being utilized by businesses all over the world to collect, store, and amass huge amounts of sales data, which can then be precisely leveraged to increase targeted sales activity and boost revenue growth.

Common CRM challenges

The complex system of smart platforms such as Salesforce can result in a multitude of challenges, including onboarding problems, time-intensive tasks, and fractured workflows. These difficulties can compromise the productivity-boosting benefits of your CRM system, negatively impact your sellers, and decrease your sales velocity. But with the right strategic implementation, businesses can realize the full potential of their business goals and get the most out of valuable CRM software. 

Salesforce is an extremely complex and intricate platform, especially for businesses that are large in size and have no prior experience. It goes far beyond the initial purchase and requires weeks (if not months) of setup work to fully realize the benefits. 

The ultimate Salesforce implementation checklist

We have identified a 9-step Salesforce implementation checklist to help you get the most out of your  CRM. 

1. Define your goals 

The first thing you need to do when implementing Salesforce and CRM solutions is to understand why you are using them in the first place. The following questions will help you define specific, measurable goals: 

• What do you want to accomplish with your Salesforce implementation and why? 
• What are the specific problems that you hope to resolve with Salesforce? 
• How can Salesforce specifically help to solve your issues? 

All of your goals should be practical, feasible, and easily quantifiable. The best way to achieve these goals is through the SMART framework, which helps you define specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound goals.

Following this framework is the best way to separate certain project goals into smaller chunks that can be easily implemented and measured cross-departmentally.  

2. Assess implementation risks

As with any CRM solution, there are certain risks associated with implementation. Not everything will be smooth sailing, and businesses should consider possible issues and work to avoid them at all costs. 

The core risks associated with Salesforce CRM implementation are: 

• Wasting time on needless features that don’t support overall goals
• Slow adoption
• Unfriendly end-user solutions

3. Decide on your end user

Determining the correct Salesforce implementation end user is crucial to the ongoing success of your sales teams. 

Defining whether the sales team, marketing team, or the finance team will benefit most will help to streamline cross-functional team collaboration and will tie up any loose ends that could otherwise be overlooked. 

In most cases, Salesforce CRM solutions will need to be implemented for multiple departments and it’s important to determine their exact requirements.  

4. Establish a timeline 

Establishing a workable timeline for your Salesforce implementation process is crucial. It’s especially important because sales-based businesses have concurrent ongoing projects, so you’ll want to avoid overlapping or interference. 

A fully formulated timeline that takes into account the risks of associated projects will ensure that the Salesforce CRM implementation process causes the least amount of disruption to your business processes. 

5. Set specific, measurable metrics for your goals 

Once the initial implementation phases are out of the way, it’s time to measure the results and determine if the solution is effective or not. Performance metrics play a vital role in Salesforce implementation and need to be fully realized before any real changes can take place for primary users.

Not only do metrics help to establish sales targets, but they also enable organizations to manage and lead a successful deployment with little hassle. It also enables businesses to provide clarity, focus, and motivation to achieve goals related to CRM management. In the long run, technology silos are broken down and give businesses an overall view of customers that interact with your brand, products, and services.    

6. Build your team

Salesforce implementation teams should be organized into the following key members: 

• Executive sponsor – Responsible for the overall success of the Salesforce project

• Project owner – Responsible for leading the implementation team  

• Project manager – Measures the success of the project and holds team members accountable 

• System administrator – Responsible for managing and setup of overarching systems

• Power user – Responsible for providing crucial feedback and highlighting issues regarding system demands of top management and end-users 

• Salesforce consultant – Helps businesses meet sales targets and objectives by driving client-specific implementation and ongoing systems improvements 

7. Ensure adequate training

When implementing Salesforce, it’s easy to overlook crucial details that can result in a loss of efficiency and potential. This means that each team member needs to be sufficiently educated and undergo training before, during, and after implementation. 

Try not to rely solely on online resources and documentation. Instead, focus on high-quality employee training that equips teams with hands-on skills and an in-depth understanding of the complex systems within Salesforce. 

Additionally, utilizing the expertise of a Salesforce implementation partner and having them join your team is a great way to expedite the process and minimize potential risks. A Salesforce implementation partner can also help to maximize the effectiveness of your solution and streamline your particular business needs.

8. Systemize your data 

Another key success driver of your Salesforce CRM implementation checklist is the correct management of data resources. Without adequate quality data, it’ll be impossible for sales teams to increase user adoption, identify flaws and act quickly to resolve them. 

Follow the checklist below to make sure that you get the most out of your valuable data-driven resources: 

• Determine whether the data sets you currently have match your long-term goals 
• Evaluate the strength of your data and review it for errors and integrity needs 
• Assess whether supplemental data needs to be collected and analyzed
• Prioritize some data sets over others and disregard irrelevant information
• Ensure effective data migration, preserving comprehensive data integrity

9. Communicate with end-users

The last point on our checklist highlights the importance of effective communication with valued end-users. After launching your Salesforce toolset, you should strive to constantly gather feedback in order to determine whether the current iteration is suited to your business needs. When issues arise, IT teams need to be available to support and address any concerns from end-users while ensuring that queries are reviewed quickly and efficiently. 

Final words of advice

Salesforce CRM implementation is difficult for any business to implement, even those large in size, resources, and scale. In fact, the bigger the business is and the more customers and employees they have, the harder it is to successfully implement an effective solution that increases user adoption and streamlines digital transformation.

As a general overview, following this Salesforce implementation checklist will push your company in the right direction and enable you to develop a structured approach to CRM implementation. It will offer your organization the best chance of increasing revenue, decreasing overheads, improving customer satisfaction, and gaining more promising data insights and analytics. 

Successful Salesforce implementation isn’t easy, but with the right systems in place, project managers and sales reps alike will be more in charge of critical processes that enable a successful launch. 

Discover how W.L. Gore achieved a 75% reduction of enablement time for new features with WalkMe.

WalkMe is excited to announce that we will be sponsoring, exhibiting, and presenting at Gartner’s ReimagineHR 2022 events in London, UK and Orlando, FL. For those in the human resources industry, this is an incredible opportunity to convene with fellow HR professionals and develop ideas and strategies for future success while exploring industry trends and breakthrough HR tech that will help you harness the full potential of a changing workplace.

Here, we will break down what is on the table for Gartner’s ReimagineHR Conference 2022, including what to expect and why you should attend.

Who is it for

• CHROs
• Learning & development professionals
• Recruiting & talent acquisition professionals
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion professionals
• Total rewards & performance professionals
• HR technology professionals
• HR analytics professionals
• Talent management professionals

What to expect

With a constantly changing workplace and increasing digital fatigue, today’s HR professionals face several challenges including those related to the lasting impact of the pandemic on work relationships, employee onboarding, and employee experience.

The theme for this conference will focus on building quality work relationships, authenticity, and people-first processes as key to organizational success. The three core pillars include:

• Engaging a diverse workforce
  • Inspire an increasingly fragmented workforce to become better aligned with the organization’s social purpose and financial targets.
• Cultivating connections
  • Build new ways of collaborating that drive innovation and change, while also facilitate a more social and emotional connection to the workplace.
• Making better business decisions
  • Learn how to make principled business decisions in the face of polarization.

This year’s conference will be hybrid with aspects of the in-person event available virtually. The event will feature a keynote address, expert speaker sessions to provide you with actionable insights that you can run with in your business, and roundtable discussions moderated by analysts and industry professionals.

When & where

WalkMe will be exhibiting at the following Gartner ReimagineHR Conference 2022 events:

Gartner ReimagineHR Conference in London, United Kingdom

• September 15-16
• Visit us at booth #204

Gartner ReimagineHR Conference in Orlando, Florida

• October 17-20
• Booth number coming soon

WalkMe’s expert sessions

In addition to exhibiting, WalkMe is proud to present Solution Provider speaking sessions led by WalkMe experts on the latest in digital adoption and how by creating exceptional user-centric experiences you can drive quality business outcomes.

WalkMe at Gartner ReimagineHR Conference in London, United Kingdom

Solution Provider Session

Digital Adoption and your HR tech strategy.
The foundation for a Digital Workplace innovation strategy.

Approaches to digital adoption, like change management programmes with user manuals and training classes to teach employees, aren’t enough anymore. 60% of enterprises state change management strategies are “no longer fit for purpose.” Gartner® has positioned Digital Adoption Platforms (DAP) as the number one technology for Workplace Infrastructure Modernisation. 

Don’t miss WalkMe’s SVP & GM of EMEA, Simon Blunn and Laura Dean from TUI Group, as they discuss the latest trends, research, and real examples of how leading organizations are redefining change by focusing on ROI and delivering exceptional user-centric digital experiences.

Where & when

Date & time: September 15th, 2022 at 11:45  – 12:15 BST
Location: Arora 6, Level 1, InterContinental – 02, London
Length: 30 mins
Session code: 1017 

Roundtable session

Join WalkMe for a moderated discussion hosted by Jonathan Hurst, WalkMe’s Head of CS, EMEA, later that day titled: The road to software ROI: Creating a successful digital adoption strategy. 

Where & when

Event and location: Gartner ReimagineHR Conference in London, United Kingdom 
Date & time: September 15th, 2022 at 15:15-16:00 BST
Location: Drake room
Length: 45 mins
Session code: VUR2

WalkMe at Gartner ReimagineHR Conference in Orlando, Florida

Check back soon for more information on our Solution Provider Session (SPS) and Roundtable at Gartner ReimagineHR Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Register NOW

Don’t miss out! Explore the event agenda, check out the exhibitors, and register to attend the Gartner ReimagineHR Conference here:

• London, U.K. | 15 – 16 September 2022
• Orlando, Florida | 24 – 26 October 2022

Click here to discover WalkMe’s digital adoption solutions for HR.

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