What is your favorite web tool for streamlining the onboarding process?
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1. Intro.JS
If you like open source, Intro.js is perhaps the most flexible and cheapest option on the market. While there are many tools that allow you to create onboarding tours for your customers, they are either limited by functionality or flexibility. Conversely, as an all-encompassing tool, intro.js is incredibly easy to set up, 100 percent free forever and also allows you to retain your brand identity.
2. Google for Work
We’ve since left more robust applications, like Confluence and Basecamp, behind. And although we still use JIRA for project management functionality, we’ve found that a simple collection of organized documents is much more intuitive for our new hires than a fully featured Wiki site with lots of unnecessary text, interface clutter, and ancillary application integrations.
– Blair Thomas, First American Merchant
3. Screencast-O-Matic
We have recently started using this online tool to video record every single process. So far it has worked like a charm and instead of spending 2-3 weeks answering questions about the particular role, we now get every new hire to spend 2-3 days watching all of the videos and asking any questions during that time. It also serves as a great reminder when we forget a particular process.
– Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow
4. Trello
While there are many specific tools available, we’re a huge fan of creating Trello cards for all new hires to ensure everything is completed. It’s a simple, yet powerfully effective way to streamline onboarding.
– Nick Genty, Iconic Solutions
5. Zoom
While several programs are necessary to keep my agency team running smoothly, for face-to-face onboarding chats, Zoom streamlines video conferencing and cross-platform chat into one platform so it’s easier for me to connect with my new clients and employees.
– Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now
6. Zenefits
We switched to Zenefits in October, and it has streamlined our hiring process and nearly eliminated paperwork. One of our new employees said using Zenefits was the easiest onboarding he’s had yet. New hires often spend their first day filling out paperwork. With Zenefits, we email everything to them beforehand. Because it’s connected to our payroll company, you only have to input information once.
– Joshua Dorkin, BiggerPockets
7. Streak
I just recently stumbled upon Streak.com, but I am already hooked on its possibilities. Streak lives entirely within Gmail which works perfectly for our company (90 percent of our onboarding process is done through email). The system is extremely flexible, so whether you are onboarding clients or doing blog outreach, you can manage the process easily.
– Mark Daoust, Quiet Light Brokerage, Inc.
8. Asana
We use Asana for project and task management throughout our company. For onboarding, we have a “template” project which contains all tasks that a new hire should take on in their first week, ranging from reviewing our annual plan to getting a key to the office. We add to and edit the template based each new hires experience, so the onboarding process gets better over time.
9. Basecamp
Basecamp is an old guard at this point in the SaaS project management space. Yet its flexibility and simplicity make it an excellent tool for streamlining an on-boarding process. There is a template feature that lets us build out new projects and assign roles to key people then track progress. It’s also great for managing documents during this process.
10. Slack
With our team spread all over the world, the most important part of the onboarding process is feeling like they are part of the team. With the ability to create a watercooler-like experience on the mobile or desktop app, Slack helps new employees immediately be looped in on all our team communications. Rookies can ask questions, understand our culture, and have access to important documents.
– Matt Wilson, Under30Experiences
11. LegalZoom
One of the most critical aspects on on boarding new employees is making absolutely certain that you put in place basic legal agreements. I recommend a subscription to LegalZoom.com as a cost-effective alternative to hiring an expensive attorney. LegalZoom offers access to all the legal forms you’ll need to onboard, including employee agreements, non-disclosures, stock options, and non-competes.
12. Flowdock
Flowdock is both a team chat app and a stream of activity across other services such as GitHub, UserVoice, etc. The first thing we do during onboarding is bring them into Flowdock so they can meet the rest of the team and get some context on what has been happening within the company in recent days, weeks or months.
– James Simpson, GoldFire Studios
13. Confluence
As a small business begins to scale, it is essential to have standard operating procedures (SOPs) during onboarding — whether that’s for new employees or clients. We use Confluence to document all of our SOPs. Using a combination of written instructions, images and videos it has significantly streamlined a number of our processes and also allows us to make continuous improvements at all stages.
