According to Paychex data, as much as 53% of HR professionals report a reduction in onboarding time when utilising AI, while 65% believe that the technology will improve employee retention efforts internally

The artificial intelligence revolution in HR is gathering momentum, so let’s explore six key ways AI innovations will supercharge the onboarding process for businesses moving forward: 

Building a centralised user base

Artificial intelligence has the potential to leverage a centralised knowledge base for new employees with essential information surrounding resources, house styles, and industry practices accessible in a single portal. 

Here, the AI excels in offering next-generation search capabilities with natural-language processing whereby new hires can access the information they’re looking for without requiring fluency in industry terminology to find it. 

These platforms can support colleague collaboration and promote knowledge sharing within a business, all while helping new hires get up to speed without having to spend time looking for help.

Offering predictive help

On the topic of saving new hires time in searching for resources, artificial intelligence programs can use machine learning (ML) technology to monitor the behaviour of staff and anticipate emerging problems by predicting their needs and proactively offering solutions to help. 

AI and ML have the potential to offer resources, tools, and natural language support even before employees realise they need help. These powerful tools can be effective in improving employee engagement and job satisfaction, all while reducing the dangers of churn in those tentative early days at a new business. 

Automating HR admin

Whether your business is a small startup or building a global presence, AI can help to mitigate lengthy administrative processes within the onboarding process by automating the completion of tedious paperwork and other administrative tasks such as setting up new accounts on office software. 

This level of automation can help HR teams focus their efforts on more strategic onboarding processes and providing direct support to new hires. 

In automating admin, businesses can be free to onboard candidates faster on both an in-house and remote basis. Integrated employer or record (EOR) services can also help to provide automation tools to generate personalised employee contracts. Platforms like Multiplier, for instance, can onboard international hires in just 24 hours using automation software, shortening the time taken to sign contracts to just 72 hours. 

Generative AI training

The emergence of generative AI will have a profound impact on how new hires are onboarded within businesses. Crucially, the ability of text-to-video content generation means that employees can benefit from highly useful and realistic videos that can be rapidly created for training purposes. 

Generative AI means that businesses can cater directly to the different learning styles of employees, supplementing more visual-based learners with content that can help to grow their competencies efficiently. 

Personalised training programs

No two hires are the same, so it makes sense to ditch one-size-fits-all training programs for something more adaptive and customisable for different user needs. 

With this in mind, AI training platforms can adapt the learning process for employee onboarding to the pace of the new hire. This means that solutions can offer additional training resources or more complex challenges as required. 

In adopting a more flexible approach to learning, more new hires can benefit from an effective learning experience that caters to different styles and learning speeds along the way. 

Mitigating human error

Another advantage of AI onboarding is that the technology can instantly detect missing information or inconsistencies throughout the training process of new employees. 

This can help to flag common early mistakes that employees make and informatively prompt them to correct their errors in a way that helps them to improve their skills while helping businesses avoid costly inaccuracies within their operations. 

The same monitoring technology can also alert HR professionals to errors within the onboarding process. For example, if a training module hasn’t been completed or compliance paperwork hasn’t been accurately filled out, AI programs can highlight the problem and suggest an effective remedy. 

Overcoming the threat of turnover

The utilisation of AI solutions in improving the employee onboarding process is essential to businesses seeking to mitigate the threat of staff turnover. 

Ineffective training and impersonal onboarding programs can not only impact efficiency but will also prompt more staff to leave their roles sooner. Artificial intelligence can help to add a much-needed element of personalisation to these processes to supply new hires with all the training they need to excel and feel confident in their new role. 

For businesses seeking to retain their talent for longer, AI is a key consideration. As the technology continues to evolve, more decision-makers can benefit from more efficiency in their scaling and a greater competitive advantage in their respective industries.