Automate and Integrate Healthcare Onboarding with Leading ATS and HRIS Providers

Many healthcare organizations may have more specialized healthcare onboarding requirements, especially for larger companies operating in many different states. It can lead to significant challenges: attempting to manage onboarding workflows for hundreds of employees at a time, complying with federal and state hiring regulations, and trying to onboard many different types of employees, including full-time employees, contractors, and interns.

Yet consider the benefits of an automated healthcare onboarding solution:

• Complete integration with industry-leading applicant tracking systems (ATS) such as Greenhouse and HRIS systems like UKG and more. These integrations enable new hire information to flow directly from the ATS to the onboarding system to other systems of records to eliminate manual data entry and improve overall data accuracy. 

• Integration with background check providers. Similarly, onboarding systems should integrate with background check providers to further automate verification steps and improve compliance efforts. This type of integration can help minimize delays by transferring background screening results into onboarding workflows to help HR managers move candidates from offer acceptance to their first day. 

• Powerful reporting. Ideally, onboarding systems will also provide detailed reports so HR managers can quickly see real-time status on critical details. This is especially important in healthcare where HR teams need instant insights into onboarding status, form submissions, documentation, certification, and other compliance-related information.

   

Issues with Traditional Healthcare Onboarding Approaches

To fully understand these benefits, it may help to take a step back and consider many common challenges many healthcare organizations face with their onboarding.

The first s is related to traditional approaches to onboarding, which tend to be mostly manual efforts. For example, many healthcare organizations still use ad hoc onboarding methods where they may use limited tools that simply weren’t designed for onboarding, such as email reminders, Microsoft Excel, Google Calendar, or various project management software applications.

In these cases, HR or hiring managers are responsible for giving new hires important documents to sign,  critical to maintain compliance in the healthcare industry. They also need to give them benefits information, set them up on payroll, provide other information about the company, the new hire’s team, or their specific role. They may also need to communicate what to expect from the onboarding process and what the employee should expect on their first day. 

The issue is that this approach isn’t automated and relies on the person in charge to do the right thing. While HR and hiring managers always have the best of intentions, they may not always be as proactive as they may like, or they may just not know that there are better ways to onboard new hires. 

In many cases, the typical onboarding process is handled on the new hire’s first day, when he or she visits the office in person. Yet when things go wrong, important forms and compliance documents may be printed at the last minute – or even forgotten entirely – managers may not be ready for employees’ benefit questions, or other important departments may not be notified. This can lead to delays in setting up badges, provisioning the employees’ workspace and equipment, or introducing the employee to their new team members. 

It all adds up to too much wasted time and wasted opportunity. Recent research shows that 70% of HR/hiring managers reported that they spent more than three hours onboarding new healthcare employees – time that could be better spent on more strategic projects. 

These types of onboarding processes can affect new hires, too. Wasted time and lack of information can derail their initial excitement since new employees are usually ready to jump in and get started on day one. Less-than-ideal onboarding experiences may even influence their overall perception of the company and the position they’ve signed up for. Worst of all, it could even tarnish their long-term satisfaction and engagement – leaving them questioning if your company is right for them. 

The Challenges Associated with the Wrong Tools

Beyond manual approaches, some healthcare organizations may think they’re doing the right thing and attempt to manage their onboarding process using today’s popular project management tools such as Asana, SmartSheets, AirTable, and other options. 

These applications may be great for managing tasks and projects – such as a marketing calendar or milestone dates for a product launch – but they just weren’t designed to manage complex onboarding processes. This is especially true when you consider that many healthcare organizations need to onboard dozens, even hundreds of new employees at a time, often for positions in many different states.

For example, imagine the case of an HR manager who needs to know the status of compliance forms for all new hires this month. She may be able to see where things stand but often has questions and then must jump in to intervene if something has been missed. It all wastes too much time and effort – which could be spent on more strategic initiatives. 

This need contributes to real compliance headaches and could even leave the entire organization vulnerable to future compliance risk. For example, HR needs to be able to document each employee’s credentials, certifications, and training schedules for recertification. 

This means they need a detailed system of record that can automate the collection of this information during the onboarding process, and then produce detailed reports on each employee’s status to further streamline their compliance efforts. Manual processes and project management tools simply can’t deliver. 

Benefits of Automated Onboarding and Compliance Tracking in Healthcare

The right healthcare onboarding systems allow managers to set up fully customized, fully automated onboarding workflows that make sure the process goes smoothly and nothing is overlooked.

It doesn’t matter how complex the hiring process may seem to be. Today’s most effective onboarding solutions – such as HR Cloud’s Onboard – are capable of delivering completely custom workflows that address the organization’s unique requirements. 

For example, healthcare organizations can use these onboarding platforms to create workflows for different types of employees in different states to make sure new hires automatically receive the e-signable forms as soon as they sign their offer letter. In this way, the process actually starts before the employee’s official first day in the office, a step that saves time and gives employees the chance to ask questions or learn more. 

Using HR Cloud’s Onboard helped Interim Healthcare tighten up its onboarding process, especially to make sure no documentation was missed, which was critical to saving time and improving the employee experience. 

Onboarding solutions like HR Cloud provide the full automation HR teams need to eliminate manual efforts, maximize compliance efforts, and transform their entire HR operations. 

“Interim Healthcare SLC needed HR technology, and we’re pleased with the results we’ve gained from HR Cloud’s solutions for recruiting, onboarding, and employee engagement. Yet it’s really an opportunity for all Interim franchises. It would be so great if each franchise owner could implement similar solutions to replace legacy systems that might not work as well as they should.”

Michael Hawkins

Franchise Owner  | Interim HealthCare SLC

Streamline Healthcare Onboarding Processes for a Better Experience for All

The best part about healthcare-specific onboarding systems is how they go beyond hiring processes and contribute to the company’s most important business initiatives. For healthcare organizations, this now means that healthcare professionals can be fully prepared to deliver exceptional patient care starting one day one. 

HR gains all the tools it needs to simplify internal processes while gaining insight into important compliance results in the future while helping the organization gain a stronger, more effective workforce. 

FAQs

What are the challenges associated with manual, ad hoc approaches to healthcare onboarding? 

Manual, paper-based onboarding processes in the healthcare industry are simply too reactive and don’t take advantage of the full potential of automation. When they go wrong, they can lead to delays in getting employees set up in their role as well as real compliance risks. Without an automated onboarding solution, HR teams may have a hard time managing employees’ documentation and certifications and making sure new hires are fully prepared for their roles. 

How do manual onboarding processes contribute to compliance risks for healthcare organizations?

These types of onboarding processes contribute to compliance risk in a few different ways. First, they make it difficult to track employee credentials, certifications, and any required training. This lack of insight and control can lead to missing or outdated documentation, resulting in regulatory violations, fines, and even potential safety concerns with patients. 

How can healthcare organizations benefit from automating onboarding?”

Automated onboarding solutions improve the entire experience and deliver meaningful benefits for the entire organization. HR and hiring managers can simplify the credentialing process, improve their compliance efforts and results, and save time and reduce the entire administrative burden, so new hires get the information they need and can jump into their role right away. 

Author:

This article is written by Jason Rasmuson in close association with HR Cloud. HR Cloud is a leading provider of proven HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee communications & engagement, and rewards & recognition. Our user-friendly software increases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.