It’s often said that “it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” and this couldn’t be more true when it comes to onboarding employees in the home-based and facility-based care industries.

On top of the usual onboarding tasks, agencies and facilities have additional tasks required by various government and regulatory organizations, making an already long process even longer. For new hires, it can be overwhelming to look at all the tasks that need to be completed before they can start their new caregiving role. However, just like running a marathon, it’s not about pushing through everything at once but rather taking it one mile at a time. By breaking the large task of completing onboarding into manageable chunks, the process becomes easier to finish, even if it remains lengthy.

On Your Mark

When onboarding new hires, it’s crucial that they complete onboarding tasks in a specific order and not move to the next step until they’ve completed all compulsory tasks. Failing to do so can result in legal and financial consequences as well as potentially compromise the quality of care being provided to patients.

The exact tasks that need to be completed will vary depending on your location and what health care service is being provided to patients. For example, when a new hire joins your organization, they will have 3 days from their hire date to complete their I-9. It’s important that companies ensure that these required tasks are completed before new hires continue with the onboarding process and gain access to company documents that may contain proprietary information. Once finished, new hires can then complete the usual onboarding paperwork, attend orientation, get access to all their new logins, and do anything else they need to before they can start working.

Get Set (Up)

Your onboarding experience is the first impression a new employee has of your company, and it’s important to make it positive. Research by Home Care Pulse reveals that 57% of caregiver turnover occurs within the first 90 days of employment. With how tough it is to find the right people for the job, creating a culture that retains as many employees as possible is a priority, and it all starts with onboarding.

Assigning an endless list of to-dos can be overwhelming for new hires, but sending tasks one by one as they finish previous tasks can be a drain on your hiring manager’s time and resources too. Luckily, there’s an automated solution that can help. Onboarding software with phased onboarding can ensure that new hires complete compulsory tasks prior to moving forward in the onboarding process. It reduces the feeling of information overload by breaking the process into “phases,” where prerequisite tasks must be completed before being able to move to the next phase.

For example, let’s go back to our previous scenario of new hires needing to complete their I-9 before moving on to less time-sensitive documents. With phased onboarding, managers can set up a specific phase for new hires to complete their I-9 that, once completed, automatically allows them to proceed to the next phase, which may contain things such as signing an employee handbook.

Go!

At Viventium, we understand the challenges that home-based and facility-based care providers face when it comes to hiring and onboarding new employees. Breaking up the onboarding process into different phases, much like a marathon runner preparing for a race, can make the process less overwhelming.

With Viventium Onboarding, creating an automated process that’s smooth for both managers and new hires is easy. Managers can create custom phased onboarding plan templates for different job functions or needs, and new hires are then walked through each phase automatically, moving to the next phase once they’ve completed the previous one. This allows you to ensure that new hires complete all required tasks, saves managers time and resources, and helps prevent new hires from being overwhelmed with a ton of information all at once. Additionally, it establishes a consistent process across your entire organization, ensuring that every new hire receives the same well-crafted onboarding experience, regardless of their hiring manager.

Remember, onboarding is a marathon, not a sprint, but with the right tools in place, it doesn’t have to be exhausting. So take a breath and relax, you’re with Viventium.

This information is for educational purposes only, and not to provide specific legal advice. This may not reflect the most recent developments in the law and may not be applicable to a particular situation or jurisdiction.