Effective onboarding is crucial for new hire success, but scaling these programs for rapid growth can be challenging. Kaitlyn Heiss, Talent Development Associate at Flatiron Health, joined us for a recent fireside chat to share how they’ve leveraged onboarding automations to scale programming for over 1,000 new hires in four years while saving hours per week by eliminating manual tasks.

Key Takeaways

Kaitlyn’s team at Flatiron Health have architected an incredibly thoughtful new hire onboarding experience that they’ve road tested with over 1,000 new hires. Here’s what they prioritize while building and iterating on their onboarding program:

1. Center Excellent Communication

• Use automation to send timely, targeted messages to new hires, managers, and coordinators
• Leverage tools like Donut Journeys to scale communications efficiently
• Provide consistent touchpoints throughout the first 30 days

2. Adapt for Global Connections

• Establish local coordinators in each country/region
• Translate and customize content for different locations
• Schedule communications to arrive at appropriate times in each time zone

3. Create Engaging Content

• Diversify content delivery (live sessions, recordings, documentation) to address diverse learning styles
• Use engaging elements like emojis, GIFs, and formatting in messages
• Offer multiple communication channels (Slack, email) to meet people where they are

Hot Topic: Automating Administrative Tasks

Adding onboarding automations for new hires doesn’t mean sacrificing quality or authenticity. For Flatiron, it’s actually meant the opportunity to optimize onboarding; by reducing the manual workload from a full morning a week to just 30 minutes per cohort, Kaitlyn has been able to invest more time in thinking through content, building out written resources, and iterating on the program.

Here are the onboarding automations that Flatiron Health leverages to free up time for higher-value activities:

• Automated reminders to managers, new hires, and HR coordinators for key onboarding tasks
• Automated distribution of personalized onboarding guidebooks that include 11 expected outcomes for the new hire
• Customization of language, process, and timing of onboarding materials to account for regional differences
• Streamlined processes for adding new hires to Slack channels and scheduling meetings

By reducing the logistical overhead with a few strategic onboarding automations, Kaitlyn and her team have been able to successfully scale an intricate and effective new hire onboarding program while spending less time executing on it than ever. You can read more on how to automate your onboarding program with Donut Journeys here.

3 Most Important Steps to Scaling Onboarding

Kaitlyn’s experience in scaling onboarding for Flatiron Health is pretty invaluable, so we asked her: “what are the three most critical things you did to make this process applicable and effective for over 1,000 new hires around the world?”

1. Scale support in each country/region with dedicated teams
2. Diversify content delivery methods
3. Leverage automation tools to streamline processes

She also emphasized the importance of having a central “guidebook” resource for new hires, which serves as an anchor for the entire onboarding experience.

If you want to hear more from Kaitlyn directly, you can view the fireside chat recording here:

We’re grateful that we had the chance to learn from Kaitlyn’s experience in creating a scalable, engaging onboarding program that can grow alongside your team.