Onboarding new users (circa 1992)

Do you remember the onboarding process for your first job?  Chances are you had a long and painful journey before your first day of actual paid employment.  If you’re path was similar to mine it involved some or all of the following steps:

• The shortlist:  I’ve just been informed I’ve made it through to the final cut.  Wow, that must mean most of the admin is complete, or does it?  By this stage I’ve already submitted my resume to 4 different stakeholders.  I had assumed I would only need to do this once, but I guess stuff goes missing in big organizations;

• Identity verification check: ok, so now I’m being asked to complete a form with details of full name, address, date of birth, drivers license and/or passport number.  And they also want a current photo conforming with passport guidelines, which means a trip to the local photo shop;

• Police check:  Strange that I need to do a completely new identity verification check for the police check.  Why don’t they re-use the one I did last week?  Then I need to list all of my residential addresses for the last 5 years and consent to a bunch of things that I skimmed over;

• Academic record check: I submitted my academic record along with my resume but either that went missing or they didn’t believe it.  So I have to go and scan the final transcript of my academic results (if only I could remember where I stored it) and any additional certificates or qualifications;

• Right to work check: It’s a bit confusing but there’s a long list of additional ‘probity’ checks (does anyone know what probity means?) and I’m not exactly sure which ones apply to me.  I know I have a ‘working with children’ accreditation and even though it doesn’t seem to apply to the job I’m applying for I decide to add my license number;

• Reference checks: I’ve worded up a couple of managers that I can rely on to offer some constructive comments about my work ethic and talents.  In fact, I took the liberty of writing the reference letter on their behalf.

In total, the process took more than 8 weeks and required at least 10 hours of admin time just for the applicant, let alone the HR and recruitment team!

Onboarding new users (circa 2022)

It may be a surprise to you that in 2022 many organizations are still employing these outdated processes for onboarding new employees and contractors.  So what does a state-of-the-art onboarding experience look like?

Reusable Verification of Identity:  To minimize the pain of identity verification,  digital eKYC solutions enable the user to verify their identity in less than 2 minutes with a wide range of identity documents.  Depending on the type and number of identity used, the verification is assigned an Identity Proofing Level, which basically determines the level of assurance in the user’s identity.  This digital verification can then be shared with other trusted parties (with the user’s consent) rather than requiring the user to repeat the verification process for every stakeholder in the onboarding journey.  The digital verification forms the foundation of a digital identity that can append ‘payload’ data such as verified claims for that user.

Verified credentials stored in user vault:  One of the key pain points for new starters is the need to compile the necessary background documents to verify their claims.  This includes academic record, qualifications & awards, references, memberships, proof of employment record, proof of income etc.  It’s helpful to enable the user to securely store all these records so they’re safe and readily accessible.  Even better, if the vault provides the user with transparency of who has been given access to the documents and the ability to revoke access.

Highly customizable workflow based on job type:  Different organizations have widely varying requirements for onboarding new users.  And onboarding use cases can be diverse even within a single organization.  For example, the probity checks for onboarding an executive role might include more extensive background checks, and psychological and cognitive tests. For onboarding a tradesperson, it will be important to check their qualifications and their current trade licence. Modern onboarding services enable customizable workflows to fit each use case.

API-based probity checks: Gone are the days when users had to fill in 5 different application forms for 5 different probity checks.  Modern platforms ask the user to enter their details once, and the platform automates the submission of that data to 3rd party probity service providers through APIs. This saves time and effort for both the applicant and the onboarding organization, and it facilitates a consistent global onboarding experience.

In-built compliance with privacy regulations:  Recent regulations including GDPR and PSD2 (EU), CDR (Australia), and CCPA (California) bestow new rights on consumers relating to transparency over Personal Identifiable Information (PII) including the rights to revoke access to such data.  New SaaS-based solutions enable enterprises to comply with these regulations when onboarding new users.

In summary, there’s no need to be stuck with a 1990’s process. If you would like to know more about the benefits of streamlining your user onboarding process, reach out for a demo and free trial of truuth’s digital identity services.