All-Aboard for Automation: Setting Up Your New Teammates for Success

Bringing on new team members is always exciting. They bring a unique set of skills to help drive your company forward and add a new dimension to your already-savvy team. But your new employees can’t just jump right into things. Bringing on a new employee means training and onboarding, and if you have implemented a paperless automation solution, the onboarding process can seem daunting.

That’s why we’ve compiled some tips to make the onboarding process a little less stressful on you and your new team members so they can be up-and-running in no time.

1. Organize an orientation: Get your new employee off to a great start with an orientation session. This is a chance for you to outline departmental processes and procedures and to provide an overview of your paperless automation solution, what it is used for, useful functionality and how it is used in different parts of the enterprise. This will give new employees an idea of how the solution will fit into their day-to-day work.
   
   
2. Make sure you have a manual with best practices: Before you do any hiring, make sure you have a manual that they can refer to before they start using the system, and while they start to explore it. This should highlight different functionality, best practices, how to set it up, workflows, etc.  
   
   
3. Put times on the calendar to walk through various aspects of the system: Set up a series of training modules. This will make the training more easily digestible. Start with the easiest information first, moving on to more complicated functionality and features once the new employee starts to get a handle on the basics. 
   
   
4. Set up a training session with your paperless automation provider: Because your automation provider likely trained your current automation experts, you may want to bring them back in to train your new employee. This is a more comprehensive option and also provides an opportunity for them to troubleshoot if there are any system issues. 
   
   
5. Set up a test system: Most automation solutions have the option to set up a test system so that your new employee can play around without the risk of messing up your current system. This is a great way for them to familiarize themselves with the solution without you having to worry about it causing problems in the live system.
   
   
6. Adjust permissions as they learn: It’s completely ok to start your new employees off with limited permissions until they become a little more familiar with the solution. You may want to consider setting your new hire’s permissions so that their invoice approval amount is lower. You can also set their permissions to limit their invoice editing capabilities. These are easily adjusted as they get to know the system.

Just because your new hires need to start small doesn’t mean that they won’t quickly develop into top-notch, tech-savvy automation users. Set them up for success with an onboarding strategy that will make them automation all-stars.