Reimagining the new hire experience
KEY GOALS
Create a seemless new hire experience and allow for more strategic HR solutions.
The Team
Sole designer
Time
3 months
The paper experience
When I joined AbelsonTaylor, a creative advertising firm, our new hire onboarding process was drowning in paper. As an HR Generalist, I witnessed firsthand how this affected both our team and incoming employees.
HR team spent 15-20 hours biweekly assembling physical welcome kits
New hire kits cost $75 to ship via FedEx
Physical materials and containers cost $2,000 per 100 kits
New employees spent their first day primarily filling out forms
Creative agency's digital brand identity clashed with analog processes
Learning from new employees
Key findings:
I conducted a combination of surveys and informal discussions after orientation sessions to understand the experience from the new employees' perspective.
75% felt the paper process was outdated and detracted from their first day
Handwritten forms frequently contained errors that caused issues in our HRIS system
New employees wanted to learn about the company culture but spent most of their time on paperwork
Many felt rushed to complete forms during orientation
Exploring solutions through iteration
First attempt: the iPad experiment
While this reduced paper usage, we quickly discovered limitations:
Small keyboards made form completion tedious
Certain applications had compatibility issues
New employees found the experience frustrating
Second iteration: laptop integration
This showed improvement but didn't address all pain points:
Improved form accuracy through digital input
Still required significant in-person time during orientation
Didn't solve the resource-intensive kit preparation process
Building the Digital Solution
Making the case
I gathered concrete data to demonstrate the impact:
$3,000-5,000 in direct costs every six months
20 hours of HR staff time per hiring cycle
Additional creative department resources for kit design
High turnover rates multiplied these costs
Creating a Secure Digital Experience
Working with IT and the creative team, we developed:
External SharePoint site for early access to orientation resources
Secure document submission system with Docusign
Brand-aligned digital resources
Time-limited access that transitioned to internal systems after day one
Instant savings
Eliminated $4,000 in physical material costs
Freed 15-20 hours of weekly HR staff time
Reduced first-day paperwork by 100%
Enabled new employees to complete documentation before their start date
Intangible benefits
New employees could focus on company culture during orientation
HR team could dedicate more time to strategic activities
Aligned the onboarding experience with our agency's digital brand
Improved data accuracy in HR systems
At the end of the day:
Digital transformation requires both technical solutions and stakeholder buy-in
Sometimes the most effective solution isn't the most technologically advanced
Small process changes can have significant financial and experiential impacts
Early access to information helps new employees feel more prepared and engaged
This project showed allowed us to modernized the onboarding experience and showed how UX can change traditional HR practices.
Pamela Sextro-Kelly
