10 Employee Onboarding Tools to Streamline Your Process & Boost Productivity

A quick Google search will reveal no shortage of employee onboarding tools. Great, right? Well, not when these tools are largely different in quality. That makes it difficult to ultimately decide on the right one for your business. 

We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 best employee onboarding tools to help make your decision less daunting. Here’s what you need to know before purchasing:

What are employee onboarding tools?

Employee onboarding tools are designed to get hires ready for their new position easily. The goal of these employee onboarding tools is to get their new hires accustomed to and integrated into the work culture as efficiently as possible. These onboarding plans work for entry-level employees, managers, and anything in between. 

With a good employee onboarding tool, you should be able to: 

• Send necessary documentation for signing
• Collect all forms and documents before a set due date
• Approve documents and forms
• Provide learning resources and onboarding materials
• Assign a mentor and onboarding buddy

Benefits of employee onboarding tools

You can receive many benefits when you prepare a great onboarding program for your new hires. Some of these include: 

More efficiency

Old-school onboarding involves a ton of manual paperwork and tedious data entry. Employee onboarding tools eliminate the bulk of this work. This is because documentation is stored within the onboarding tool. 

You no longer need to copy and paste information from one location to another. This digital documentation also provides opportunities for automation and integration between other work applications. 

Information is stored in a centralized location

One of the biggest challenges of manual employee onboarding is searching through piles of paperwork for a single document. Employee onboarding tools centralize all your information so everything is stored that everything is stored in one secure place. That makes all onboarding documents only a few clicks away.  

Increased consistency 

Good employee onboarding tools are equipped with an effective reporting feature that ensures everyone involved in the employee onboarding process can keep track of it. Managers can check in on new hires and understand where they are in their onboarding journey. This ensures that nothing slips through the cracks. 

Effective employee onboarding software also streamlines and standardizes the entire process. This saves time, increases compliance and transparency, and ensures each user gets the same experience. 

New hires are more productive 

The self-service and remote-first capabilities of employee onboarding tools empower new hires to undertake onboarding before they even set foot in the office. It’s also a guidance process that new employees can be left to work through with little intervention. This means that your hire has a faster time settling into the work culture and reaching full productivity. 

Best employee onboarding tools

Here are some of the best employee onboarding tools to help you pick the right one for your team: 

#1 Process Street

Process Street offers customizable onboarding templates and integrations with other HR systems.

Pros: 

• Integrations available with other HR systems
• Customizable onboarding templates

Cons: 

• As a workflow management tool, it lacks advanced hiring management features

Key features: 

• Centralized onboarding hub with Pages (for employee onboarding documentation) available alongside onboarding workflows
• Effective customer support
• Dedicated consulting team to better workflows (additional fee)

#2 BambooHR

BambooHR offers a customizable onboarding process and integrates with other HR systems.

Pros: 

• Onboarding process can be customized 
• Integration can be done with other HR platforms 

Cons: 

• Lack of effective customer support
• Some users report that it has an unintuitive UI

Key feature: 

• Designed with an employee self-service portal 

#3 Workday

Workday offers a comprehensive HR platform that includes an employee onboarding module.

Pros: 

• Strong employee onboarding module 
• Comprehensive HR platform

Cons: 

• More expensive than other options with similar features
• Steep learning curve

Key feature: 

• Integration with other HR systems is available 
• Comprehensive HR platform 

#4 Namely

Namely is an all-in-one HR platform that includes an employee onboarding module.

Pros: 

• Strong employee onboarding module 
• All-in-one HR platform

Cons: 

• Some users report issues with the UI and customer support 

Key feature: 

• All hiring needs are available under one software

#5 Lever

Lever is a talent management platform that includes an employee onboarding feature.

Pros: 

• Effective talent management platform
• Strong employee onboarding capabilities are available 

Cons: 

• Steep learning curve

Key feature: 

• Integration available with other HR platforms

#6 Breezy HR

Breezy HR is a recruiting and onboarding platform that includes tools for creating customizable onboarding plans.

Pros: 

• Integration available with other HR tools 
• Powerful recruiting and onboarding features

Cons: 

• Lack of customer support
• Unintuitive UI design

Key feature: 

• The program empowers users to create customizable onboarding plans 

#7 Greenhouse

Greenhouse is a recruiting and onboarding platform that includes tools for automating onboarding tasks.

Pros: 

• Effective features to automate onboarding tasks 
• Robust recruiting platform that provides pre-made employee onboarding processes 

Cons: 

• Features focus more on the “welcome” part of onboarding and less attention is on integrating them into company culture
• Lack of effective customer support 

Key features: 

• Helps keep onboarding resources organized 
• Insightful reports can be used to make informed decisions

#8 iCIMS

iCIMS is a recruiting and onboarding platform that includes an employee onboarding module.

Pros: 

• Effective onboarding module included in the recruiting platform 
• Deliver enterprise hiring management 

Cons: 

• High cost when compared to other onboarding platforms offering the similar features 
• Used more as a hiring tool than an onboarding platform

Key features: 

• Helps users attract diverse top talent into an organization
• Integrates with many other HR platforms 

#9 Jobvite

Jobvite is a recruiting and onboarding platform that includes tools for creating customizable onboarding plans.

Pros: 

• Provides users with a streamlined hiring experience
• Scalable to the needs of your talent acquisition team

Cons: 

• Lack of customer support 
• Not a platform dedicated to employee onboarding 

Key features: 

• Recruiting platform designed with customizable onboarding plans 
• Can be integrated with other HR platforms 

#10 SAP SuccessFactors

SAP SuccessFactors is a comprehensive HR platform that includes an employee onboarding module.

Pros: 

• Can be integrated with other HR platforms 
• Helps identify employee needs and onboarding pain points 

Cons: 

• Steep learning curve
• Not a platform that can be used for the entire onboarding process

Key feature: 

• Human capital management platform with effective employee onboarding features 

Top features to look for in employee onboarding tools

Here are some of the features that you should consider when choosing employee onboarding tools: 

Integration with HR systems

Data entry is a time-killer. You want employee onboarding tools that can easily be integrated with your other HR systems. This will ensure information in one system can “speak” to the other and information can be easily accessible between different tools. 

Automated onboarding tasks 

You want to pick employee onboarding tools that automate tasks in your onboarding process. This means your team isn’t wasting time on tedious, manual tasks.  

Customizable onboarding plans 

Customizable is a must for any onboarding checklist. You can invest in employee onboarding tools that let you adjust an employee onboarding template to your exact needs. From adding your company logo to uploading videos and images, you want employee onboarding tools that empower you to personalize your new hire checklist and experience. 

Ease of use 

If your employee onboarding tool isn’t user-friendly, your new hires won’t use it. The goal of any onboarding software is to streamline your processes and simplify their tasks. You don’t want to invest in onboarding software that has awkward navigation, introduces complicated steps, and makes the onboarding experience challenging. 

Pick wise or see your onboarding’s demise 

Your goal of investing in employee onboarding tools is to make the process easier and more streamlined for your new hires. The difference between an exceptional onboarding experience and a poor one is the employee onboarding tool you ultimately pick. 

The effective digitalization of your onboarding process will improve employee engagement and retention. Overall, you want an effective onboarding tool that creates a centralized knowledge hub that will offer your entire organization guidance and transparency throughout the onboarding experience.