Within the first two years after graduating, 33% of new nurses quit.

Reality of life as a nurse and the steep learning curve are the biggest reasons for hanging up the stethoscope. With 1 million registered nurse job vacancies the Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates through 2022, the big question is – how do you create an environment for new grad nurses that is inviting, makes them happy they accepted your job offer, and sets them up for long term success? 

Onboarding is one of the most powerful ways to increase retention. It’s the bedrock of a solid foundation between your nurses, organization, and patients. This pivotal moment is especially critical for new graduate nurses, who are new to your organization and the realities of life as a nurse.

The key is to onboard new graduate nurses with a program that is comprehensive, personalized, and automated. At Click Boarding, we recommend a customizable mobile-first platform with automated triggers and workflows that are consistent with how their lives have evolved over the last 3-4 years.

These are the top 5 best practices:

1. Policies, Patient Ratios, and Procedures

Include all the information your new graduate nurse needs to know about working in your health care center and within their unit. Provide policies, procedures, steps for admission and discharge, and reporting. Don’t make them have to worry about their patient ratios or anything else they need to know but didn’t learn in nursing school.

2. Isolation

A common concern of new nurse graduates is feeling isolated on the floor. The most important thing is to be mindful of the importance of getting your new nurses socially engaged and actively making it happen. Link them up with a senior staff member. Introduce them to the whole team. Greet them at the door their first day. Plan a team lunch. There are many ways to make them feel like part of the team – find something that works for you and feels genuine. 

3. Education

Enable your new nurses to continually learn and grow by including educational opportunities in their onboarding. These could be courses provided by your health care center, on demand training access, or educational benefits they’re eligible for.

4. Automation

Onboarding nurses is challenging for the current staff and new hires. Simplify things by automating the process so no one has to remember which step is next or if a step has been completed. Set up the process to kick off the moment your new nurse signs their acceptance letter and have it guide them through each phase.

5. Mobile-first

The entire onboarding experience should be accessible from your new nurse’s mobile device of choice. This makes it easy for them to follow the program and start to feel like they belong. 

If you would like to learn more about enhancing or automating your new graduate nurse onboarding program we’d love to help.

Our platform simplifies nurse onboarding with a mobile-first hub that your team can access from anywhere. We work together to set up customized workflows and automated triggers, so you can delight your new nurses with a dynamic onboarding experience.

According to U.S. statistics, 25% of the construction workforce will be at retirement age by 2020, and the shortage of skilled construction workers is expected to continue.

As employees are the backbone of any construction company, retaining high quality workers is vital. Great onboarding is one of the best ways to increase construction worker productivity and retention. Companies with a structured onboarding program have been shown to retain 91% of their employees the first year. A standardized, automated process empowers your team to provide a consistent, excellent onboarding experience for every new hire. 

At Click Boarding, we recommend focusing on these four areas to onboard construction workers: 

1. Paperwork

One of the biggest challenges is getting HR paperwork completed by remote employees. Simplify this step by leveraging digital technology. Input the required forms into the platform and set it to automatically email your new hire the moment they accept your offer. This way, your new hires can complete the required HR paperwork from their phone or laptop before their first day and can start functional training or working their first day on the job. 

2. Engagement and Integration

With the shortage of skilled construction workers, it’s essential to engage your new employees and help integrate them into the organization. This includes sharing your company vision, mission, and ways of working. Company culture is especially important to emphasize with your remote and field workers since they won’t have the benefit of in-office immersion. Be sure to include the differences between the culture and expectations of field work versus office work so there’s no uncertainty.  

A welcome-to-the-team gift, such as a company t-shirt or hat, is a wonderful way to make your new hires feel like they belong and are part of the team. You can send this ahead of time to get them excited before their first day or give it to them when they arrive.

3. Communication

How should a field worker ask a question? What should they do if they have an emergency question and no one is around to ask? Make sure your workers know who to contact and how with any questions.

4. IT and Security

Remote and field workers are exposed to more IT and security challenges than office workers. They’re more likely to access public Wi-Fi networks and use company equipment in the field. Make sure they understand the risks and what their responsibilities are to mitigate them as part of their onboarding process. This could include password policies, antivirus requirements, VPN, and anything your security team deems necessary.  

Pulling it all together:

Create modules for each of these steps and customize them as needed depending on the role and location. Fill your onboarding platform with your modules and set it up to intuitively guide your new hires through each step of the process.

If you would like to learn more about enhancing or automating your construction worker onboarding program we’d love to help.

Our platform simplifies construction worker onboarding with a mobile-first hub that your team can access from anywhere. We work together to set up customized, repeatable workflows and automated triggers, so you can impress your team with a dynamic onboarding experience and ensure the new hire is quickly adding value on the job site.

You’ve found the perfect physician to join your team and can’t wait for your patients to meet them. Before that can happen, they need to be integrated into your organization, a phase where many healthcare organizations stumble. Common onboarding challenges include credentialing issues, manual hand-offs between internal and external departments, and physician engagement. Physician onboarding delays can cost $100K per week in lost revenue and poor onboarding has been directly tied to increased turnover.

Fortunately, with a few easy steps, you can improve the onboarding experience for your physicians.

1. Automate your onboarding

Onboarding physicians can be a long and complicated process. Automating it simplifies the process for everyone involved, increases the transparency of the process, and removes the possibility of error from manual intervention. We recommend including every workflow and trigger in the automated process, so each person involved in onboarding, regardless of their department or whether they’re internal or external are prompted what to do when.

This empowers your staff to provide an excellent, standardized onboarding experience every time and know precisely where a physician is at any point during their onboarding process. This tracking capability and precision eliminates the guesswork and uncertainty of the manual process, which is especially important during the long and critical credentialing process.

2. Provide a mobile-first onboarding experience  

Simplify the experience for your physicians and team even further by providing an attractive user experience and enabling them to access their onboarding information and prompts through their mobile device of choice. Never make them wonder if they’ve missed a step or worry about what’s coming next.

3. Engage your physicians

Onboarding your physicians well strengthens their bond to your organization and enables them to take the best possible care of your patients. Powerful engagement tactics include:

• Preboarding: between the offer letter and first day, reach out with a warm email, letter, and/or welcome-to-the-team gift box. Make them feel like a significant, valued part of the team before they even show up on the first day.
• First week: focus on making them feel comfortable. Host a team lunch, introduce them to the teams they’ll be working with, and link them up with a mentor or buddy. These social ties are a big part of developing the bond with your organization.
• Ongoing: Promote open communication and encourage questions

We recommend discussing your engagement strategy internally and developing an engagement program that reflects your organization’s mission and values. You want it to feel real and powerful, not some generic engagement program. Ensure each physician receives the same attention to engagement during onboarding by standardizing the process and including the steps in your automated workflow.

If you would like to learn more about enhancing or automating your physician onboarding program we’d love to help.

Our platform simplifies physician onboarding with a mobile-first hub that your team can access from anywhere. We work together to set up customized workflows and automated triggers, so you can delight your physicians with a dynamic onboarding experience.

The complete guide to onboarding travel nurses to increase engagement & improve patient care

The demand for travel nurses is on the rise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates 1 million job vacancies for registered nurses through 2022, and health care centers will continue to rely on travel nurses to supplement their staffing. 

Onboarding travel nurses has its own unique challenges. The contracts are temporary, the nurses are not physically on site until their first day, and the healthcare center is relying on individual nurses to uphold their contract and show up.  

If you have plans to or currently hire travel nurses and aren’t sure how to engage them and integrate them into your team, you’ve come to the right place. The three steps below outline an easy-to-follow structured onboarding program that anyone can use to make their travel nurses feel prepared, connected, and ready to go.

Step 1: BEFORE DAY 1

Travel nurses mirror regular employees with new job jitters. Put their mind at ease and start building trust by engaging them before their first day. Sending a ‘welcome to the team’ packet is a wonderful way to connect and make them feel confident about working with your team.  

At Click Boarding, we recommend including:

Housing

Connect them with a realtor who can help them look for affordable housing in a safe area within their budget. Include fun facts and things to do in your city/town to get them looking forward to their new location.

Onboarding Schedule

Setting expectations is a crucial component of best-in-class onboarding. Share what they can expect from the hospital their first week and what is expected of them. This could include information about an orientation, anyone they will be meeting with, and when they will start working with patients.

Facility Map & Contact Information

Don’t make them feel lost on their first day! Provide a map and highlight where to park and meet. Show where the cafeteria, orientation, and break rooms are. Include contact numbers for key personnel, such as labs, pharmacies, and security.  

Hospital Details

Provide a summary of the information they need to know about your hospital. Consider including unit patient ratios, steps for admissions and discharges, and floor policies and procedures.

Don’t forget to request a photo so you can prepare their ID badge in advance.

Step 2: DAY 1

Greet them in the lobby

A small, but impactful gesture is to meet your travel nurse in the lobby when they arrive. This makes them feel valued and starts the day off positively. It also eliminates any stress they might have about finding you.

Onboarding Paperwork

Walk them through the compliance paperwork that must be completed in person. This can be actual paperwork or better yet a pre-day one digital experience. We recommend leveraging a digital onboarding program to simplify the process and keep their personal data secure.

Orientation & Introductions

Provide an overview of the hospital and introduce them to any equipment they might be unfamiliar with. Allow ample time for questions and share any ways of working that are specific to your unit or the hospital.

Take the time to walk them around and introduce them to the people they will be working with during their tenure.

Access

Make sure they have access to all the tools and supplies they need. If there are locked cabinets, make sure they know who has the key/code. If there are systems they need to access, make sure they have a login and password.

Home

Provide them with a home base – somewhere to sit, store their personal belongings, etc. Travel employees definitely appreciate the feeling of a consistent space to call their own.

Mentor/ Welcome Committee

It might be tempting to skimp on the social aspect of onboarding for temporary staff but this is an important part of making the travel nurses feel like part of your team, and by extension, make your patient’s experience feel no different than any other interaction with your staff. Link your travel nurse up with a mentor or buddy who will help them get acquainted, show them the inner workings of your facility, and ensure all their questions can be answered. 

Step 3: DAYS 2 – 30

Onboarding is more than just the first day. Your travel nurses will continue to have questions and uncertainties throughout their first month. Keep the lines of communication open and encourage questions. A follow up survey from your onboarding platform ensures feedback loops are provided. Take all the recurring questions you hear and update that original welcome packet with answers to help your next round of travel nurses.

Contact Click Boarding

If you’re looking to make a change or want to enhance your onboarding program let us help! Our platform simplifies the process with a digital onboarding hub that your traveling nurses can access from anywhere. We work together to set up the customized workflows and automated triggers, so we can delight your travel nurses with a dynamic onboarding experience and minimize the time needed by your team.