What to look for in an employee onboarding tool for small businesses

Small businesses face special challenges in managing their employee onboarding and offboarding processes with limited resources. Without a fully staffed IT or HR department, there’s often just one person covering “operations” for the whole organization. And in some companies, someone with a totally unrelated job ends up running these functions.We’re like that, actually. As a startup, YeshID has a small staff. In addition to my founder duties, I’m the one to handle IT employee onboarding and offboarding for our team. And that’s the way we want it for now — we’re keeping overhead low so we can concentrate on building the best product. But that doesn’t mean we want to skimp on laying a good foundation for tomorrow.In a situation like this, efficiency and simplicity are so important. It’s not just about providing an email address for new employees. You have to add them to the correct organizations and groups in your Google Workspace; keep track of who has permissions for what applications; track the number and cost of app and software licenses, keep up with which teams own which services, and the list goes on. Technology can help you streamline, templatize, and automate your user onboarding and offboarding procedures. In this post, I’ll talk about what to look for in a tool.

User-friendly IT onboarding and offboarding

The first thing you should consider when evaluating an onboarding solution is its user-friendliness. You need a tool that is easy for both administrators (aka you) and users to navigate. The last thing you want on your already overloaded calendar is extensive training for a complicated system. Look for a solution with an intuitive interface and a straightforward setup process.One of the most significant advantages of a user-friendly onboarding solution is its ability to templatize and automate repetitive tasks. Look for a solution that offers customizable templates, task assignments, and email notifications. This not only saves time but also minimizes the chances of errors. You’ll also want to make sure the tool lets your employees request access to the apps they need — and that access is routed to the appropriate approver.

A secure and compliant employee onboarding and offboarding tool

Handling third-party data can be scary and requires robust security measures. Your onboarding solution should comply with data protection regulations and keep your data safe. Look for features like passwordless encryption and access controls to protect sensitive information. Different industries have specific compliance and regulatory requirements that must be met during onboarding and offboarding. Ensure that the onboarding solution aligns with these requirements. Ideally, you should be able to track provisioning/deprovisioning in a single dashboard to offboard a user with confidence while maintaining compliance and reducing license costs.

New employee onboarding and offboarding that grows with you

Your business may be small today, but tomorrow’s looking bright! Consider whether the onboarding solution can grow with you. It should be able to accommodate a growing number of users without significant disruptions. Scalability ensures that you won't outgrow your onboarding tool as your business expands. And with the right tools, you can actually set yourself up for success by creating good processes from the beginning. Beware the SSO tax on this one though. Some access management solutions require you to advance your engineering practices far beyond what most small- to medium-sized businesses need. Don’t settle for a solution that requires you to jump over unnecessary hurdles.

Cost-effective IT onboarding solutions

Until someone invents the money tree, it's essential to consider the overall cost of the tool in relation to the value it provides. This includes licensing fees, implementation costs, and ongoing maintenance. Make sure you're getting the features and support you need without breaking your budget. A cost-effective solution should offer a good balance between functionality and affordability.The flip side of this one is to make sure you’re not signing up for a solution that you’ll have to grow into fast. Many of the options in this space are overkill. They are expensive and time-consuming to implement — especially when what you really need is just to get people to work using solid best practices, not advanced technology.

The best onboarding and offboarding for small businesses

Identity and access management in the 21st century means digital onboarding, provisioning of the hundred-and-one software apps your org uses, plus traditional hardware setup. It’s become complex (and often frustrating) for both managers and employees. Finding the right onboarding solution for your small business can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your onboarding and offboarding processes.YeshID Onboard provides an option for smaller companies that have embarked on their identity and access management journeys but aren’t in a place yet where they need a very technical (or expensive) solution. We provide a quick and easy way to accomplish your checklist today while setting up the foundational best practices that will help you grow in the future.

• Templatize and schedule onboarding and offboarding tasks to set up a repeatable process for ease and speed.
• Assign application administrator(s) then automatically route requests for provisioning to the proper owners.
• Track provisioning/de-provisioning in a single dashboard to offboard a user with confidence while maintaining compliance and reducing license costs.
• Empower employees to initiate requests for new application access that are automatically routed to the proper application administrator.
• And because it’s in beta, YeshID Onboard is free (yes, like free free) for the first 100 companies to sign up (must be in Google Workspace and have 50-250 employees).

Start streamlining your onboarding and offboarding processes without the need for budget approval or credit card information. You’ll also get access to an exclusive Slack community of small business hustlers and heroes just like you so we can share, support, and celebrate together. Take something off your never-ending to-do list and sign up today.