Chief Research Officer and Co-Founder of Aptitude Research Partners Madeline Laurano recently shared data from 1,000 organizations to qualify the link between human capital practices and business results.

Laurano and her colleagues found that onboarding is the linchpin to everything related to talent management, and both employers and candidates are asking for a new hire experience that is continuous, dialogue-driven, and meaningful. Seventy-three percent of Aptitude’s respondents said that their top talent acquisition priority was a consistent experience for both candidates and employees, while 83 percent said their top engagement priority was a consistent experience.

Consistency

Consistency, however, is exactly what is lacking.  Sixty-seven percent said they currently have a consistent experience for candidates and employees, but less than 40 percent said they have improved their employee experience, while greater than 60 percent said they have improved their candidate experience. Those numbers speak for themselves.

Simplicity

Not only are our onboarding experiences relatively inconsistent, they are also far too complex. In the last four years, companies doubled their spending on HR technology from $400 million to approximately $2 billion. Fifty percent of respondent companies are using 3+ onboarding solutions, and 1 in 5 plans to increase their onboarding technology investment in 2017. Unfortunately, though, all of these systems have made the onboarding experience quite complicated, and respondents agreed that streamlining and simplifying it is essential. Fortunately, technology providers are now offering experience systems, which differ from traditional HR systems in that they span the entire employee experience, integrate various technologies, are optimized for mobile, and are analytics-based.