Why Employee Onboarding was a Challenge in 2020

The year gone by had its own set of challenges, none greater than ensuring the safety of everyone concerned. Having said that, firms and organizations faced an unprecedented & precarious situation that might not have raised a lot of eyebrows and expectedly so.

The world is still coming to terms with everything that’s been thrown at it. Being better off now opens up the opportunity to dwell into this issue concerning employee training and onboarding through the virtual medium.

It has not been smooth sailing by any stretch of the imagination. Most of the organizations functioning in an all digital mode have struggled operationally. Whilst some of the costs incurred have reduced drastically, quality and time effectiveness have held the overall growth back largely. Why is this happening? While experienced employees are being able to improve on their productivity, newer recruits are struggling to come to terms with expectations!

I attribute this concerning development to the very fact that technology cannot replace reality. However much the workarounds help, its still a replacement for the “real deal” at the end of the day. Fresh joinees are facing challenges in finding their feet about this messy digital workplace. Issues range from information being lost through digital communication, lack of transparency and motivation from the involved parties in training, and the lackluster & sometimes unprofessional setting of working from home. These employees are losing out on vital components of their growth, drivers without which their development curves remains flatter than expected. Our psychological receptors are also functioning slower than expected, leading to prolonged durations in understanding the opposite side, their reservations, limitations etc.

In such a scenario, its only humane that these firms factor in these considerations in the performance reviews of employees outside the status quo, including but not limited to new additions in the workforce, people invested in novel research and all that’s not well structured out.

For sure, its a dilemma to ponder upon, and the best way forward could well be re-introduction of some form of physical presence, atleast for training purposes, once deemed safe. Otherwise, it looks like the productivity and time management estimates of quite a few organizations could go for a toss!