1.1 What is automation?
Automation or automatic control, is the use of various control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. It has allowed manufacturers to produce a broader range of products with the ease of being able to switch from product A to B without having to reconstruct entire production lines. The biggest benefit of automation is that it saves labor; however, it is also used to save energy and materials and to improve quality, accuracy and precision. Automation helps in performing tasks that are beyond human capabilities of size, weight, speed etc. It also reduces operation time and work handling time significantly.
1.2 What is On-boarding process?
On boarding process, also known as organizational socialization, refers to process through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and behavior to become effective organizational members. It includes formal meetings, lectures, reviews, materials or computer based orientation to introduce new employees to their new jobs and organizations. This techniques leads to positive outcomes for new employees such as higher job satisfaction, better job performance, greater organizational commitment and reduction in occupational stress. Thus, on boarding process plays a vital role in building the initial relationship between an employee and an organization.
Figure 1.1 The building blocks of successful on boarding process
On boarding has four distinct levels, the
Four C’s:
1. Compliance is the lowest level and includes teaching employees basic legal and policy-related rules and regulations.
2. Clarification refers to ensuring that employees understand their new jobs and all related expectations.
3. Culture is a broad category that includes providing employees with a sense of organizational norms both formal and informal.
4. Connection refers to the vital interpersonal relationships and information networks that new employees must establish.
The building blocks of successful on boarding are often called the Four C’s.
The degree to which each organization leverages these four building blocks determines its overall on boarding strategy.
1.2 Why On-boarding process?
1. 64% of new executives hired from outside the company will fail at their new jobs. In contrast, the percentage for those who are promoted is 38%
2. According to Bradt, Check, and Pedraza (2006), 40% of leaders going into new Organizational roles fail during their first 18 months.
3. New leaders need four months to become fully function in their jobs. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean fully productive.
4. It takes a mid-senior manager an average of 6.2 months to reach a break-even point-the point at which a new leader’s contribution to the organization begins to surpass the company’s costs of bringing the person on board.
5. 90% of new employees make their decision to stay at a company within the first six months on the job.
6. First impressions are important. New employees decide within the first 30 days whether they feel welcome in the organization.
Figure 1.2 why on boarding process
1.3 Project Undertaken:
In today’s scenario, the on boarding process is carried out manually by the administrator, which is time consuming and tedious. Thus, the need of the hour is to develop efficient yet inexpensive technology which will help organizations to overcome the challenges faced during this on boarding process. Thus leading to increase in the productivity of the business. Thus, our proposed system aims to replace this on boarding process by robot, which will perform all the actions taken to complete the process, hence improving timeframe. This automation not only helps reduce the cost incurred due to manual errors and inefficiency, but also enables transparency within an organization. This will be particularly important to an organization looking to retain a competitive advantage in an increasingly globalized workforce. This will also help in maintaining enthusiasm, effectiveness, retention and productivity of employees
Chapter 2
Literature survey
2.1 History
During an annual company meeting (at ABC Training Company) the staff was asked to list the items that they thought would be helpful to them during their employment. They were told to not limit their responses and that the managers were looking for anything from changes in work hours, benefits, tools and/or equipment that could help them with your job tasks, or whatever else you think would help them in your daily activities. Of the responses that were submitted, some of the top requests were:
1. Knowing more about the company.
2. Understanding how to advance through the company.
3. Becoming familiar with the product that the company offered.
4. Learning about how the company was formed.
In response to staff comments, the organization decided to create a method for staff to learn more about the ABC Training Company. This included creating an on boarding process for new staff, along with offering this information to existing staff.
2.2 How prevalent is on boarding?
Aberdeen Group’s first report in 2006 entitled on boarding Benchmark Report identified only 40% of all organisations having a formal on boarding strategy. This number grew to 62% in Aberdeen Group’s (2008) report. Their expectation was that in 2009 this figure would grow to 77%.
Three drivers were identified for this increase namely;
New employee retention – 70%
New employee productivity – 53%
Company reputation in recruiting top talent – 41%
These drivers changed over time. Aberdeen Group’s (2006) report identifies productivity as the number 1 driver in 2006, while in 2008 it changed to employee retention. Aberdeen Group’s (2006) (1) report is based on a survey of over 600 HR professionals, in a wide variety of industries (largest being aerospace at 17%), with 55% located in North America and the balance in the UK and Asia-Pacific region. The companies are all large, 37% with annual revenue above $1 Billion, 29% with revenue between $50Million and $1 Billion and 34% below $50Million.
2.3 What should be included in onboarding processes?
Amour (2000) cites a Harvard study that identifies that 80% of employee turnover is as a result of mistakes in the hiring phase and the reason for this is mainly attributable to new employees not fitting in with the culture of the company. On the realization of this issue, companies are now more focused on ensuring that the on boarding process includes information about the company’s culture. This should be followed by enough reinforcement so that the new employees can understand it and can fit in with it (Garger, 1999). Silkroad Technology Inc. is a talent management solutions company based in Winston Salem North Carolina USA. It has offices throughout the world and is regarded as a leader in the field of on boarding solutions. Silkroad (2009) point to 7 elements that need to be contained in an onboarding process for it to be successful;
1. Start before day 1
2. Socialise.
3. Extend beyond day 1.
4. Assign a Mentor / Buddy
5. Get manager involved
6. Measure the success
7. Automate the process
Each of these 7 elements will be looked at individually.
2.3.1 Start before day 1
Tradition has dictated companies to start their onboarding process when the new employee comes through the front door on their first day of employment. The employee will be very anxious wondering what their first few days will be like. If this anxiety was in some way alleviated by providing the employee the ability to have advance access to the information that they will be looking for in their first few days, the employee will feel more positive in their position. Friedman (2006) highlights that preparation is one of the key tasks in the onboarding process. It is in the period between acceptance of the position and the start of employment that this preparation should begin. The idea of including staff, that have not actually started with the company in team planning and communications meetings can seem at first to be a bit “off the wall” but with further consideration is a very good concept (Bradt & Vonnegut, 2010). This idea may not suit all companies for reasons of confidentiality. But these issues can be and sometimes are addressed within the employee’s contract of employment.
2.3.2 Socialise
Onboarding programs help new employees socialize into the company and “get them up to speed” (Lee, 2006). One of the first recognized papers on socialization was Van Maanen and Schein (1979) in which they identified socialization as a process where an employee can acquire the traits needed to be a successful participant in a new organisation. These traits include attitude, behaviour and knowledge.
Van Maanen and Schein (1979) went further and identified 6 dimensions of socialization tactics of an organisation. The six dimensions are;
1. Collective vs individual socialization processes
2. Formal vs informal
3. Sequential vs variable
4. Fixed vs variable
5. Serial vs disjunctive
6. Investiture vs divestiture
Saks and Gruman, (2011) argue that there is a relationship between socialization tactics and higher levels of engagement in newcomers. They state that these higher levels are because “institutionalized socialization tactics provide new hires with the information, guidance, direction and social support they need to experience meaningfulness, safety and availability”. Making newcomers feel that they are part of the team or the family, whichever way the company refers to its staff, is vital to the engagement of the newcomer. Socialising newcomers is therefore an important part of the onboarding process. It is therefore incumbent on the company to providing events that make this happen.
2.3.3 Extend beyond day 1
Savitt, (2012) identifies Norton Healthcare’s approach to onboarding that has 3 phases. The first stage lasts for 1 week and is purely an introductory process of the new employee to the organisation. The second phase is from the first week to 30 days and focuses on the company’s clients. The third phase extends from 30 days to 90 days. This last stage helps new employees deal with the stresses of the job, establishing a work / life balance and creating their own personal and professional plan for their career in the company.
2.3.4 Assign a Mentor / Buddy
Loveland (2012) identifies that the purpose of his Buddy Program in Disney is to help Cast Members become more comfortable in their new role in a shorter period of time. It provides a one-point access to questions about the company, its culture, its procedures and policies and provides support, advice and encouragement for newcomers.
A number of companies use this buddy system and Rigby (2008) identifies leading companies such as Google and Innocent and other consultancy companies like Penna that extol the virtues of buddy systems in onboarding processes.
2.3.5 Get manager involved
It is important that managers get to meet newcomers at a very early stage in the onboarding process. This can be done in conjunction with having an event to get the staff and newcomers together. Managers should attend and speak at these meetings. They can be the conveyers of the culture and ethos of the company. They can let newcomers know what is expected from them and what management and staff will do to help them acclimatize to the structures of the company (Bradt & Vonnegut, 2010).
2.3.6 Measure the success
In order to measure the success of the onboarding process feedback on the process is required. Feedback both from new employees who are going through the onboarding process and those that have just completed it, should be gathered. This feedback needs to be reviewed and looked at objectively. Items relating to parts of the onboarding process that require improvement, will be easily identifiable. Bourdeau (2011) identifies that Birchwood holds lunches for those employees that have completed their 90 day onboarding process. During the lunch feedback is requested and gathered. They have found this process to be very successful with many issues identified that were easily fixable.
2.3.7 Automate the process
They utilise a software program as part of their onboarding process. It is a collaborative application that they call Chatter. It is essentially like a social media board. It helps people get connected with other team members. Each new hire is part of a Chatter Group that is cross functional. It includes team members from various groups such as IT, finance, sales operations and from locations across the globe. It provides a forum for discussion, ideas, networking and solutionising (Schneidermeyer, 2010).
2.4 Mistakes to avoid
Vernon (2012) identifies 5 commonly made mistakes when it comes to effective onboarding processes employed by companies.
1. Failing to engage employees on the first day
2. Failing to articulate clear responsibilities
3. Failing to address cultural fit
4. Failing to link onboarding to desired skills
5. Failing to deliver feedback early and often
2.4.1 Failing to engage employees on the first day
The first day should not just be used as a reading session on compliance documentation; the first day should also show how the new employee can become a valued team member.
2.4.2 Failing to articulate clear responsibilities
Identify each of the repeatable tasks that are required of the new employee. Identify how these tasks are managed, how each task relates to the overall higher level objectives and the parameters for successful completion. Bell& Kozlowski (2002) identifies that clear direction and goals enhance individual self-regulation and enables team members to monitor their own performance.
2.4.3 Failing to address cultural fit
O’Reilly, Chatman, & Caldwell, (1991) discuss the importance of understanding the fit between individuals’ preferences and organizational cultures. Consistent discussion and reinforcement of the company’s culture is required to be provided by the employee’s management so that the employee understands the way the company works, the jargon employed and the reasoning for company events. In a 2010 interview with Forbes magazine Zappo’s CEO Tony Hsieh is quoted as saying “If you get the culture right, than a lot of really amazing things happen on their own”.
2.4.4 Failing to link onboarding to desired skills
Identify exactly what skills the new employee needs to master to be successful and then working backwards ensure that those skills are included in the onboarding process.
2.4.5 Failing to deliver feedback early and often
Scientists agree that it can take 90 days to form a habit, 21 days to break a habit and 40 days to change a bad habit into a positive one (Maltz, 1960). The onboarding process tries to make the workplace tasks into habitual behaviours. So it is therefore important to identify at an early stage where bad habits are developing and request employees to tweak their behaviours that do not support success. This process should begin from day 1 and be consistent and periodic throughout the onboarding process.
If mistakes like these are made then the employee just becomes one of Garger (1999)’s 80% statistics and leaves the company.
With the cost of re-employment large percentages of the salary cost it is imperative for the company that these mistakes are avoided or else the company’s bottom-line is directly affected (Van Vark, 2006).
Chapter 3
Specification
3.1 Problem Statement:
This project is to basically enhance the process of Employee on-boarding/joining process. Where, new hired employees are assimilating into an Organization. For e.g. the process may include from below:-
1. Creation Accounts/user id different applications (AD, WebEx, Airwatch etc.).
2. Assign roles (AD)
3. Email id Creation (MS-Exchange)
4. Machine allocation (VMware)
5. Workstation Allocation etc.
The proposed solution will enable HR, ADMIN & IT to complete this process by the robot which will automatically perform the actions taken to complete the hiring process. This will make more standard based and improve on the timeframe taken to complete the hiring process.
3.2 Objectives and Goals:
Primary goal of on boarding process is to make new employees feel as if they made the right choice by joining the organization. The bottom line is that to degree that organization can make new hires feel welcomed into the organization and prepared for their jobs.
Other objectives are:
1. To increase retention and boost productivity.
2. To build the culture and strengthen relationship between an organization and an employee.
3. To quickly engage an employee in his/her role
3.4 System Requirements:
3.5.1 Hardware Requirements:
System : I3 processor 2.4 GHz.
Hard Disk : 40 GB.
Monitor : 15 VGA Colour.
Ram : 4 GB
3.5.2 Software Requirements:
Operating system : Windows 7/8
Coding Language : JAVA
IDE : Eclipse
Web Services : REST/SOAP
Testing Tool : Selenium
Software : Airwatch, Web Ex, SAP
CHAPTER 4
IMPLEMENTATION AND DESIGN
4.1 System Architecture:
As shown in fig. below, Admin and/or HR will maintain an excel file, which will contain all the details of new hired employees. This excel file will act as an input to on boarding process. This on boarding process will now be responsible for allocating resources and creating user ids/accounts of new employees for various applications and/or software such as Airwatch, WebEx, SAP etc. It also be responsible for Email management, Mobile device management, Identity management and Mobile security.
Airwatch is a provider of Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) software and standalone management system for content, applications and email. It will enable users to self-activate devices by entering their corporate credentials. It will also allow employees to connect to enterprise email, VPN, wi-fi, content, intranet sites and other backend resources. With airwatch it is also possible to configure policies for device restrictions, layout, settings access, notifications etc.
SAP is acronym for Systems, Applications and Products in data processing. It allows business to track customer and business interactions. It also provides end to end solutions for financials, manufacturing, logistics, distribution etc. SAP consist of fully integrated modules, which covers virtually every aspect of business management.
WebEx is a company that provides on demand collaboration, online meeting, web conferencing and video conferencing applications. Hence, using WebEx meetings, training centers, support centers and Sales center will be managed.
Figure 4.1 System Architecture
4.2 Data Flow Diagram:
1. The DFD is also called as bubble chart. It is a simple graphical formalism that can be used to represent a system in terms of input data to the system, various processing carried out on this data, and the output data is generated by this system.
2. The data flow diagram (DFD) is one of the most important modeling tools. It is used to model the system components. These components are the system process, the data used by the process, an external entity that interacts with the system and the information flows in the system.
3. DFD shows how the information moves through the system and how it is modified by a series of transformations. It is a graphical technique that depicts information flow and the transformations that are applied as data moves from input to output.
4. DFD is used to represent a system at any level of abstraction. It can be partitioned into levels that represent increasing information flow and functional detail.
4.2.1 DFDO:
DFD stands for data flow diagram, this diagram clearly shows how our system is related to user and produces an output. In this DFDO the administrator or HR submits excel sheet to system robot. The system robot will now be responsible for allocating resources and creating user ids/accounts of new employees for various applications and/or software such as Airwatch, WebEx, SAP etc. It also be responsible for Email management, Mobile device management, Identity management and Mobile security.