Genscape Warms Up New Hire Welcome

SilkRoad Employee Onboarding Results

• Warmer, engaging employee experience
• Time savings for HR
• Stronger compliance and faster background checks
• Greater “what’s next” transparency for new hires

New Employee Onboarding Challenges

• Completely manual process
• Inconsistency across locations
• Disconnected new hire experience
• Time spent chasing paperwork and task completion

Too Much Time Chasing Down People and Tasks

Genscape, the global leader in intelligence for the commodity/energy markets, provides highly technical services. But for its employee onboarding program, the company chose the opposite of hard science: a warm welcome for all new hires.

“Our goal was to create a sense of community as soon as possible, spanning from the moment an offer was extended well into the employee’s first few days on the job,” said Merabeth Martin, Human Resources Manager, Genscape. “We wanted our first impression to be our best impression and that meant we needed a complete transformation of our manual onboarding process.”

Those processes consisted of spreadsheets, a new hire checklist and extensive follow-up. Nearly all new hire paperwork was completed on the team member’s first day, resulting in extensive time spent with the Human Resources and Infrastructure teams.

“There was a lot of chasing people (and paperwork) around, which was further complicated by an inconsistent onboarding approach across our many locations,” said Martin. “More importantly, new hires were not immediately connected into the company after accepting an offer. They often arrived on their first day with little insight into the history of the business, role expectations and an overall sense of uncertainty.”

Combining Onboarding Technology with a Human Touch

To solve these challenges, Genscape turned to SilkRoad Onboarding (formerly RedCarpet®). “We had no idea the technology was so affordable, particularly with a company consisting of 350-400 employees,” said Martin. “Finding a solution that could transform our program and be customized to meet our needs was a great discovery.”

Genscape’s HR team started with the basics—automating the new hire process to save time and smooth out the process. “Automating onboarding tasks have been a huge time saver,” said Sarah Meares, HR Coordinator, Genscape. “We really appreciated the customization and the ability to make it as simple or as involved as needed. The international capability was also very appealing as we are a global company.”

In addition, Genscape elected to use SilkRoad’s pre-integration with HireRight for background checks and compliance. “It simply makes this process much more efficient and effective; I would recommend it to anyone,” said Martin.

Customized Onboarding Portal Creates “Family Feeling”

After basic automation, Genscape addressed an even more important issue: a warm and friendly new hire experience through the employee onboarding portal. “Our goal for the portal was an increased sense of engagement,” said Martin. “We also wanted to be as transparent as possible with our new hires on what to expect their first day and the first few weeks as well as 30 days out and beyond.”

Genscape focused on creating a personal connection through the portal. “The tone of our welcome note is very welcoming, and even includes a personal letter from our CEO,” said Meares. “The portal emphasizes people, our most important asset, featuring pictures from team events, a connection to Genscape’s HR team and information on Genscape’s mentorship program.”

SilkRoad Onboarding’s customization abilities also helped Genscape tailor information to different roles.

Transformation Accomplished—Friendly and Efficient

Through the use of technology, Genscape accomplished its mission of creating a warm and efficient onboarding program. New hires feel immediately engaged and spend more time building relationships instead of completing the HR “to do” list. Task automation means that the HR team knows quickly if issues need attention. “New hires are so impressed with our portal, often commenting on such a high tech and streamlined process,” said Martin.

Martin offers this advice to companies who want to transform their employee onboarding program. “It’s important to spend time on the front-end investment,” said Martin. “Don’t plan for perfection, but do spend the time to strategically align the initiative with overall business values.”

For Genscape, it was all about staying true to their philosophy—ensuring the first impression is the best impression. “Our hope is for new team members to feel valuable and an overwhelming sense of community. SilkRoad Onboarding has helped us accomplish just that,” said Martin.

“The SilkRoad Support team helped us optimize our onboarding tasks and enhance our onboarding ideas.”

-Sarah Meares, Genscape