Onboarding Case Study: Ballina Shire Council - Pulse Software

The Council employs and manages a diverse workforce of over 300 employees and contractors in a variety of professions and working arrangements.

In 2019, Pulse was approached by Ballina Shire Council for a solution to overcome a set of challenges that were hindering their onboarding process.

Challenges of a paper-based onboarding system

The Council’s legacy paper-based system meant onboarding employees was time consuming and heavy on administrative tasks.

As a consequence, there were low levels of engagement during a repetitive peer-to-peer onboarding process as well as a lack of focus and alignment to corporate values and the organisation’s vision and mission.

The manual workflows also resulted in little oversight on pre/post induction employee tasks, actions and completion management.

Benefits of a digital onboarding solution

Pulse’s Talent Suite demonstrated the ability to provide a systemised approach to onboarding new employees.

Using the Talent module features, the Council was able to create a truly welcoming introduction to the organisation that was personalised and aligned with their values and mission.

From a compliance perspective, the Pulse Talent Suite ensured accurate data collection as well as sophisticated accountability reporting with task completion management.

The reduced manual administration ensured operational efficiencies that meant the team could continue to focus on their key role requirements and remain confident that new employees were receiving a positive introduction to the organisation.

Key outcomes from implementing the Pulse Talent Suite

• A cloud-based solution that could scale seamlessly as well as integrate with internal payroll and financial systems.
• Administrative efficiencies by retiring a paper-based system whilst also enhancing record keeping capabilities.
• Consistent onboarding, induction and compliance standards as well as processes between individual divisions, departments, or business units.

Testimonial

“At Ballina Shire Council, we value the ability to make our staff feel valued and welcomed before they even start.  Transitioning from a paper-based process to a fully automated onboarding platform has helped us achieve that goal.  Pulse’s innovative solution has also allowed us to focus on other areas of improvement; reduce anxiety for a new employee, improve accountability and reporting, and showcase who we are as an organisation.

We are advocates for features such as being able to add a personalised welcome message from our General Manager, provide the employee with information they needed for their first day (e.g. who their team are, where they will be working, where to park) as well as being able to clearly showcase the Shire’s values and vision.  It also allows for a ‘self-paced’ approach to working through the onboarding information.

The feedback from new employees has been “the Pulse onboarding platform provides them with confidence for their first day, and a great introduction to the organisation.”

– Carol Ennis – Business Systems Administrators/Analyst, Ballina Shire Council

About Pulse Software

Pulse Software is a leading business process management solution provider. Pulse aligns people with industry leading solutions for government agencies and private enterprises.