Automated onboarding process brings speed and transparency
Complex onboarding process simplified through automation
Our customer needed to optimise their onboarding process and adapt their system to meet background check requirements.
The existing process was 100% manual — our client couldn’t keep up with the time needed to manage it, and end-users were becoming dissatisfied.
We used the Pontoon ON platform to fully automate the onboarding experience.
The results?
A significantly faster process, and a better experience for our customer, their end-clients and candidates.
Eliminating the manual onboarding process
Our client's existing onboarding process was completely manual — and with 100 onboards every week, there was no way the in-house team could keep up with the daily management demands.
The company added more staff to their internal team, but with over 330 hours of manual processing required each week, they would have needed more than 10 full-time employees focused solely on onboarding.
Meanwhile, end-clients were becoming dissatisfied with the onboarding process: simple tasks were taking too long, turnaround times were causing delays, and giving feedback was challenging.
Our customer needed an automated solution that could solve these issues, preserve the human touch their stakeholders valued, and ensure full compliance.
Seamlessly integrating the onboarding tool
First, our Tech Team built a test version of the onboarding process in a sandbox environment and ran time studies. After a successful test run, our client approved full implementation of the Pontoon ON platform.
To get the customer’s onboarding process up and running quickly, we partnered with their Vendor Management System (VMS) to configure a range of automated reports.
These reports kicked off the onboarding process for new candidates every two hours within the Pontoon ON platform.
Within just two minutes of receiving the VMS report, Pontoon ON sent individual email notifications to the candidate, supplier, and hiring manager, informing them that the onboarding process was live.
As the candidate completed each step of the digital documents involved in onboarding, the system sent a status update request to the supplier — which was immediately pushed to the hiring manager for maximum visibility.
Every email was configured with dynamic fields so they were personalised and consistent. We also built in stopping points — vital opportunities for the team to engage personally, ensuring candidates still received a great experience with that all-important human touch.
As part of enhancing the experience for everyone, we also designed a dedicated candidate outreach process.
All new offers received a personalised congratulatory email and a welcome packet — the kind of warm welcome our customer’s team had always wanted to offer, but previously lacked the time to deliver.
Significant efficiencies and time savings
With Pontoon ON, document turnaround times drastically improved for our client.
The average time to gather candidate documentation reduced from more than five days to under 24 hours.
Previously, it took 24–48 hours to send background check details to the supplier, and another 72–96 hours to receive confirmation that the check had been initiated.
With our solution, the supplier received candidate details within 2 hours of offer acceptance and confirmed background check initiation in just 19 hours — a dramatic improvement in both speed and efficiency.