New employee onboarding can be difficult, to say the least. Matching the expectations of both new employees and management can be a challenge, and many of the old ways and systems might not do the trick anymore. 

Having a strong background in HR and tech, we at HRMNY felt that instead of waiting for the perfect onboarding tool to be made, it’s about time we make our own! 

So, three of our talents joined on a quest to build a one-of-a-kind onboarding tool that encompases HRMNY’s philosophy and values. Now it’s done, tested by our own team and ready to become the new best friend of HR professionals everywhere. 

The power of CODA

In this blog post we will officially introduce you to our Onboarding Coda Tool, or as we call it  —the Newcomer Learning Academy (NLA in short). Why academy? Well, it’s about never-ending learning and it provides all the necessary information for everyone who’s going through the onboarding process. Kind of like school, but a lot more fun.  

Here are a few reasons why we believe it will be useful for you as well, no matter if you’re an HR professional, business owner, or someone who’s just started a new job. 

Let’s begin with the obvious: NLA is an onboarding tool made in Coda—a new type of doc that brings words, data and teams together, allowing you to make a doc as powerful as an app. That means that every HRMNY newcomer and everyone on the team can view and edit the doc online, save it, and go back to it when needed. In these times of information overload, it’s quite convenient not having to download anything and having all information in one place, right? 

Secondly, each NLA tool is duplicated for every newcomer individually. It means that we have one original doc example that we duplicate for each new employee, where only he or she has access to it. As it is possible to edit this doc, newcomers can use it as a notepad, make bookmarks, personalize it and make it their own. 

Now let’s dive into the content! 

In general the NLA doc consists of 5 parts. The first part is dedicated to our team and covers such topics as the rules of the office, the list of our team members and their positions, and a small brief of HRMNY products. 

Next, there are parts that cover the information of the tools that we use—e.g. Jira, Google Suite, Coda, etc. The last part is about some skills and apps that a new team member should download and learn to use. 

Besides theory, there is also a questions section to check how well the newcomers have understood everything. 

Why NLA could be useful for your company?

• Easy access. Everyone who has a profile in Coda and basic subscription can create a tool like this, according to their particular company standards. Share easily, use easily.
• Build it however you like. There are no limits on how you want to create this tool. Place there as many topics you like, about whatever you’re interested in. 
• Edit whenever you want. If you want to add some edits to the existing theory, you can do it anytime.
• Check the knowledge afterwards. After new employees have answered all the questions that you’ve placed, it is possible to check how well they’ve understood the content by checking the answers in the question section. It’s easy to do by simply adding some conditional formatting. For example, you can make the wrong answers turn red, and the right answers in green. 
• Everything you need to know is stored at one place. All the necessary material is placed in one Coda tool—whether it is the rules of the office or how to create a task in Jira.
• Transparency yet privacy. You know exactly what a new employee is doing in the NLA tool! Coda allows you to see where exactly the person in this doc is, yet, no other team member can see newcomer’s answers as no one else is added to that doc. Only you and who you have invited.
• Always up-to-date  As soon as there are some new updates in the company, they are reflected in the NLA, so the newcomers have the freshest information. 

Moreover, in our company, the new team members who are undergoing the onboarding process, are assisted by an Assistant to CBPO, who explains the material, answers questions and helps to learn faster and better. 

What else makes it unique? 

At HRMNY, we organize our work so that each talent gets to use his or hers strong sides. 

NLA is the brainchild of three of our own employees—Chief Business Process Manager Sergei, Chief Operation Officer Andris, and Assistant to CBPO Kristina. Each of them contributed their passion, knowledge, and strongest skills to make this tool usable, understandable, and fun to use.

First the core topics were described by our analyst, highlighting the most important information about the processes he invented. 

Then, the information was structured by our COO, who made sure the tool is easy to understand and memorize. 

And the last touch was added by our communication specialist, ensuring that all points are clearly stated and understandable for newcomers. 

Isn’t that genius? First we bring logic, then structure, then wrap it in the most user-friendly way! 

If you’re interested in trying out our NLA tool for your business, feel free to reach out to us. We believe that it could positively impact the onboarding process of any company size and type, and we’re excited to share our knowledge with the rest of the world.