SmartRecruiters Blog

Recruiting Startup Award Winner – Enboarder – Delivers Onboarding from a Hiring Manager Perspective

The Winner of Hiring Success 18 – Berlin Edition’s Recruiting Startup Awards drives engagement from hiring managers and new employees by meeting both at their individual points of need.

As Recruiting Startup Awards heat up for Hiring Success 19 – Americas with over 100 startups vying to be one of the top five who will be joining us in San Francisco February 26-27 to pitch it our in front of an expert panel of judges and one-thousand plus TA leaders (voting ends February 4, click here to pick your fav!), we talk to the latest winner about their product and vision.

Enboarder wowed judges last September with an intuitive onboarding platform that helps candidates hit the ground running, boosting retention rates for employers.

Onboarding is a major struggle for most organizations. In fact, according to a recent a recent SHRM study “half of all senior outside hires fail within 18 months in a new position and half of all hourly workers leave new jobs within the first 120 days.”

The reality is Hiring Managers are busy and most lack the HR training to orchestrate new hire engagement in a meaningful way. That’s where Enboarder comes in. The name itself is a portmanteau of “engaging” and “onboarding”, and the mission is pretty much as simple as that – make onboarding engaging for everyone, including hiring managers.

We turn to partner strategist for Enboarder, Chris Cherry to learn more about how it all works, and the Enboarder’s vision for the future of talent acquisition (TA).

Briefly, on the back of a cocktail napkin, how does your product work?

Enboarder is an experience-driven onboarding platform that guides new hires and their managers through the onboarding process. We enable HR to design beautiful, engaging digital content that delivers automatically along bespoke timelines, straight to mobile. New hire/managers choose their communication preference (text message, Email, Facebook, Slack or WhatsApp). Each message is sent with an embedded link, which opens in the device browser when clicked. No apps to download, no usernames or logins, and no training required

What does your product do that can’t be replicated?

Enboarder is built from the ground up to solve the onboarding challenge from an engagement and experience perspective. From our choice of communications channels, the way content is structured and delivered, to the interface of the platform, no other product so holistically delivers on employee engagement.

Enboarder is also the only onboarding solution that solves the engagement issue from the hiring manager’s perspective. Managers have a major influence on a hire’s experience at their new job, but they’re busy, and don’t usually have in-depth HR training. Enboarder provides manager coaching, nudges and reminders to help even the busiest of managers deliver engaging onboarding experiences for their new hires.

Why is your product a necessary tool for Recruiters?

The TA challenge does not end with the offer letter. Given the cost and effort associated with getting the right person through the door, it makes sense to take steps to ensure you then retain that talent. Enboarder is the bridge that ensures a successful recruitment process is followed up by an engaging onboarding experience, guiding both new hires and their managers through the process from offer acceptance to day one, probation, and beyond.

How does your product help make the hiring process as easy as possible?

There’s a few things, Enboarder…

  • Enables recruiters to deliver an engaging new hire experience.
  • Makes new hires feel valued, accepted for their individuality and welcomed to their new organization.
  • Helps prevent issues such as no-shows, and reduce early stage attrition.
  • Gathers feedback and prompts stakeholders to immediately address problem areas.
  • Provides a consistent experience for all new hires and promotes positive engagement with their manager.
  • Leverages advocacy from new hires to generate referrals and promote workplace reviews (e.g. via Glassdoor).

At what stage of growth are you, and where is that relative to how big you want to be?

Founded in 2015, we have powered more than 100 thousand onboarding experiences via our platform. Our team is growing, with offices in Sydney, London and Austin TX. We are focused on major growth over the coming year, including expanding our international presence.

What do you see as the future of TA and how do you fit into it?

The human factor will continue to be the key to success in TA. Strong employer branding will need to be backed by real relationships, connections, and employee engagement.
At the same time, smarter technology will play a key part in helping busy employees and employers build these meaningful connections while balancing the other tasks that need to be done.

Enboarder will continue to evolve and innovate this intersection of technology and human experience.


Kaya Payseno