By implementing a well-designed onboarding and training program, you can achieve a seamless workflow, increased productivity, reduced errors, and empowered users on your advocacy platform.
It's not only a key element for the launch of an employee advocacy program but also for maintaining a successful platform. Continuously onboarding and training new users that you recruit into the platform, for example, company newbies or new departments, helps reduce the need for continuous support and boosts platform participation.
User onboarding
To ensure the successful start of new users with the platform, it is essential to maintain their excitement and momentum towards the platform and its benefits. In the following sections, you will find a few tips for creating your individual onboarding process.
Make sure to adapt and customize the User onboarding journey on the platform in the administration to your needs, as this is what your new users will experience once they first sign into the platform.
Personalize the email invitation
Ensure the invitation email for your employee advocacy platform creates an impact since it's the first point of contact.
Email invitation from the Haiilo platform: The email template under the Invitations & Registration settings lets you create a default message that is sent with all invitations and add some information for users on how to use Haiilo.
- What is an employee advocacy program? What's in it for the individual? Give your users an easy-to-understand or even self-serving reason to take part in the ambassador program, for example, by adding a link to "Why invest my time in social media?".
Example text: Congratulations! You have been selected to participate in our employee advocacy program. The initiative is powered by Haiilo, an employee communications
platform that enables you to view recent and relevant (example company name)’s
content on a feed that's curated to match your interests. It allows you to share stories and messages from across the organization and industry through your social media accounts in an organic and authentic way and helps you position yourself as an industry thought leader. If you want to learn more about the importance of being a social media advocate for (example company name), please watch this short video (example link). - How does the Haiilo advocacy platform work? What's in it for the company? Explain to your users why it's not only a benefit for them but also for the company to take part in the ambassador program and use the new tool, for example, by adding a link to "Why do organizations leverage their employees?".
Example text: Our Haiilo platform offers a wide range of topics where you can decide which channels you want to follow. Those feeds lead to relevant content you can easily share with your own networks. So log in now and get started! Once you have logged in, make sure to visit our resources section to find all helpful information and links regarding our Haiilo platform to get started. If you have questions, please reach out to our admin team via
exampleteam@examplecompany.com. Thanks in advance for your support and contributions to make our advocacy program a success!
If you're using Single-Sign-On, be sure to create an email invitation separately, as you cannot invite new users from the platform directly. Make it as personal as possible, and be sure to include instructions on how to access the platform, highlight the benefits of using it, and provide context about what your employee advocacy program aims to achieve.
Personally welcome new users
Once they accept the invite, proactively send them a welcome email and personally thank them for joining the platform. We recommend including all necessary information for their successful start with the platform. Depending on how you perform the platform training you can either invite them to a live training session or link to the video tutorial. If you continuously have new users join the platform, make sure you set up a somewhat automated welcoming process.
Go to the Users menu as a company admin and download a list of the users filtered by joined date. Send those new users a templated personalized welcome email by either using the bulk mail function in the Users menu, the email newsletter feature, or simply your own email program.
- Hi (employee name),
Thank you for joining our Advocacy program. Social Media is a great way to build your personal brand by sharing our company messages.
To help you get started, we have put together all the helpful information about our Haiilo platform in the resources section. (Optional: Please also check out the attached PDF for an overview of your role within our advocacy program).
If you're available, attend Haiilo's training, which will give you an overview of how to connect your social media profiles and use the tool on the (date). To attend please (instructions on how to receive calendar invite, participate, etc).
If you're unable to make the live training, we will share a recording of the training for your reference. (If you have already recorded a training) / please watch this recorded training session (insert link). It covers all of the basics and includes information on:
- Setting up your profile
- Customizing your news feed (subscribing to channels)
- Sharing content with your individual networks
- Proposing content to the Haiilo platform
- Viewing your personal dashboard/analytics
Last but not least remember to:
- Regularly check out the platform. You can sign into Haiilo (link to your platform) with single-sign-on using your (example company name) credentials.
- Check your inbox for notifications from Haiilo regarding new content. Each week (example company name) will forward you content available to share.
- Track your progress in Haiilo’s leaderboard. Brand advocates who share the most content on social media each quarter will be awarded Recognition Moments rewards.
Thank you for spending a few minutes each week to share your experiences at (example company name) and (example company name)’s content. For questions, please reach out to our (example) team via (exampleteam@examplecompany.com)
Personalize the onboarding experience on the platform
Add as many visible touchpoints as possible on your advocacy platform to ensure that new users have easy access to all the information they need to get started.
- Resources: Use the Resources tab to add pages and or files. Add important onboarding steps and links to video tutorials on how to use the platform or links to onboarding material based on your intranet. Rather than uploading a long training video, consider offering shorter sessions on different topics, such as “customizing your news feed”, “sharing and posting”, “platform structure and channel managers”, “navigation, settings and notifications”
- Shortcuts: You can also add a Shortcut on the homepage linking, for example, to your internal knowledge base for your Haiilo platform, a help channel in Slack, or to the official Haiilo Support Center.
- Haiilo channel: Creating a dedicated Haiilo channel to inform about new features or news regarding the platform might be another option to have another visible touchpoint on your platform.
- Featured post: Adding a Featured post is another great way to integrate another prominent touchpoint for new joiners on the platform.
User training
Depending on the role your new user(s) will have, make sure your training session or material includes all relevant information on how to use the platform.
- Quick reminder: Personal employee benefits of using the platform as well as reasons why employee advocacy is important to your organization
- How to navigate (where to find what on the platform - see section on touchpoints)
- How to set up the profile (language settings, connecting social media accounts, notifications settings, etc.)
- How to customize feed
- How to engage with, share (and propose) content
- How to use the personal dashboard
- Social Media Style guide
Content creators/Admins only:
- Content strategy
- Expected content input frequency
- Expected weekly workload
Looking for an example slide deck to create your training? Download our template for users or for admins at the bottom of this article and use this as an inspiration for creating your own. If you need help executing those user trainings, contact your Haiilo Account Manager and they will make sure a Haiilo expert trains your users.
Further tips & tricks
We have a few more tips for you:
- Follow up: once onboarded and trained, make sure to check that users who recently joined the program have completed their registration and started sharing - it's crucial to get them to use the platform as soon as they join. As mentioned, you can use the Users menu to filter for inactivity and reach out offering assistance to those who haven't connected their social media profiles yet or haven't shared anything.
- Think outside the box and remember: The more visible touchpoints you have, the better. Use other tools and platforms to link to your advocacy platform, e.g., your intranet, Slack, etc.
- Offer training in various formats to accommodate different learning styles and tailor it to the specific needs of different user groups. Inviting an experienced advocate to share their best practices in a training session can boost participants.
- Make sure new users are already subscribed to essential and default channels so that there is something to explore when they first come onto the platform.
- Regularly update training materials to reflect changes and updates.
- Establish a feedback mechanism for users to provide input on their onboarding and training experience.
- Incorporate gamification elements to make training and platform participation engaging. For example, add a teaser to your invitation and/or welcome email highlighting rewards specifically suited for those new joiners to get them going. Including a quiz during the training session makes it more interactive.
- Encourage peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing, for example, by introducing "Haiilo buddies" to offer help and best practices to new joiners.
- Offer ongoing support resources.
- Secure management buy-in and support for training initiatives.
Check out our blog article to learn more about why getting employee onboarding right is key.