The 7 C’s of Onboarding: How to integrate Compliance? [2024]

The 6 C’s (+1) explained

Talya Bauer developed the well-known onboarding 4 C framework more than a decade ago. Since then, 2 building stones have been added. Leading to the following 6 C’s: Compliance, Clarification, Culture, Connection, Confidence and Checkback. 

According to Bauer, each of the 6 C's is an essential part of the employee onboarding process. Appical added one extra ‘C’: Creativity. This ‘C’ gives your onboarding process that ‘wow’ factor.

In this series of blogs, we will take a deep dive into each of these C’s: what is it, why is this ‘C’ so important, and how to incorporate it in your (online) onboarding program. We will start with Compliance. 

[.callout-small]For an overview of all the 7 C’s, check out our blog![.callout-small]

What is the meaning of Compliance? 

Compliance (policies and rules) is the foundation of every onboarding process. It's about the onboarding tasks that are necessary (and often mandatory) to put every employee to work. In other words: it’s the basic hygiene of your onboarding program. Think of the payroll tax form and contact details of the employee. As well as preparing the laptop, telephone, and necessary accounts.

Why is Compliance important? 

Most companies cover compliance when a new colleague joins the team. As it should be, because it’s the law. Not having your basics in order, can have serious legal and safety implications. Think for example about the confidentiality requirements or safety regulations in the workplace. 

This is even more important when you are dealing with workers from abroad, and depends on where the new employee is working: from your home country or remote from theirs. But it also matters whether someone is a EU citizen or not.

Keep in mind: compliance also sets the tone for the new employee. Is your new hire still motivated if they cannot perform their tasks for 3 weeks, due to the lack of important software or login details?

How do you implement Compliance in your onboarding program?

Start with the basics: fill out all the necessary paperwork, like the employment contract and payroll tax statement. Get employees to sign off on company policies. Also, establish the identity of your new employee (ask for ID) and include them in your payroll.  

Be sure to inform the new hire of important policies, rules, and regulations. Also provide them with information explaining the options of the secondary employment plan (e.g. pension, paid time off, overtime compensation, transit-related offerings, healthcare and company perks). This is not only important for your new employee but in some cases even mandatory.

Check off required training. In most companies, a certain amount of training is required for new employees. For example, training about how to handle personal data, workplace safety, or specialized training for certain occupations.

“The average new hire onboarding experience consists of 54 activities” - Sapling

Checklist with activities

Given the amount of information that needs to be covered, it's helpful to have a checklist that covers everything an employee wants and needs to know on their first day of work. 

• Is the laptop ready? 
• Are all login details arranged? 
• Have you shared important policies?

You can create this yourself in a document or use a digital onboarding platform. The advantage of the latter is that you can also set reminders for your new employee and/or manager, and split the checklist into different onboarding phases.

Keep in mind that you can have many of these activities performed before the first day. In this way, the first working day of a new employee is not fully spent on administrative tasks. 

From paperwork to a digital onboarding tool 

Your new employee must fill out a mountain of paperwork before work begins. A digital tool will save everyone involved time, money, and effort, and ensure that all forms are read and filled out.

You can already share the tasks and background information in advance (in the preboarding phase). This allows your employees to fill out all necessary paperwork at home before they start. For example, use a tool like DocuSign for the digital signing of documents. A digital onboarding tool also helps train employees who start from home - or any other workplace.

Automation of HR Forms in the Appical platform

One of our favourite features is 'HR Forms'. It allows you to extract all kinds of employee information very easily, such as personal data, bank details, ID proof and emergency contacts. The new employee fills in this data before joining the company and then the company can complete the hiring process further. You no longer have to do it by hard copy or mail.

Best practices

Instruction videos Eurofins

How to prepare a lot of new colleagues with really diverse backgrounds for their new jobs? Instead of the usual dull text or presentation, Eurofins Clinical Diagnostics opted for something different: engaging videos to share technical work instructions before the first day. They covered subjects like: 'how do you use a pipette?' and 'how does the PCR machine work?' Many new hires found that easier to process than texts. Fun fact: Instead of actors, Eurofins used its own employees in the instruction videos and photos. Fun and useful!

[.callout-small] Check out the Eurofins case study[.callout-small]

That was it, our blog about compliance! Get all the information you need on the other 7 C's:

• Clarification
• Culture
• Connection
• Checkback
• Confidence
• Creativity