Ballina Shire Council chooses Pulse Software to improve council staff onboarding

Connected to metropolitan areas such as Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Newcastle by an active regional airport, Ballina Shire Council is among the fastest growing regions in Australia.

Council employs and manages a diverse workforce of over 350 employees and contractors in a variety of professions and working arrangements.

In 2019, Ballina Shire Council approached Pulse Software for a solution to overcome a set of challenges that were hindering their onboarding process.

Challenges of a paper-based onboarding system

Council's legacy paper-based system meant onboarding employees was time consuming and administrative.

As a consequence, there were low levels of engagement during a repetitive peer-to-peer onboarding process as well as a lack of focus and alignment to corporate values and the organisation’s values, vision and mission.

The manual workflows also resulted in little oversight on pre/post induction employee tasks, actions and completion management.

Benefits of a digital onboarding solution

Pulse’s Talent Suite demonstrated the ability to provide a systemised approach to onboarding new employees.

“At Ballina Shire Council, we value the ability to make our staff feel valued and welcomed before they even start.  Transitioning from a paper-based process to a fully automated onboarding platform has helped us achieve that goal.  Pulse’s innovative solution has also allowed us to focus on other areas of improvement; reduce anxiety for a new employee, improve accountability and reporting, and showcase who we are as an organisation,” says Carol Ennis - Business Systems Administrators/Analyst, Ballina Shire Council.

Utilising the Talent module features, Ballina Shire Council was able to create a truly welcoming introduction to the organisation that was personalised and aligned with their values and mission.

“We are advocates for features such as the ability to add a personalised welcome message from our General Manager, provide the employee with information needed for their first day (e.g. who their team are, where he or she will be working, where to park, etc.) as well as being able to clearly showcase the Council's values and vision.  It also allows for a ‘self-paced’ approach to working through the onboarding information.

“The feedback from new employees has been that the Pulse onboarding platform provides them with confidence for their first day, and a great introduction to the organisation,” Ennis continued.

From a compliance perspective, the Pulse Talent Suite ensured accurate data collection as well as sophisticated accountability reporting with task completion management.

The reduced manual administration ensured operational efficiencies that meant the team could continue to focus on their key role requirements and remain confident that new employees were receiving a positive introduction to the organisation.

Key outcomes from implementing the Pulse Talent Suite

·     A cloud-based solution that could scale seamlessly as well as integrate with internal payroll and financial systems

·     Administrative efficiencies by retiring a paper-based system whilst also enhancing record keeping capabilities

·     Consistent onboarding, induction and compliance standards as well as processes between individual divisions, departments, or business units

About Pulse Software

Pulse Software is a leading business process management solution provider. Pulse aligns people with industry leading solutions for government agencies and private enterprises.

For more information call 1300 363 325 or email sales@pulsesoftware.com