Digital onboarding for QSR: What is it and how it works

We know running a quick-service restaurant (QSR) is no small feat. You’ve got a bustling environment, hungry customers, and a busy team to manage. Onboarding new employees is a crucial part of your success story. When done right, it helps complete required paperwork quickly and keeps new hires engaged through the orientation and training phases, setting them up for success from day one.

But let’s be real—not all onboarding processes are created equal.

There’s the old-school method with piles of paper documents and endless, time-consuming tasks that make the first week at work super confusing (and possibly disappointing) for new hires.

And then there’s digital onboarding, which uses cloud technology to get your crew up and running without stress and headaches, making the whole process smoother and saving you precious time and money. 

Traditional vs. digital onboarding

Let's look at the difference between traditional and digital onboarding. 

Traditional onboarding

• Forms are time-consuming to fill out by hand, and new hires often have to write the same information over and over.  
• Documents contain sensitive personal data—like social security numbers and bank account details—that are tough to keep secure in paper format. 
• Printing costs for onboarding forms, training documents, and welcome packets add up quickly. 
• Archiving paper documents in time-consuming. If you're not careful, these documents can get lost, misplaced, or even stolen. 
• You can outsource additional authentication measures, like identify verification, but that can slow down the onboarding process. 

Digital onboarding

• Keeps sensitive personal data secure. 
• Uses automated tools that guide users through the process with ease.  
• Reduces costs by eliminating the need for printed materials. 
• Tracks each worker's progress in real-time and sends notifications for pending tasks. 
• Uses advanced certification tools, like biometric authentication measures and easy-to-use electronic signatures for each identity document. 
• Customizes each employee profile with the appropriate documents and training materials. 

3 ways digital onboarding helps your QSR's bottom line

1. It saves costs 

Implementing digital onboarding at your QSR will be a complete 180 for your business. It saves time, money, and headaches by:

• Setting up automated workflows and tasks, like moving employees to the next step in the onboarding process, sending reminders to complete paperwork, and notifying managers of any pending issues. 
• Reducing errors caused by paperwork. 
• Cutting printing costs. 
• Eliminating redundant tasks and the need to wait for verifications. 

2. It improves worker retention

Nothing ruins the enthusiasm of a new job like a first week filled with redundant paperwork, disorganized training, and idle time. Getting onboarding right helps new workers feel valued and supported from the start, increasing their likelihood of staying with your company long-term and saving on hiring and training costs. 

3. It integrates with other digital tools 

A digital onboarding platform can integrate with other HR tools used for recruiting, payroll, and training. This way, you can synchronize data between applications and ensure consistency and accuracy across platforms. 

Digital onboarding and QSR operations: A perfect fit

The benefits of digital onboarding apply to businesses in any sector, but if there’s a type of operation where digital onboarding is a particularly good fit, it’s quick-service restaurants. Here are some specific advantages:

1. It moves things forward quickly

QSR operations are fast-paced and tend to have higher turnover than other businesses. In fact, according to industry research, only 54 percent of quick-service employees reach 90 days of working before quitting.With digital onboarding, you can get new hires up and running quicky. 

2. It's mobile-friendly 

Using a digital platform makes onboarding smoother and more practical for digital natives (the most represented cohort in QSR), who can sign documents, provide information, and complete online training from their smartphones.

3. It makes compliance management easier

Managing hourly workers comes with a list of labor laws and regulations around minimum wage, overtime pay, breaks and more. A digital platform makes it easy to spot missing information or errors and helps you maintain compliance.

4. You can hire faster

QSR businesses often have busy seasons where they need to staff up quickly to meet increased demand. With a digital onboarding solution, you can ramp up hiring without the extra mess and stress of keeping documents signed and  organized. 

5. You can support non-native English speakers

Many digital onboarding solutions out there offer multilingual capabilities, making it easier for applicants and new hires to complete paperwork and have a comfortable onboarding experience. 

6. It can help you tailor new hire training 

With a cloud-based onboarding tool, you can develop training programs that suit each specific role within your QSR operation, making the first weeks on the job engaging and effective for new workers. 

5 steps to digital onboarding 

Digital onboarding starts right after someone is hired and can be divided into five steps: 

1. Pre-boarding: Set up your new hire's digital profile including inputting basic personal information and collecting the required documents they'll need to review as part of their onboarding, such as contracts, tax forms, company handbooks, and policies. 

2. Paperwork and authentication: New workers can now fill out the required forms and sign them digitally. The built-in authentication tools all you to verify the employee's identity in compliance with federal regulations automatically. 

3. Orientation: Once paperwork is complete, new hires often get welcome packets and training materials so they can understand the company's values and expectations. 

4. Training and integration: Digital onboarding solutions often enable you to customize training by role and can even help you schedule job shadowing sessions or meetings with managers to help new workers get up to speed in their roles. 

5. Offboarding: When you need to remove a worker from your organization, digital onboarding platforms enable you to conduct exit surveys, secure any collected data, and close the account in a few quick steps. 

Manage your people more efficiently with an all-in-one HR platform 

An all-in-one HR and Payroll platform streamlines the management of your hourly workers by centralizing essential functions into a single, easy-to-use system. With automated time tracking, seamless payroll processing, and integrated compliance tools, you can handle scheduling, wage calculations, and tax filings with greater accuracy and less effort. This efficiency not only reduces administrative burdens but also minimizes errors and ensures that your employees are paid accurately and on time. By consolidating HR tasks like onboarding, benefits management, and performance tracking, the platform allows you to focus on your team’s needs and well-being, rather than getting bogged down in paperwork.

Workstream was designed to address the gaps in your current onboarding process and make the process swift and seamless for QSR hourly workers. Our user-friendly platform allows you to access key integrations, including:

• The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) program
• E-verify.gov, a government tool that allows you to confirm the eligibility of your employees to work in the US
• Applicant tracking systems (ATS)
• Job boards and recruitment platforms
• Background check services
• Payroll applications

To learn more about how Workstream can enhance your onboarding journey, visit Workstream today.