Van der Valk Hotel Beveren: Creating an onboarding process that is easy to implement, manage and control

The onboarding challenge

Managing a constant influx of new hires, Van der Valk Hotel Beveren’s HR team repeatedly ran into the same question: Have all onboardees been told exactly what they need to know?

“Our onboarding was quite limited,” explains Maaike Vandecasteele, HR Manager at Van der Valk Beveren. “People sometimes started when our HR team wasn’t present. Then, there was a chance that those new hires didn’t receive certain information.” Together with her colleagues Annelore de Schepper and Elise Bras, both HR Officers, she is responsible for all HR activities at the Beveren location.

Though every new employee received a welcome brochure, new hires found it challenging to properly digest the information when it was given in a lengthy format, all at once. This led to Annelore, Maaike and Elise frequently having to answer recurring questions that they had already provided the answers to previously.

Van der Valk Beveren’s HR team needed an intuitive tool that would allow them to present all onboarding content professionally in one place, but spread out over time and personalized to every role.

The new onboarding journey

From a basic process to an intuitive, controlled onboarding journey—that’s what Van der Valk Hotel Beveren was able to achieve with Talentech's onboarding app.

Since implementing Talentech, the HR team has found a digital home for all of their onboarding material. From company history and holiday requests to employee discounts and wellness programs, they built professional content pages in the hotel’s signature gold branding for all important information.

New hires are invited to create their Talentech account either directly after signing the contract or shortly before starting their trial day. Then, one by one, they receive access to various content pages, being presented with only the knowledge that they need at that given stage of the onboarding journey.

HR also uses the app to assign important to-dos to onboardees and asks them to rate their current onboarding experience by filling in short survey “pulse checks”. This way, the HR team can always stay on top of how satisfied employees are, instantly seeing which new hires they need to check in with.

Spotlight: Onboarding before a trial day

Thanks to Talentech's onboarding app, Van der Valk Hotel Beveren can prepare prospective employees for their trial day. By enrolling them in the onboarding journey early on—and giving them all the tools they need to succeed—they are able to excel on the actual day itself, as there is no longer a need to feel anxious or overwhelmed. This significantly increases the chance of hire and makes it easy for HR to recruit candidates who are the right fit for the role.

A process that is easy to implement

To set up their new onboarding app, Van der Valk Hotel Beveren chose Talentech's guided implementation process, which involved co-developing the app together with their Customer Success Manager. Annelore set up the platform from scratch independently and tailored it to the hotel’s unique onboarding needs. Thanks to regular support meetings with the Talentech team and an intuitive, achievable implementation process, Van der Valk Beveren was able to go-live within 3 months.

“In January, we launched the app and were ready to onboard our new employees. It was a fairly quick turnaround,” says Annelore. “Everything was very intuitive. Talentech did a good job explaining the process, which made it easy to get started myself. And if I didn’t understand something, I could just ask,” she adds.

A process that is easy to control

For Van der Valk Hotel Beveren, the most convincing benefit of Talentech is the ability to have full control over the onboarding process. Thanks to the onboarding app, HR can always be sure that every new hire will be given the same high-quality journey, receiving all the tools they need to succeed in their new role.

If a new employee is confused about something, the team can just point them to the onboarding app: “With Talentech, we now present our onboarding material in a much more balanced way. Since the content pages are made available one by one, there’s a higher chance that new hires will actually digest the information, because they know that it will only take a few minutes to get through,” says Annelore.

In addition to increasing employee engagement, the app also helps onboardees show up better prepared. As new hires now know exactly what to expect during their first week, there’s no need for the usual pre-start jitters. Instead, they show up in their new position with confidence, which decreases the time it takes for them to reach peak productivity.