In the age of remote onboarding and working becoming the norm, companies are rapidly having to adjust to ensure that new hires settle in seamlessly and have everything they need to succeed.
We know that a good onboarding is critical for the success of your new hires. Having a clear process in place is very important and when it comes to remote onboarding your new employees need to feel comfortable and confident from the get-go.
Regardless of your company size and the roles you are onboarding, the following recommendations in our guide to onboarding remote employees can help you to successfully onboard new employees.
Why onboarding is important
Starting at a new role is always daunting for employees, perhaps even more so when done remotely. Without the immediate face-to-face contact, some employees may feel distanced and struggle to make connections with their colleagues. A seamless onboarding process for your new remote employee is essential for their engagement, happiness and to acclimatise them to the role.
An onboarding in which new employees can receive appropriate training, be introduced to their peers, and fully immerse themselves in the company will lead to them settling in much quicker, and overall being much happier in their initial few weeks in the role.
The 4 phases of remote onboarding
When beginning to think of your remote onboarding strategy, the process can be split into the four key phases below. Following these phases will ensure that you have a good onboarding process that will benefit your new employees and the wider company.
Admin
Prior to an employee starting, there are certain tasks that need to be completed to make sure that they can hit the ground running and have everything in place ready for them. When starting a new role, it is reassuring for employees to know that a company has prepared and anticipated their arrival.
Once someone has been hired, it is important to assign them a main point of contact at the company – someone who they can come to with any queries, and to put any worries to rest. This contact should also be the person who can mentor them during the first few weeks in the role; a new job brings lots of questions and having someone on-hand to offer friendly and helpful advice is priceless.
Prior to an employee’s start date, make sure that they have all the technology they require to start the role and access to their onboarding program on their first day. This may require sending out hardware and setting up any software they may need. If any of these elements are likely to require training, this should be carried out as a priority on their first day.
Training
Once the initial admin phase is complete, the next phase involves training new employees to make sure they are well versed for their new role at your company.
During this phase it’s essential to:
- Outline their daily responsibilities
- And the tools they will need to fulfil these responsibilities.
It is likely that you will already know their skillset and experience prior to hiring them, so each new employee’s training may need to be bespoke and relevant to them.
Training a new employee well within their onboarding will give them confidence to get started and will reduce the risk of error. It may also mean that less training is needed further down the line when they are more established.
It is often useful to have this training content available in different formats, and available on-demand so that they can re-visit training as and when they need to whilst carrying out their role.
Introductions
Typically, if an onboarding were to take place in an office environment – meeting colleagues and building relationships happens in a much more natural, organic way. In a remote environment, more care needs to be taken to ensure that introductions are made, and relationships can be built.
At a bare minimum in this phase employees should be introduced to:
- Their fellow team members
- The senior leadership team
- Key stakeholders from outside of their direct team
Your new employees should have strong connections with their immediate team as a priority, but it is important not to forget the wider teams that they may work with less frequently. Having a network of their core and broader network will allow for a more successful long-term career at the company and contribute more to their overall understanding of the business.
Acclimating them to the company
Every company is different and has its own culture for employees to adjust to – it is vital for new employees to learn about the company’s culture, values, and expectations from the outset. In a face-to-face environment, this may be more obvious for them to pick up on, however in a remote environment, it is important to take the time to teach your new employee these things about the company. Having an open forum for your new employees to ask questions and gain this insight will be beneficial in both the short and long term.
If your company has rules and regulations that must be followed, you must teach your new employee about this during their onboarding – getting started on the right foot will reduce the risk of mistakes being made and add to the confidence of your new employee.
10 top tips for onboarding remotely
1. Ensure the correct resources
We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Where you spend more of the first week on the phone to IT than you do doing actual work.
If employees aren’t properly set up on their computers and don’t have access to the right software and programmes, it’s hard to make a fast start. That’s why it’s vital to make sure you’ve got everything installed before they start and there’s enough time spent making sure they know where everything is and how to find it.
2. Company introductions
Starting a new role is always daunting, especially as you will be expected to work with many new people. This is amplified when working remotely, and employees may feel isolated and feel uneasy about approaching their colleagues if they haven’t been introduced.
When remote working, please don’t leave your new employees studying the company organisation chart, trying to figure out who to email!
Introducing your new hires to both immediate, and wider teams cannot be underestimated and is incredibly beneficial. This will put them at ease and allow them to create lasting relationships with their colleagues – that will help them both professionally and personally.
These introductions can be made in a formal and informal setting, it is best to set up some meetings throughout their first few weeks to meet all their colleagues and gain some insight into their department and responsibilities.
3. Clear access to online assets
When starting at a new company, it is often hard to navigate new online portals to find the assets you need to carry out your role or find onboarding assets.
Admit it, how much time have you spent during your induction lost in the minefield that is a company intranet?
Having a guide or some clear instructions on how to access the necessary online assets can make your new employees lives so much easier and allows them to have quick access to everything they need.
4. Involve them in social events
Remote working can be a lonely place, especially for new starters – having social activities that aren’t related to work will improve their remote onboarding experience and make them feel comfortable much more quickly. Knowing that your new company has a strong social scene will allow your new employees to settle in and adjust to the new company culture.
Social events are one of the best ways to integrate new employees into your company, and to boost their relationships with their colleagues. The more relaxed and fun environment allows your teams to get to know each other on a personal level – which in turn will boost their performance in a team setting at work.
5. One-on-one chats
Starting a new company remotely can be daunting and at times isolated, having time scheduled to speak with colleagues on a one-on-one basis can be very beneficial.
Team calls , whether informal or formal are great, however it can be difficult to speak up and get to know people on an individual basis
Speaking to their colleagues on individual video calls allows them to connect on a closer level and will mean that they find them easier to approach in the future, as it is often hard for a new employee to reach out to someone they have only spoken to in a team environment.
6. Create a development roadmap
Development is often the reason for people changing companies, starting your new employees out with a clear development roadmap will help them feel reassured and know they are on a clear career path.
This development roadmap may include clear milestones, key performance indicators and tasks that need to be completed. Although these are typically more long-term goals, they will improve the mindset and motivation of your new employee.
7. Structured check-ins
Feeling alone and unstructured during onboarding, especially when working remotely, may lead to a negative experience for your new hires. They may feel like they aren’t being properly supported and feel like they are unable to ask questions.
Providing a regular check-in time can put a new employee at ease and will give both you and them chance to feedback and ask important questions. This is vital to establish a clear channel of communication and resolve any issues quickly and effectively.
Structured check-ins are great when working in a busy, fast-paced environment. They allow the new hire to constantly ask questions as you go and having time set aside makes it easy for them to prepare questions and feedback.
8. Encourage emotional support
Employee wellbeing is very important for your people and your company. Preventing stress and promoting a positive workspace must be a key consideration in your onboarding strategy.
Offering your new employees emotional support and encouraging supporting others on a companywide level is vital.
9. Integrate company culture
A new company is often a learning curve for new employees, the main thing to adjust to is often company culture as this is usually the thing that differs the most.
Integrating company culture into the onboarding process means that they will learn quickly and feel comfortable in their new surroundings, even though they are working remotely.
Making employees understand how they contribute towards the company’s culture and end goal can benefit their career development, can make them feel more engaged with the company.
10. Set clear expectations
If employees aren’t aware of what’s expected of them in terms of behaviour and performance, it will be hard for them to complete tasks to the standard expected of them. This can be particularly important to rectify early on… as we all know the first few weeks are when you want to impress your new employer the most!
An employee spending time during their onboarding being unsure of expectations and tasks, can lead to them feeling uneasy and unsettled within the first few weeks. If this were to continue, it could lead to problems further down the line.
That’s why it’s important early on to provide new employees with a list of expectations, tasks, goals, and the performance indicators to achieve. Transparency at this stage means that your employee can get started quickly and perform tasks to the standard expected of them right from the start – this is a win-win for both employer and employee and will contribute to a great onboarding.
So those are some of our top tips to make sure that you effectively onboard new hires. Some of it may seem obvious but sometime the simplest things are often the hardest to do. And with the price for failing to onboard a new employee being:
- Lower engagement
- Lower productivity
- Steeper learning curve
- And a higher risk of them quitting
It makes sense to apply a little more time and effort into implementing some of our tips for onboarding remote employees.
