6 Best Practices for Successfully Onboarding Remote Employees
Content
Instead of trying to run the whole process manually, use your HR software to create an employee onboarding checklist and template that you can customize for different departments and roles. That way, you won’t have to start from scratch every time you virtually onboard a new employee, and you can ensure you’ve covered all the bases. In traditional employee onboarding processes, new hires are usually shown around the office and introduced to other employees. This allows them to create first-time connections as well as get familiar with the office environment. As such, this post will cover the remote onboarding best practices you can use to virtually onboard new hires. When thoughtfully implemented, these strategies can deliver optimal results for HR teams and ensure employees settle into their new jobs.
What are the 3 most important elements of successful onboarding?
There are three keys to a successful strategic onboarding program: people, culture, and milestones and tasks. A consistent, and repeatable onboarding process requires few adjustments and benefits all stakeholders involved. Plus, you're more prepared to set your new hire up for long-term success.
Onboarding in small groups is an effective way to reduce redundancies and unnecessary efforts of onboarding new employees. Salesforce does this well by creating networking opportunities for new hires to connect with other employees across all regions. Real life examples of how remote and hybrid companies are using Gophr to deliver perks to their remote teams across the UK. With this information on hand, you’ll be able to improve your onboarding process continually and adjust so that everyone feels like part of the team as smoothly and quickly as possible.
Onboarding remote employees
It is also important to note that it shouldn’t just be the manager who checks in. Someone from HR should also touch base and if your company is small enough, the Director of their department or CEO should take the time to check-in, too. It also encourages a sense of belonging which is especially important since employees will be working from a remote location and not have face-to-face interaction. So you can imagine how using software to protect your passwords is essential.
Even the pandemic and working from home became the norm, onboarding was both a fragmented and confusing process. This is because it was built around the process and not employee needs. The priority was ticking off various onboarding steps - for example HR checks, IT checks, line manager induction without a sense of cohesion between the departments. This meant the process felt disjointed for the employee, who often felt lost.
Onboarding in the new normal
The lack of human connection can make the first day feel ordinary or even intimidating. Your remote employees can choose the best and most optimal way to get to know your company, its culture, and people through personalization. A virtual employee is more vulnerable to feeling dissociated from the rest of the team. So, you must spend more time and energy communicating company culture with them than you would in a traditional office environment. A well-ingrained company culture with a remote-friendly work environment is often integral to ensure the onboarding process succeeds.
- Ensure they get the same welcome pack as any employee who starts work in a physical location.
- HR software, for example, can help streamline your recruitment process, including onboarding remote hires.
- We'll also delve into the differences between remote onboarding and traditional new hire processes and provide practical advice for the successful onboarding of remote employees.
- Zoho People allows you to create checklists for both preboarding and onboarding.
- Likewise, these buddies will be responsible for checking in on them and connecting them with the rest of the team.
Now that we understand the best practices for remote employee onboarding, let’s explore why it’s so important for an organization. Your remote employees can tell you exactly where you can improve for your next group of new hires. Developer network Adeva adds new employees to team Slack groups and sends them information about company culture and projects they'll be working on up to three weeks prior to their start date.
Check in regularly
If they feel connected to the organization as a whole from the moment they join, they are much more likely to engage long term. If you don't take advantage of this magic moment, then https://remotemode.net/blog/10-best-remote-onboarding-practices-to-adopt/ you won't have the opportunity to create it again. Keep in mind that effective onboarding doesn’t only rely on the content of the journey itself, but also on its ease of use.
Speaking of audits, you need to consider how your remote onboarding software will hold up to audits and security regulations. You can make their first day fun and memorable through different creative activities. For example, your in-house team can wear t-shirts with the message “Welcome” during the first video conference.
Meet Pilot's Unified Payroll
Send the new hire clear instructions on how to connect to the company server, including how to contact your tech support team for any troubleshooting they may need. Regardless of where they’re working from, though, it’s essential for the company to provide them with equal access to professional development opportunities https://remotemode.net/ and company resources. That’s why it is typically a good idea to ask new employees how comfortable they are with meeting and chat tools such as Google Hangouts, Zoom, Slack, etc. – before their first day. The point of remote onboarding is to make it as seamless a process as regular onboarding.