You’ll, of course, make sure you introduce them during one of the company-wide meetings so everyone has a chance to say hello. A high degree of employee engagement is a powerful driver of company performance and growth. Engaged employees are passionate about their role within the organization and know that their contributions are valued. Effective onboarding aims to convince employees that sustained efforts over the long term can help them reap career jumps and financial rewards at your company.
Lastly, when gathering feedback from an employee who has made it through onboarding, consider using a tool like Fellow, which is ideal for real-time feedback on meetings, performance, processes, and more. Additionally, your onboarding should be inclusive for those with disabilities, so they can easily ramp up just as quickly as your neurotypical employees. By being inclusive, employees will feel confident and welcomed into your company culture. Additionally, you can assign a team member to be a mentor for your new remote employees so they have someone to help them navigate the culture. Employees can also snap photos and videos completing different “challenges” that center around company culture, socialization, learning, and acclimation. Setting clear expectations around your new hire’s roles and responsibilities is essential when they begin working in your organization.
Open-Door Policies and Check-Ins
When you start the onboarding process before their first day, new employees can effectively familiarize themselves with the tool and other project management or communication software. New hires need help connecting with other employees, and this is especially true in a remote setting, said Tracy Browne, vice president of HR at Salit Steel, based in Niagara Falls, Ont. Browne said COVID-19 forced her company to adopt a remote work model, making onboarding more challenging. But replicating in-person onboarding activities helps establish those personal connections. Additional challenges that are unique to remote employees include technical and personal issues, as well as inexperience working from home. Remote working is more popular than ever before and it seems inevitable that most businesses will have at least one remote employee.
Videos
Depending on the employee’s statement of work, the 100-day plan can consist of key training, statement of work documentation, and important milestones new employees need to complete during their first 100 days on the job. At Charlie, we’ve refined every onboarding step of our remote onboarding process over and over, gathering feedback from new starters as well as leavers to build a truly effective experience. A virtual employee is more vulnerable to feeling dissociated from the rest of the team.
Help create a personal connection
Day one, the job orientation, is more about the experience than about the information. As we said earlier, this day should be about creating a memorable, positive experience for new hires to look back on. Data from Eurostat and Statist show that in 2022, 30% of workers regularly worked from home. The Netherlands, however, is way ahead of other remote onboarding best practices countries, with 65% of the population working remotely at least part of the time, while in, for instance, the UK, this is just over 15%. Assigning an individual whom the new employee can go to with questions about the culture can be especially effective.
- Have fewer, more effective meetings with the help of AI, productivity-driving features, and seamless integrations.
- Therefore, successfully onboarding remote employees requires a more hands-on approach with a virtual onboarding checklist.
- Make introductions to the immediate supervisor, other members of the new hire’s working group and likely collaborators in other departments.
- As remote work has surged since the pandemic began in 2020, traditional onboarding methods no longer suffice.
- Be sure to add software where needed to speed processes and provide the required legal or audit trails.
So, you must spend more time and energy communicating company culture with them than you would in a traditional office environment. “Integrating a new hire into an organization and ramping them up to full productivity and engagement is challenging with traditional onboarding programs,” said Lauren Smith, vice president in the Gartner HR practice. “As onboarding for many jobs has now moved to be virtual, these challenges can be compounded by the realities of remote work.” Having at least one off-site (i.e. not at the company offices) gathering makes it possible for new employees to meet other team members in person.
The digital onboarding tools your team uses can make or break the experience for a new remote hire. ERG programs, a.k.a. Employee Resource Groups, can help build community from day one. Your remote onboarding process should introduce your ERGs so new hires can determine ways to get involved in your company culture.
If onboarding takes place over the course of one workday, this schedule can be broken down by hour. If it will take place over several days, be sure to hone in on the details and topics that will be covered each day. The more information you can provide a remote employee about your company’s onboarding process before it starts, the better. One thing that is missing from remote onboarding is the personal touch of getting to meet new colleagues. When you set up virtual meet and greets, you can help integrate your remote team members.
A valuable benefit to regular check-ins is that it sets the right stage for receiving constant feedback on the onboarding process. Besides addressing any potential issues as they arise, you are also likely to get a much clearer idea of where you can improve. Follow-ups for employees can be as simple as an email or a message on your communication tool, like Slack. Aside from direct supervisors, it’s also a good idea for human resources managers to schedule periodic one-on-one video calls. Your objective with employee training sessions is to prepare your new employee with all the tools and information they need to do as great a job as possible. In addition to that, it’s also a great opportunity to get to know them better and welcome them to the organization.