By taking into consideration all of the important factors in onboarding remote workers, your organization—and your new employees—can reap the full advantages of a positive remote onboarding experience. With task assignments, you can bring in whoever you want to help with the process, making it collaborative. You can also set off dynamic due dates for tasks you need approved by a specific date. Add the template to your library and edit whatever you need to ensure your onboarding process is specifically tailored for your business’ remote employees. The goal of the remote onboarding process is to make new employees feel welcome and included in the company.
A welcome package creates a connection between the new employee and the company. It includes resources to help employees acclimate, including training materials. For remote onboarding best practices, the welcome package should include any physical resources they need, such as laptops. Ease the burden for new hires by integrating low-code or no-code tools, such as drag-and-drop HR workflow software, to automate onboarding processes. Develop contingency plans for employees with unreliable internet access, such as covering the cost of a coworking space.
Outline an Onboarding Communication Plan
Phase in responsibilities over a period of six weeks to three months to give new hires time to get their sea legs, so they feel more confident in their work and more positive about the job. Last but not least is making sure all the trainings get scheduled so nothing falls through the cracks. Remote workers need to be as well prepared as possible, since they are working solo and their access to prompt assistance is more limited than in a traditional office setting. Other meetings will include discussions about personality types, management style, and the new employee’s personal interests—conversations to keep building trust and a solid relationship.
- Start by carefully evaluating your existing onboarding sequence and identifying the value of each component.
- Especially in a remote setting, a specific buddy can help a new employee feel welcome.
- 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.
- Effective communication channels then turn such uncertainty into clear understanding, making your new hire more productive, quicker.
- The new worker is at that point “on board” with the company and its mission and goals.
- It’s to be expected that a remote workplace has different norms and culture as opposed to a typical in-office one.
As your organisation grows and potentially embraces hybrid working practices, you may need to dramatically scale your remote onboarding. Ensure that new employees feel positive, and show them that they are on your mind. This promotes enthusiasm and good vibes among new hires and inspires them to give their best right from the start. Before onboarding begins, or during the early phases, employees should feel engaged. For that reason, members of your team should reach out to new employees to help them feel included.
Remote onboarding: best practices and checklist
Being an expert in the software will eliminate additional friction points during an already stressful time for new employees. Also, have a fail-safe in place in case technical issues arise during the onboarding process. It can be as simple as sharing phone numbers amongst team members as an alternate line of communication. Once you’ve determined the purpose of each onboarding exercise, carefully rework your plan with those values in mind and identify the tools you need to support them.
When starting a new job, virtual team-building activities are a great way to help remote workers get to know their colleagues and feel like part of the team. Onboarding is the perfect time to open communication channels between managers and employees so they can begin to build a trusting relationship. Open, honest communication is important for any manager-employee relationship but is especially crucial in a remote setting. Regular check-ins help managers get to know their new hires better and answer their questions about the role, company processes, and expectations. Managers who provide ongoing, constructive feedback help new hires get acclimated and on the path to their goals and objectives. Feedback is also a great way to provide positive reinforcement and recognize a job done well.
Free Resource: The Definitive Guide to Onboarding
One of the key differences between remote and in-person onboarding is visibility. Meaning that, for extended periods of time, a new employee may find themselves alone in their role. What this could mean is that you may want to design a remote onboarding process that stretches over a longer period of time.
This can lead to them feeling isolated, which may have a negative effect on building a strong connection with your company. Having a mentor may help in such situations, as could having regular video calls for team members to get to know each other. Training is more likely to cover specific tasks of the job including technicalities, whereas onboarding is about integrating with the team, managers and corporate culture. But just because new hires aren’t meeting face-to-face doesn’t mean you can’t — or shouldn’t — facilitate opportunities for human connection.
CPD Online College
Orientation is usually to welcome a group of new employees into an organisation, helping them to learn about the company vision, mission, history and culture. It can also include filling in paperwork and learning about codes of conduct and safety policies. It can be challenging to build an emotional connection with a new team when you have never physically met them. Encouraging informal moments should be a priority in the hope of building a strong team culture. Working remotely in general can easily become an isolating and lonely experience.
