5 tips for remote onboarding
The move to remote work has been a long and winding path for workers worldwide.
Remote work is the future of work.
Fortunately, I had been working remotely for three years before the pandemic, and in this post, I’d like to share some of the best practices I’ve seen in the remote onboarding phase.
Onboarding is tough enough, but remote onboarding has made it much more difficult. For their first day, no one will greet them personally, and they will not have a coworker seated next to them in the workplace. They won’t be around to meet their supervisor in person and will have to handle IT processes and other business apps on their own, albeit in the comfort of their own home and possibly comfy clothes.
HR departments worldwide are also figuring out how to better onboard new hires when they can’t be there to answer questions and calm their nerves. During the onboarding process, it’s important to make new employees feel at ease right away. According to studies, if an employee has a positive onboarding experience, they are more likely to stick with the company long term.
Remote hires will find it difficult to adapt to the company culture and gain a comprehensive understanding of the mission, values, and product knowledge they’ll need to do their jobs well. Team building is already challenging due to the lack of opportunities to meet in person, but there are ways to prevent new hire isolation.
This post will go through some tips for managers & HR to use during the remote onboarding period to ensure that new employees have a seamless transition into their new positions.
1. Prepare a welcome package
Consider putting together a welcome packet sent to new remote workers. New workers should receive the welcome packet before their first onboarding session.
The welcome packet aims to provide new workers with the general knowledge that will be useful in their first few days and months at the company. Making a video that welcomes new hires to the company can be a perfect way to give them a feeling of instant belonging.
Incorporate the welcome video into one of the onboarding process’s early stages. Make most of your training videos through training webinars, where you can deliver pre-recorded or live training to your remote employees.
ArcLab’s proprietary platform is ideal for remote onboarding, particularly for workers who are deskless or using a mobile. You can leverage nano learning modules to provide bite-size learning content, which is 5–7 minutes long and include videos and short quizzes to reinforce understanding.
2. Establish clear goals from the start
You give new employee the best chance of success by spelling out their expectations before their first day. They won’t be left in the dark and won’t have to ask too many questions if they have a good picture of their roles and what’s expected of them.
The most effective way to do this is to create a schedule for and new employee that includes time for training, assessments, and check-ins. Openly discuss business principles, new tasks they’ll be working on, team priorities, and personal ambitions.
Your top priority is to ensure that new hires know their roles and the tools/software/applications they’ll need to complete their tasks. Allow time for the IT team to set up their technology and answer any questions. Finally, provide them with the complete documentation of their onboarding process to relate to it during their first few weeks on the job.
3. Assign a buddy/mentor
A typical first day for a recruit will include a workplace tour, introductions to coworkers, and a series of in-person orientation sessions. Since all of this is temporary, it’s important to focus on establishing connections between new hires and their virtual teams.
Consider assigning a buddy to each new hire to chat as they adapt to their new job. They can ask them any questions they don’t want to ask the Slack community. This buddy can be a mentor, a team member, or a volunteer who has already been through the onboarding process. The aim is to connect new workers with someone who can help them get a head start in their new role.
Making early connections is an important part of a person’s first few weeks at a new company. Encourage team members to schedule introductory meetings with new hires so that everyone can establish a good relationship right away and feel less lonely.
4. Include collaborative learning
Ensure that the remote workers have plenty of chances to learn from one another. This is particularly important during the onboarding phase because it provides another way to promote a positive team-oriented culture, even if workers do not work in the same place.
If you manage a team, specifically, ask each team member to set up a video call with the new remote employee. They should take advantage of this opportunity to welcome the new employee to the team and clarify their duties. Another way to foster a remote-friendly community is to treat all workers equally and fairly, regardless of whether they work on-site or remotely.
5. Make engagement happen
A good mindset and strong relationships open the doors to promotion in the workplace. Working remotely has the downside of making it more difficult to highlight professional accomplishments. Employees will need to put in extra effort in 2021 to increase their virtual participation to access new opportunities. Employee engagement is much more difficult to convey and describe in a remote setting where employees interact primarily via email. Employees who work from home will stand out as leaders by attending virtual gatherings, engaging in online meetings, and maintaining a high enthusiasm level.
Make sure they have access to the same benefits as on-site workers. For example, if the organization provides subsidized gym memberships to employees, offer that to remote employees.
Although both on-site and off-site staff can be members of the same team, they do not all have the same level of experience working for the same company.
Build a remote-friendly environment that makes everyone feel included, regardless of where they work, for the company to be effective in onboarding permanently remote employees.
ArcLab Mobile learning solves training needs, offering remote training via our proprietary SaaS platform or a blended approach integrated with your current L&D framework. You can further learn more about how Nano Learning can improve your organisation's work performance. Try our learning module and receive a copy of our Nano Learning playbook.
Ephraim, the author, has over ten years of experience in B2B consultative and solution sales. He is a technology enthusiast for SaaS solutions and cloud-based software. His personal motto is to embrace technology, challenge himself, learn new things, and step outside of his comfort zone to try new things. Here’s where you can learn more about him.
