5 Strategies to Successfully Hire and Onboard Virtually

The team at Idea Booth has been lucky enough to not only continue working full force during the pandemic, we’ve added to our roster of clients and staff. The new employee onboarding process is never an easy one — even during normal conditions — and it’s harder during a lockdown. But we’ve made it work, and work well.

Here are five tips to help you hone your hiring and onboarding process in a remote work environment.

1. Stay the course. At a foundational level your hiring and onboarding processes shouldn’t change. You still need to write a solid job description, post it to your regular listing sites — Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and your company website — review resumes, select the top candidates, and interview. Yes, things are considerably different in the age of COVID-19, but don’t start hiring with the mindset that standard operating procedures have to completely change when all you may need are a few small tweaks.
2. Set minimum qualifications. With the economy struggling, an abnormally large portion of the population is unemployed. That means the number of applicants who apply for your job — or any job — will sky rocket. This means you’ll likely have a better pool of candidates to choose from. But it also means you’ll have a lot more resumes to review. By setting minimum qualifications, you can more easily eliminate unqualified candidates. Just make sure you clearly outline your minimum qualifications in your job description to allow candidates to eliminate themselves before applying if they are not a good fit. For example, when hiring for a recent photographer/videographer role, we knew that we wanted to view a portfolio from our future hire. When outlining our minimum qualifications, we stated that without a portfolio, applicants were not qualified. We were immediately able to eliminate anyone who applied without a portfolio of work. This significantly cut down on the number of resumes we had to review, saving us time.
3. Have an agenda. When scheduling video interviews, always have a list of standard questions to ask during the interview. By listing 4–5 questions and some ideal answers for the initial phone screen, you can screen candidates equally by asking them the same questions, and make your hiring process more efficient. You’ll know exactly what you’re looking for in a new hire, which makes it easier to see candidates who stand out. Of course, you must leave some room for improvisation. At IdeaBooth, we always leave time for free-flowing conversations. We schedule a 15-minute phone screen, but we block out 30 minutes on our internal calendars because good candidate conversations tend to go over the allotted time. That tactic works whether an interview is virtual or in person.
4. Be prepared to onboard virtually. Most candidates interviewing these days will ask some variation of, “How is your company dealing with COVID-19 and working from home?” You may already know the answer because your office has been working successfully during the shift to remote work, but be prepared to answer this question effectively. A candidate will want to know if they will be required to come into the office, what you are doing to keep your employees safe and healthy, and if there are any unforeseen challenges inherent to their work that they might be unfamiliar with. Think through your responses to these questions. Write out the plan. If you don’t have it all figured out, that’s okay. Just be transparent with the candidate, and tell them that you will work with them to determine the best onboarding plan. You’ll also want to gauge their comfort level in coming into the office for a few days if specific training is necessary that is difficult to conduct virtually.
5. Schedule meet and greets. Once your new hire starts work, set up 15–30 minute virtual meet and greets with team members who they will be working with. The purpose of the meetings is for the new hire to catch up on “water cooler” discussions they will miss out on while working from home. It allows them to get to know their team members on a non-work related level, so when our offices open back up, team members will already have a personal connection established. It also enhances communication and collaboration in the near term.

The coronavirus has shaken many traditional work processes to their core, and hiring and onboarding are no different. But with a clear plan, and a thoughtful execution of that plan, it’s entirely possible to not only find great talent — you can bring them into your organization and slide them right into your team.