8 Best Practices for Onboarding Remote Employees

By addressing these early on, you can help them feel more comfortable in their role and prevent any potential problems down the road. Make them feel like they’re part of the team by showing them around and introducing them to everyone they’ll be working with, even if it’s just virtually. Always make an effort to have your camera on to create a warm face to face feeling when giving the tour. If your company has a physical office, give your new employee a virtual tour so they can see where their team members work and what the space looks like. If you don’t have an office, you can still give them a tour of your company’s website, intranet, or social media channels. One way to begin creating social connections for new remote team members is to have them added to a chat channel.

Connect and share ideas at events

1. As we said earlier, this day should be about creating a memorable, positive experience for new hires to look back on.
2. According to Talent Board data, only 26% of job candidates were asked for feedback before their first day.
3. Having a dedicated space also makes it easy for you to keep track of your new employee’s progress.
4. Instead of relying on icebreakers and dreaded silence, set the team up to have real conversations right away by establishing a baseline pool of topics that everyone can discuss.
5. Most importantly, other employees need to know them, especially when joining different departments and teams.

HR should create processes that ensure that remote employees receive all necessary equipment ahead of their first day, along with other resources related to software, permissions and logins. Ideally, your onboarding process also includes scheduled time with the IT department to walk through their tech setup and answer pressing questions. While it makes sense for those who employ remote employees, some companies with in-office arrangements also do virtual onboarding because it has several benefits.

1. Flexible working arrangements have become increasingly popular, with remote work emerging as a leading option for employees seeking greater work-life balance.
2. In this in-depth guide, you’ll learn actionable tips for improving new hire paperwork, assigning onboarding tasks, facilitating personal connections, and more.
3. As soon as they become fully remote, it can be more difficult for them to gain access to certain files, sign documents, complete their training and get timely answers.
4. Many onboarding activities can be done on a smartphone, the device most new hires already have.
5. From contract signing to training, remind the employees that you are happy they are now part of the company.

A New Way to ManageFrontline Workers and Remote Teams

A remote onboarding buddy, usually an existing employee who is not the new hire’s line manager, can help keep them up to speed with the next steps. They can also answer questions and make the transition less stressful for the new employee. Identity verification, for instance, can be made more difficult if you can’t meet the new hire in person.

Building a Tactical HR Capability: Actions for HR Leaders

I didn’t know what version control was, let alone what a server was or how to run code on one. I spent my nights furiously googling, terrified remote onboarding best practices that I would disappoint everyone by not being a fully productive team member from day one. Since then, I’ve been on a mission to help create a positive and smooth onboarding process for as many people as I can—whether it’s their first day at a new company, or their first day as an engineer.

Wherever your team is working from, you can make these principles part of your team’s experience from day one. As you may find it challenging to conduct background checks on remote employees, consider partnering with a third party platform that can automate the process. Veremark’s screening system can be easily integrated into your existing workflow, meaning you can combine relevant data that help you make a stronger hiring decision and get more in-depth insights into your new hires. Schedule coffee breaks during training sessions, initiate small talks in between orientation, and arrange after-work drinks virtually to get to know the employees behind the screen. Because they are working elsewhere, remote employees may feel disengaged during the onboarding.

You need to regularly follow up for at least the first few weeks to ensure the new hires have a good grasp of what was imparted during onboarding. If they haven’t, you need to ensure that they do and then identify how you can improve your existing orientation program. These reviews are vital to avoid future mistakes and make the onboarding process more effective. Without documentation, you won’t have a frame of reference for future onboarding. You need an automated documentation tool that ensures seamless documentation of every step of the onboarding process. Besides, it will be much easier to share your training manuals, guidelines, SOPs, etc., with the help of a documentation tool.

We will show you how to build a knowledge base (public or private) in minutes. A core part of being productive is to offer as much information and resources needed to empower new inductees and direct them to success. Make your new employees aware of key projects and strategies on a holistic level and have an open discussion around suggestions and recommendations to have them involved. Here are some fundamentals to guide you in developing your own comprehensive checklist so that nothing falls through the cracks when onboarding a new hire.

Consistency is key during this time, and making sure new employees have access to company tools, protocols and resources places them in a position for success, she said. “The buddy is the new team member’s point person throughout the onboarding process,” said Christina Ioannou, vice president of HR at Lewis. “The buddy is available for all the ‘silly’ questions, to fill them in on office happenings and add them to the office social channels.” A unified onboarding platform can make virtual onboarding less daunting for new employees by simplifying the experience. Outside of technical know-how, buddies play an essential role in helping new hires understand communication expectations, company social norms, and team dynamics. It’s less anxiety-inducing if the new employee has adequate time to familiarise themselves with the equipment, workflow system, and online platforms they need to use.

As a best practice, group onboarding allows new hires to know each other quickly. Additionally, it’s less agitating than one-on-one encounters, which some employees might not be comfortable with. If you can’t onboard in groups, you can schedule a conference or group session and invite all employees who joined you in the past three months. While it might not be possible to provide all these essentials, you have to ensure they have access to the necessary tools for completing their work effectively. You need to ensure new hires have everything they need to complete their work.

Create a process for introducing the mentor to the new hire as the go-to person for any questions or issues. Not only can technology help employees onboard faster, it should also be accessible to them before their first official day. Employees have enough information to absorb on day one without having to worry about missing hardware or finding logins. Gallup research reveals that employees who work exclusively remote or hybrid tend to have higher levels of engagement (37% engaged in both groups) than those who work solely on-site (29% engaged). Onboarding employees is a crucial opportunity for employers to make a good impression. How employees are welcomed will influence their engagement, enthusiasm, productivity and, ultimately, whether they choose to stay or look for another job.

“Having employees acknowledge and consent to the use of electronic signatures is prudent,” she said. The HR team can finish most of the rote tasks during the preboarding process. Even new hires in top managerial roles and with years of experience can find this new work reality challenging. Most importantly, you need to provide them with the channels for asking questions or finding the information they need.

This can help them form new relationships across the enterprise, share a sense of belonging in the workplace, and feel free to voice their opinions and share ideas in forums with a large number of participants. Since you won’t be working with remote employees face-to-face, you’ll need to take other measures to help make sure they don’t succumb to burnout and chronic stress. Ask new hires to schedule individual one-on-one meetings with their coworkers so they can get to know each other better, even if they work in different time zones. These introductory one-on-one meetings shouldn’t be limited to the immediate team. The introduction should include some background information, such as name/role/location, but also some more personal details, like hobbies and interests. This will make it easier for employees with similar interests to reach out and virtually connect.