Over many years, an employee’s role in your organization can evolve and become more prominent. Another great idea to help new hires understand your company culture is to designate a culture onboarding buddy. To help new hires build a broader network, consider involving them in larger group discussions. You can also set up a “shadow week” that involves attending stakeholder meetings and group discussions.

But, passive onboarding, which we will address with some specific measures later in this article, may stretch months (maybe even six months into their tenure). There’s no getting around it—communication is different when workers are remote. For many new hires, remote communication at a new company can be daunting because they can’t just stop by your desk with a question. Instead, they often have to navigate a sea of communication tools like email, messaging, video calls, and more.

Useful Tips for Effective Remote Onboarding

It might seem like a lot of work, but you will use it for multiple employees in the future, so it’s worth the trouble. The more you prepare for an upcoming employee, the smoother the onboarding process will be, making you and your firm look professional. It can also be the channels these employees need to join or the meetings they must attend. By giving them a charge, the professionals become more dedicated to their tasks assigned and take the initiative from the get-go. However, if you see them suffering, you can always lend them a hand with the process. When working remotely, especially when just starting out, it’s better to overcommunicate than under-communicate.

Despite the primarily accepted change in the industry, several organizations are facing complications with the onboarding process, which is entirely understandable. Creating a strong company culture means giving your team opportunities to connect outside of a traditional work environment. In the office, this might mean catered lunches or company-wide happy hours or events. When you’re all working in an office, it’s easy to check in with a new hire to see how they’re doing.

Consider Implementing a Mentorship and Buddy System

Remote onboarding can also be automated, which benefits employees by ensuring that no crucial steps are missed. Face-to-face meetings are crucial to encouraging employee engagement and a building sense of community https://remotemode.net/ in your workplace. Usually, remote onboarding plans last for at least a month but could stretch to three months or more, depending on the complexity of the new hire’s role and the results they achieve.

• A remote onboarding checklist will help employees accomplish tasks during their first weeks without the need to reach out to you every five minutes.
• Imagine having a poor virtual onboarding process in the job you were once excited to start.
• Johnson stresses that it’s vital to provide ongoing support and feedback to ensure their success.
• Before we get into recommendations on which tools to use, let’s look at the different types of onboarding and their benefits.
• However, good organization and strategic use of technologies, such as robotic process automation (RPA) and autofill forms, can trim down the time needed to complete the steps.
• Additionally, remote employees are often subject to different labor laws based on their home location, which can cause surprises for unaware compliance teams.
• However, video conferencing platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams bridge this gap, allowing for more intimate face-to-face exchanges, making introductions warmer and team meetings more personal.

“New hire paperwork should be launched the moment the employee signs the offer,” she said. “We send offer letters out through our HRIS system, which, once e-signed, triggers the onboarding and background check process.” Assigning an individual whom the new employee can go to with questions about the culture can be especially effective. The buddy might debrief after an important group discussion, flagging to the new employee on actions that aren’t in line with the culture or how his or her style may be perceived by others. When integrated with single sign-on, remote access can be more secure and streamlined, but only if your remote access solution integrates with your SSO provider.

Deliver their equipment on time

Companies rely on organic ways to communicate this culture to new hires in an in person work environment. It’s best to send new employees electronic assets like laptops or phones well before their start date. Ensuring these devices are fully set up for remote work with the right company configurations can make your new hires more comfortable. E-signing helps streamline onboarding, whether remote or in person, but it’s especially important for remote onboarding as a way to cut digital fatigue. A unified onboarding platform can make virtual onboarding less daunting for new employees by simplifying the experience. Addressing any challenges that come up can quickly become time-consuming for both employees and the organization.

Digital handbooks, be it in the form of e-books or interactive PDFs, ensure that every policy, every cultural nuance, and every procedural detail is but a click away, making reference swift and hassle-free. As part of your onboarding checklist, have managers establish a regular check-in cadence with new hires. They may choose to check in multiple times per week initially, tapering off to once a week or every two weeks after the new hire is established. There will always be a gap between a new hire’s start date and when they reach peak productivity, but measuring that timespan can get complicated in remote work. Make sure you’re using a task-management system or other software to help managers view what new hires are working on and where they might be struggling with tasks. A company’s existing culture is a major driving force for its reputation in the industry.

To new employees, this communicates to them how much they are appreciated, which in turn leaves a positive impression during the onboarding process. Before onboarding begins, or during the early phases, employees should feel engaged. remote onboarding best practices For that reason, members of your team should reach out to new employees to help them feel included. At Livestorm, we recommend a six to eight-week period to cover all four phases of onboarding, including pre-boarding and reviews.