Did you know?
A great onboarding experience ensures 69% of employees stick with a company for three years. (Source: SHRM)
Yes, you read that correctly. The onboarding experience of employees plays a very important role in their decision to stick around for a longer time. Not to mention, it also affects their productivity and performance.
But with the pandemic, the whole onboarding process has become way trickier. Unlike before, it needs to be done virtually which can be a little intimidating for new hires or employees who are new to remote work. Plus, it is difficult for new hires to adapt to a company’s culture if they only know their teammates through a computer screen.
If your company is facing the same problem, we got you covered.
After operating as a remote company for almost 2 years, we have accumulated a foolproof plan for successfully onboarding new employees.
Follow these tips to implement a successful remote onboarding plan in your company.
# Tip 1: Start early with pre-boarding
Have you ever wondered why it is recommended to arrive at least 90 minutes early for your flight?
Arriving early gives you the time to check in your baggage, collect boarding passes, and have a cup of coffee (bonus point) without any hustle. Similarly, starting early with pre-boarding helps new remote employees to have a smooth first day.
It helps them to get familiar with the company’s culture, their responsibilities, their digital workplace, among other things.
Follow these practices for pre-boarding new hires:
- 1. Appoint an onboarding mentor: Make sure you appoint a mentor for your new hires. This will allow them to clear any doubts related to their role or their responsibilities before the first day.
- 2. Send a welcome kit: Once a candidate accepts the job offer, send him a welcome kit filled with the company’s product and a warm note from his new team members. This will make him feel connected to both the company and his new team.
- 3. Fix an appointment with your IT team: Offering an interaction with your IT team helps the new employee to get familiar with the different video conferencing platforms, and communication channels used by his team.
A company can also share all the access information required to set up a digital workplace a day before the employee’s first day. This will help minimize any technical issues and avoid first-day anxiety.
# Tip 2: Make collaboration your priority
You must have heard this quote numerous times but do you know how much importance communication holds for a successful remote employee onboarding?
With no opportunity to collaborate between breaks or at water coolers, it becomes difficult for new employees to get acquainted with their team members. This makes them feel out of place and less motivated to stay.
Follow these practices to close the collaboration gap:
- 1. Arrange introductory call: Whenever a new employee joins, schedule an introductory meeting with his team members. This will allow them to introduce themselves to other employees and recognize team dynamics.
- 2. Encourage team members to connect with the new employee: Oftentimes a new employee gets confused and overwhelmed by all the new information and talking with an old employee can help in clearing out things. To do so, encourage your new hire and their teammates to involve in conversations about the rules, responsibilities, business objectives, and other informal interactions over breaks.
# Tip 3: Set clear expectations
Not setting clear expectations with new hires often ends with them leaving the company or low productivity.
Follow these practices to avoid similar situations:
- 1. Share all the details during the interview process: Ask your hiring manager to share what the company expects from the candidate. This will allow the candidate to understand his role and responsibilities before joining the company.
- 2. Don’t put too much pressure on their first day: Give the new hires some time to get acquainted with the existing workflow instead of swamping them with different tasks. Use a time tracking tool
to track their daily progress and areas for improvement.
# Tip 4: Seek regular feedback
Working on remote employees’ onboarding plans by yourself isn’t enough to make it successful. Be sure to check in with your new hires about their onboarding experience and try to understand what’s working and what needs improvement.
Follow these practices to improve your onboarding process:
- 1. One-on-one meeting: Ask team managers to arrange one-on-one meetings with new employees where they can share their feedback and provide suggestions for improving the onboarding process.
- 2. Give out feedback forms: Ask the new hires to fill out feedback forms and record their level of satisfaction with the current onboarding process.
The above-mentioned tips are all you need to build yourself a successful remote onboarding plan. Don’t forget that you are building a community, not just hiring another individual. Try to foster human connections as it will help your company in the long run.