As more companies switch to remote work, employers need to embrace the best onboarding practices to enhance new hires’ experience. Alignment involves updating various tools and processes to ensure seamless onboarding, as the process of training a new employee is known.
Onboarding new employees remotely changes the entire experience for both sides. Hence, the company’s approach to onboarding new hires makes a significant difference. A recent national Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) survey revealed that more than 30 percent of employees found onboarding more challenging since the pandemic started.
This reality compels companies to adopt viable policies and approaches to resolve remote onboarding challenges. Resolving these issues is critical, given that the remote work trend will continue into the foreseeable future.
Remote Onboarding Best Practices
Onboarding remote employees involves a relatively different process than the traditional procedure. When handled appropriately, the virtual process helps new employees feel a sense of belonging. Thus, schedule several virtual meetings to ensure effective communication. Interactive seminars and training courses help familiarize themselves with organizational processes.
Invest in the Right Technology
The first step to ensuring a smooth onboarding process is to invest in the right technologies, such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. These tools provide a reliable and secure connection when conducting training and interactive seminars. They provide chat and video meeting functionality to suit your organization’s needs. However, you should ensure that the new hires know how to use these communication tools.
Set Onboarding Goals
Unlike in-person onboarding processes, virtual introductions require more than just a warm welcome. You need to create a comprehensive list of objectives and procedures to enhance the new employee’s experience. Onboarding virtually may make some individuals feel uncomfortable about asking questions. Thus, share the onboarding plan before the scheduled video call. In doing so, you ensure that the new team member knows what to expect.
Host Virtual Introductions
Hosting a meeting between new hires and the rest of the team helps new members feel welcome and breaks feelings of isolation. Scheduling the video calls allows you to explain the team structure and generate enthusiasm. In the end, the entire team gets a sense of shared goals.
Help the new staff members remember people’s names easily by providing resources to refresh their memory. One way is to present them with a document listing the team members’ names (including photos), contact details, and position in the company. The document can also outline the organizational structure. Update the resource regularly to ensure accuracy.
Meeting people via video call makes it difficult to remember the names of team members. The process can be overwhelming.
Integrate Company Traditions
If your company has long-standing traditions that enrich the onboarding process, find ways to integrate them into interactive seminars and virtual training sessions. For instance, you can give new hires gift cards to local eateries if your company provides complimentary lunches on specific days. Likewise, you can host happy hours via video conferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams.
Assess Employees’ Feedback
Once the new hires complete the onboarding process, ask them for feedback. You can achieve this objective by asking the new team members to complete a short survey. In the survey, they can highlight likes and dislikes about various aspects of the onboarding procedures. In addition, encourage the employees to share ideas on how to improve remote onboarding.
Schedule Ongoing Check-Ins
Regularly checking in with the new staff members allows you to identify any issues and resolve them. Doing so ensures that the new hires feel connected to the onboarding process. Also, pair new team members with carefully selected mentors. This approach allows the new remote staff to avoid feeling isolated.
Custom Computer Specialists is proud to sponsor Spotlight LI. Since 1979, Custom has been dedicated to providing Long Island’s schools, local government agencies, healthcare facilities and businesses with advanced technology solutions and support. To learn more about Custom Computer, or to be considered for a future Spotlight LI, please email info@customtech.com.
