14 Effective Tips For Onboarding Remote Employees

This eliminates the need to collect, store and manage paper documents and information making the process faster, more efficient and ensures complete safety of candidate data and documents. Onboarding can be a long process involving different departments, and when you do it online, you may miss some important steps. The HR Department, for instance, may be so busy with contract signing that some other crucial tasks like background checks are pushed to the side.

This will help them become even more successful in their role and feel like they’re truly part of the team. There are different ways in which you can collect feedback from your new employees. In an all-remote setting where team members are possibly working from a variety of timezones, mastering asynchronous workflows is vital to avoiding dysfunction.

Make a welcoming phone call, and ask about the devices and software they have on hand. Instead, create a schedule so new hires know what’s most important, and give them a realistic amount of time to complete tasks. Making the most of preboarding helps you focus on higher-value aspects of onboarding on the employee’s first day. Simple identity checks can be carried out in as little as a few hours but a worldwide criminal background check for instance might take several weeks. Our account managers are specialists and can provide detailed information into which checks you need and how long they will take. One great solution for this is to partner with a reliable third party like Veremark who can conduct multiple checks, including identity verification for remote hires.

Cultivating a virtual connection with new hires is essential for them to integrate easily with the rest of the team. Remote employees tend to miss meaningful collaborative and social opportunities that are integral in ensuring productivity and engagement.Providing a virtual mentor for new remote hires helps to give them a head start. While mentoring remote workers is somewhat different, it helps deliver positive and powerful effects for new employees. List down the interests and values you expect from employees and explain how the company supports those values. Like other employee resources, you should also ensure the statement is accessible to remote teams. When you can onboard with a cohort, you give your employees someone else to lean on.

1. That flexibility is unique to the all-remote environment, as those who prefer a self-guided experience are typically forced into a very social onboarding at colocated companies.
2. When an employee is in the office regularly, their colleagues, managers, and even HR can gauge their emotional state and respond in real-time with the right support.
3. For example, specify that employees should use email for client communication and formal internal updates, Slack for day-to-day discussions with colleagues, etc.
4. Similarly, your new hires have a sense of fear on their first day of work.
5. If they are assembling their equipment, make sure the equipment arrives on time and provide them with clear instructions together with the name of the person they can contact should they encounter any concerns.
6. This guide should also set expectations around when and how to let colleagues know about any impending out-of-office time.

Don’t let your message fade

You can also ask them to turn on their video during conference meetings to make them settle in properly so you become aware of their onboarding experience. Since employees are not able to meet face to face, online meetings and daily communication are essential in team building and creating healthy remote team relationships. The COVID-19 global outbreak means that many businesses are shifting to online onboarding practices.

1. With the right tools and strategies, remote onboarding can be smooth, engaging, and successful.
2. Onboarding challenges have increased in magnitude with the onset of remote and hybrid work environments brought about by the pandemic.
3. Just because onboarding has shifted to a remote environment, doesn’t mean the quality has to suffer.
4. Onboarding through documentation is more efficient because it’s scalable, repeatable, and instills the basics of asynchronous work.
5. 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.

IT Glue features an immutable audit trail, multifactor authentication and next-generation password management engine — all of which are fully integrated and linked with all your documentation. To combat this loneliness, some employers add all new employees to a Slack channel where they provide new hire instructional materials and then encourage collaboration amongst new hires to complete the tasks. Others assign either a mentor or a peer “orientation buddy” who they can go to with any questions and grow and learn together.

Create a Comprehensive Onboarding Experience

Pick out a “mentor” for virtual onboarding programs that’s close to their specific time zone that your remote employee can go to for any pressing questions, concerns, or worries in those hours when you may be offline. The beauty of an all-remote setting is that onboarding can be as high-touch or low-touch as a new hire wishes. Those who prefer visual learning can engage in a series of video calls and screen share sessions to walk through each element of their onboarding issue. Those who prefer more self-learning can benefit from thorough documentation and readily-available resources for self-guided learning. Remote onboarding relies heavily on documentation, anticipating the needs of new team members, and a dedication to continuously improving the process based on feedback. If a new hire is used to working in a traditional office, adjusting to the remote work lifestyle might be a challenge.

Online training software

GitLab’s #new_team_members Slack channel is a place for people to introduce themselves with photos and information about themselves and their interests. Onboarding is the official process of integrating new team members into an organization. Remote onboarding is done via technology without any face-to-face interactions. Flexible working arrangements have become increasingly popular, with remote work emerging as a leading option for employees seeking greater work-life balance. This flexible working model allows employees to work some or all of their time from home or another non-traditional workspace.

It’s critical to invest the time to do it well so that your new team members get to know you, understand what is expected of them, introduces them to co-workers and teammates, and sets them up to succeed. On this page, we’re detailing how to successfully onboard new hires in a remote environment. Over the long term, while a role can evolve, adapt, and become more complex and ambiguous, having clarity from the start will create a foundation from which the individual can more readily adapt. In the post-pandemic job market, remote work has emerged as a vital tool to attract and retain top talent. Companies need to adapt to the new working landscape, and offering a remote work option remote onboarding best practices can be a deciding factor for potential employees.

“As onboarding for many jobs has now moved to be virtual, these challenges can be compounded by the realities of remote work.” Remote onboarding is onboarding that is conducted entirely through technology instead of in person. As you build purposeful solutions to tackle the challenges of remote onboarding, remember that the core of high-performing teams is trust, psychological safety, and collaboration.

Not only will you make them feel like a valued member of the business, but this email will help their colleagues get to know them a little better. To help, we gathered five expert tips for onboarding remote employees to help you to create a meaningful and beneficial experience for your remote workers. Several tools and technologies can help make the onboarding process easier for you and your new employee. For example, video conferencing software like Skype or Zoom can be used for virtual training and tours.

Similarly, your new hires have a sense of fear on their first day of work. In this case, “you’re” that “someone” who needs to help them settle in. Onboarding is a pivotal moment for your employees to feel included starting from day 1. Now imagine if this process had to be done for remote employees instead of in-person hires. An obvious and easy-to-implement digitization tool is the HRIS (Human Resources Information System), a software adapted to your company’s needs that offers a tool to manage remote onboarding easily.

In just one email, they can have their employee handbook, salary package, role-specific guidelines, organisational chart, etc. And since remote employees need to sift through these documents on their own, they may be overwhelmed. Welcome new hires warmly with a video call congratulating them for being a part of the company.