How to Set Up a Remote Employee for Success on Day One

When it comes to getting new employee onboarding right, the stakes are higher than ever. Employees are most open to absorbing new ideas and information during the onboarding process. Effective onboarding aims to convince employees that sustained efforts over the long term can help them reap career jumps and financial rewards at your company. It prepares employees to fully commit to performing well and exceeding expectations.

best practices for onboarding remote employees

Create a detailed onboarding schedule that covers all aspects of the job, including training, orientation and feedback. Ensure continual relevant communications with the new hires during the onboarding process. https://remotemode.net/blog/10-best-remote-onboarding-practices-to-adopt/ Involve other employees, managers, supervisors and even senior leaders in onboarding to help new hires feel valued and supported. As expected, new hires usually have much to take in during their first days.

Remote Onboarding Best Practices

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. Onboarding remote employees for cybersecurity means not just reciting the company’s security policies, but implementing online training and putting controls in place to ensure that those processes are being https://remotemode.net/ followed. Important steps here usually include applying two-factor (2FA) identification, requiring password resets at regular intervals and only allowing employee access through a VPN. That’s why proper remote employee onboarding is essential for new hires to successfully navigate their new role, team, and company, so they can fully adjust and thrive.

  • It’s an ongoing process that requires weekly, monthly or quarterly check-ins.
  • You should, therefore, make them feel comfortable by establishing personal connections.
  • HR managers can set up regular training sessions or workshops that help employees develop the skills they need to excel in their job.
  • Regular check-ins with new employees allow you to assess the effectiveness of your remote onboarding process, in addition to making sure that the employee is progressing as expected.

Companies with an effective remote onboarding best practices plan are likely to increase revenue growth and profit margin by 2.5 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively. Keep in mind, disconnection and isolation are some of the key challenges that new remote hires experience. Therefore, a comprehensive and successful remote onboarding plan should include measures for addressing such issues to create a sense of belonging and integration in new hires. In traditional employee onboarding processes, new hires are usually shown around the office and introduced to other employees. This allows them to create first-time connections as well as get familiar with the office environment. Not all managers are used to working with and onboarding remote employees.

Explain the company culture and how work gets done.

Understanding these pros and cons of remote work and how they can impact your culture can help you strategically develop your remote culture. Clarifying how, when, and where your team will work can improve efficiency, keep everyone aligned, and prevent conflict from the start. Clarify early on how your team will communicate and the best channels for different types of work and topics (e.g., performance reviews vs. project updates). Upwork’s Future of Workforce Pulse Report estimates that by 2025, 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely, an 87% increase from pre-pandemic levels. [Employee’s name] brings a lot to our team, [talk about experience and qualifications here].

best practices for onboarding remote employees

Remember, the outcome of any successful remote onboarding process should be to make the new employee feel like they are part of the team. If you want to compete for the top talent, then your company needs to offer remote working options. Not everyone will want to work remotely forever and full time, but offering the option is key to attracting and retaining employees. This means that you can’t view a remote onboarding process as a temporary option, something that you can cobble together while you wait to return to normal. Instead of trying to run the whole process manually, use your HR software to create an employee onboarding checklist and template that you can customize for different departments and roles. That way, you won’t have to start from scratch every time you virtually onboard a new employee, and you can ensure you’ve covered all the bases.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Besides addressing any potential issues as they arise, you are also likely to get a much clearer idea of where you can improve. New hires will be learning multiple things on the go during the onboarding process, and it’s good practice to give them some leeway early on. It’s no secret that a great onboarding process forms a healthy foundation to build relationships with new employees. To create courses, you can use iSpring Suite Max, which we mentioned when talking about organizational structure. The first step you can take is to create a quick reference guide that explains which tools your company uses and how to get started with them quickly. Many common practices can be applied directly to remote employees, but some become more important than others when you’re working with remote staff.

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For example, someone from HR or even the Director of their department should also touch base. It’s also important to explain your organization’s communication etiquette, such as the best channel to ask questions through, or when it’s better to send an email instead of an instant message. Assigning an individual whom the new employee can go to with questions about the culture can be especially effective.

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Estimate the time it takes to fill out all your paperwork, and provide a reasonable amount to compensate them on their first paycheck. You need to regularly review and update the process while taking your employees’ feedback into account. Some researchers recommend extending the onboarding process to at least a year. They argue that this can improve employee retention and make new hires feel more comfortable and valued.

  • When you start the onboarding process before their first day, new employees can effectively familiarize themselves with the tool and other project management or communication software.
  • Scheduling virtual coffee breaks or team lunches is a great way for them to get to know each other.
  • These instruments serve as a means to pinpoint specific areas where improvements can be made within the remote onboarding program.
  • Effective onboarding programs set clear expectations for new hires in terms of both their starting role at the company and their opportunities for growth and advancement.
  • It can also go a long way toward building strong relationships right out of the gate.
  • Like other employee resources, you should also ensure the statement is accessible to remote teams.
  • From managing their sales, human resources, and facilities, businesses are leveraging technology such as facility management software to digitize their processes.