With the massive growth of work from home, onboarding is crucial in welcoming new employees
Hiring is only half of the equation when building a remote team. The other half is increasing the likelihood that new team members will stay and setting them up for success through remote onboarding.
On someone’s first day at an office, they can be greeted in person. They’ll be shown to their desk, introduced to everyone and explained the training process. At noon, they might grab a welcome lunch with the team. This constant and intentional contact over the upcoming weeks helps them become familiarized with the company, the work and their colleagues.
Onboarding for a remote team is very different. It’s often done virtually: An in-person handshake becomes an introductory message by email and a welcome lunch becomes asynchronous greetings that might span several days across multiple time zones. Mastering remote onboarding is crucial and will ensure new team members thrive in their role.
Here are six ways to make for a smooth onboarding process out of the office:
Introduce new team members
While your team might already know that a hiring process is taking place, they may be unaware of the successful candidate. Give them a heads-up beforehand about the new hire and how their role will fit into the larger team.
Before the new report begins, ask them for a short bio about themselves to introduce them. Ask for: a few details about themselves, where they worked before, what skills they’ll bring to the team, what they’re looking forward to in their new role and a few photos of themselves.
Start a dedicated welcome thread in your communications platform. The first post can be written by the manager or people operations specialist and should include information from the person’s bio, what they’ll do in their new role and encourage everyone to give them a warm welcome. People should respond with their name, where they’re working from and what team they’re on.
Make a good first-day impression
If possible, arrange for a swag package to be sent to their home before they start. This can include items such as a T-shirt, water bottle, laptop stickers or personalized short note welcoming them to the team.
Rather than stepping into an office, the new team member should log in through the company’s team communication tool. This is their first introduction to the wider team, so ensure your team’s conversations are organized to make catching up easy. This way, new team members can go back and get up to date about what’s transpired at a company before they began.
A direct manager or someone from HR should also schedule a video call to welcome them to the team face to face. Let new hires know they’re free to ask any questions, and walk them through what their onboarding will look like and what they can expect over the next few days and weeks.
Provide a new hire checklist
Giving new hires a way to feel like they’re learning and making progress on the job is crucial. In advance, create a list of small-scale responsibilities as a warmup. Onboarding task lists should be department-specific and modified slightly for each person. There should be “foundation items” that everyone who joins should complete and then “department items” that are specific to a certain area.
Foundation items could include: articles or podcasts that describe your company’s ethos; the company’s general documentation; and access to all general software and cloud accounts used internally.
A new hire checklist helps people build momentum and confidence, but it may take a few days or weeks to finish.
Pair them with a mentor
A good practice for remote onboarding is pairing new team members with a mentor. This shouldn’t be a direct manager but someone senior on their team. A mentor is a trusted guide to help new team members navigate an unfamiliar environment and feel less isolated on a remote team.
This mentor relationship should last anywhere from the first three to six months of a new team member’s tenure. A good mentor acts as a point of contact for any questions or concerns and should regularly meet with their mentee. Once a week is a good cadence for meetings.
Extend responsibilities
Once the team member has completed a few new hire tasks, it’s time to extend true responsibility. Give them a small project that is low pressure but allows them to use their expertise and problem-solving skills. Keep these points in mind when handing over responsibility:
Provide context: Before giving out new projects, provide them with all the details about why the project is important and how it fits into the wider picture. Let them know if similar projects have been completed before and show them examples that may clarify the assignment.
Set expectations: Don’t be ambiguous about the level of quality you expect and how quickly you might want the project completed. Give specifics about what the final product might look like and provide a concrete due date.
Provide points of contact: It’s rare that a project can be completed from start to finish without input from other team members. However, new employees often don’t know the right person to contact for the right information. Provide them with context on the best people on the team to reach out to and make the introductions for them.
At a certain point during the remote onboarding process, managers need to relinquish control and provide their new reports with tangible things to do. Make this as early as possible so they truly feel trusted and part of the team. These initial responsibilities serve to build confidence and clear room for the new hire to take on more ambitious work.
Check in regularly
Stay in close communication with new employees and regularly initiate conversations with them. This establishes that they can reach out to you whenever necessary, while reducing the feeling of loneliness and isolation and building a rapport.
Ask them about how remote onboarding is going, if they’re encountering any issues in their role and whether they feel supported. Don’t always check in about work. If they’ve mentioned hobbies of interest to you, bring those up or send them interesting articles or videos about something they’ve mentioned.
During and after their remote onboarding process, request feedback so you can ultimately course correct or improve the process for the future. Let them know you would appreciate their candour in assessing their first few days, weeks or months on the team. Here are a few questions to ask to understand their experience:
- How did your first few weeks here compare to your experience at other companies?
- What could we have done better to make your transition easier?
- What parts of the onboarding process helped you understand our team better?
- So far, is this job what you expected? If not, what could we have done to communicate the role better?
- Is there anything I can do to better support you?
If they answer honestly and that feedback is critical, it’s key not to act defensively or take feedback personally. Instead, let them know you’ll work on fixing the issue and do exactly that. If their concerns are relevant to other departments such as HR or finance, make sure to share this feedback with them. If their feedback pertains to management style, leaders should seek out relevant resources to improve or consult with their peers. If their feedback relates to other members of their team, be careful and sensitive in sharing feedback in a way that doesn’t create rifts or affect morale.
Building a remote team takes careful planning and consideration. It also requires the creation of a virtual space based on trust and cultural appreciation. Sourcing talented people from across the world is one part; providing the environment they need to thrive is the other.
Fadeke Adegbuyi is the marketing manager for social media and content at Doist in Edmonton, which specializes in productivity software. For more information, visit www.doist.com.
BETTER RETENTION AMONG PERKS OF STRONG ONBOARDING EFFORTS
82%
Improvement in new hire retention with a strong onboarding program
70%
Improvement in new hire productivity with a strong onboarding program
2 in 3
Number of high-performance programs that include formal mentorship and coaching in their onboarding
33%
Number of high-performance onboarding programs that build social networking into new hire onboarding
60%
Number of employers who say the top purpose of onboarding is to integrate employees into the organization’s culture
37%
Number of employers where onboarding lasts up to a week; 24 per cent say it’s a month and 10 per cent say it’s a year
Source: Brandon Hall Group, Kronos
