Onboarding new employees when you’re all working from home

Every company can’t afford to completely close down its hiring plans, and for a few industries, hiring is absolutely essential right now during this pandemic time. Welcoming your new hires in person definitely makes it easy to answer numerous questions, meet all team members, and get an idea of how they will interact with each other. But right now the leaders and the new hires they put on board will have a new normal, as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced several employees to work from home.

Earlier remote hires who lived in different locations and even time zones did not often have the advantage of in-person meetings, and now most of the new hires will face similar disadvantages. Virtual recruiting and onboarding is a new approach practiced. It may be difficult for remote workers to blend into the company’s culture and gain official and non-official knowledge about how things are done at the company. Especially if your new remote employee isn’t used to a remote environment.

6 useful tips for achieving a Successful Remote Employee Onboarding:

1. More Digitalization

With the help of today’s existing digital tools, employers can make it possible for new hires to educate themselves more about the company and complete a few specific tasks before their opening day.

2. Think beyond your own team

Online ‘Meet n’ Greet’ opportunities with colleagues in other teams and different parts of the organization help build meaningful relationships and guide new hires with a better understanding of how the company functions.

3. Use of social media

Exhibit your company culture on social platforms and persuade new hires to read new and old posts to familiarize themselves better.

4. Set Expectations

Clearly communicate your requirements and expectations from the new employees before their first day. You should also set up proper time frames for training, job reviews, and milestones.

5. Make New Workers Feel Welcomed

Working remotely can be a challenge for those accustomed to a traditional shared workspace, so you have to go out of your way to make sure new virtual hires feel comfortable enough to share their thoughts. Remote employees must feel a connection with their company to be more motivated to make a positive impression.

6. Refine the Onboarding Process

For every new process that you implement, you must review its impact and also results.

Evaluate and appraise how the existing and new employees react to the onboarding process. Find out what’s suitable for onboarding remote workers by consulting those who’ve had similar experiences. By constantly evaluating and improvising the onboarding process, you can help remote workers amend to their new roles effortlessly.

Onboarding any new hire is vitally important, but remote hires come up with special challenges and opportunities in building your team. The primary step has to be making them aware of and comfy with social and professional expectations. Try to make them feel welcome, and follow up by gathering the right feedback for evaluation and filtering your onboarding process.

Creative Social Intranet’s Onboarding software helps you digitalize the onboarding process along with social engagement and also employee motivation features.