5 best practice tips for onboarding remote employees
The opinions expressed by entrepreneurs contributors are their own.
Few companies pay enough attention to employee onboarding: According to a recent Gallup survey, only 12% of employees think their company does it well. And it's clear that effective onboarding is critical for both business productivity and employee retention: successful onboarding can improve employee performance by up to 15% and means an employee has nine times more likely to stay with the company.
Our organization supports businesses around the world with remote onboarding. Here I want to highlight some onboarding practices that we have found helpful both within our own team and when supporting other teams.
Related: 4 Building Blocks for a Successful Remote Employee Onboarding Process
What does remote onboarding cover?Standard employee onboarding covers all the steps that need to be taken to set up a new employee to be successful within the company. This includes introducing new hires to the team, ensuring they have the right equipment and providing training on key company policies.
In remote onboarding, the process must be applied virtually, losing the in-person element that can make it easier for employees to feel comfortable and welcome. For successful remote onboarding, we recommend the following:
1. Master the "pre-boarding""Preboarding" covers all the steps of setting up a new team member before the start of the formal employment period. This includes:
check that all contracts and additional documents (such as non-disclosure agreements) are signed
provide essential company documents and policies, such as code of conduct and health and safety policies
ensure the remote desktop is set up with everything the new employee needs to get started (e.g. company laptop sent in and accounts with all working software at necessary distance have been created).
Nailing down the pre-onboarding process ensures the employee can start gaining momentum in their new role from day one of hire.
2. Apply a culture of documentationIn a traditional office environment, it's relatively easy for new hires to approach other staff and ask how things are done. This more casual approach doesn't work in a remote work environment. Many prefer to work asynchronously (which can have limited availability), and Zoom fatigue means many want to keep meetings to a minimum.
This means, more than ever, that the collective knowledge of the company must be documented and accessible to new employees. This should range from process (eg how to use the HR employee portal or how to change passwords) to background knowledge for specific roles (eg sales scripts or answers to common customer questions). customers).
A culture of documentation means:
a secure repository (we found Confluence a useful tool for keeping information in a familiar 'wiki' structure)
regular updates, so that the documents are a trusted source
access privileges, which means that employees can view and edit all the documents they need, but access to sensitive information is restricted.
Related: 4 Strategies for Successful Onboarding New Remote Employees
3. Take cybersecurity seriouslyRemote work expands an organization's potential "attack surface": employees are likely to work from insecure connections and locations. This means they can be putt...
The opinions expressed by entrepreneurs contributors are their own.
Few companies pay enough attention to employee onboarding: According to a recent Gallup survey, only 12% of employees think their company does it well. And it's clear that effective onboarding is critical for both business productivity and employee retention: successful onboarding can improve employee performance by up to 15% and means an employee has nine times more likely to stay with the company.
Our organization supports businesses around the world with remote onboarding. Here I want to highlight some onboarding practices that we have found helpful both within our own team and when supporting other teams.
Related: 4 Building Blocks for a Successful Remote Employee Onboarding Process
What does remote onboarding cover?Standard employee onboarding covers all the steps that need to be taken to set up a new employee to be successful within the company. This includes introducing new hires to the team, ensuring they have the right equipment and providing training on key company policies.
In remote onboarding, the process must be applied virtually, losing the in-person element that can make it easier for employees to feel comfortable and welcome. For successful remote onboarding, we recommend the following:
1. Master the "pre-boarding""Preboarding" covers all the steps of setting up a new team member before the start of the formal employment period. This includes:
check that all contracts and additional documents (such as non-disclosure agreements) are signed
provide essential company documents and policies, such as code of conduct and health and safety policies
ensure the remote desktop is set up with everything the new employee needs to get started (e.g. company laptop sent in and accounts with all working software at necessary distance have been created).
Nailing down the pre-onboarding process ensures the employee can start gaining momentum in their new role from day one of hire.
2. Apply a culture of documentationIn a traditional office environment, it's relatively easy for new hires to approach other staff and ask how things are done. This more casual approach doesn't work in a remote work environment. Many prefer to work asynchronously (which can have limited availability), and Zoom fatigue means many want to keep meetings to a minimum.
This means, more than ever, that the collective knowledge of the company must be documented and accessible to new employees. This should range from process (eg how to use the HR employee portal or how to change passwords) to background knowledge for specific roles (eg sales scripts or answers to common customer questions). customers).
A culture of documentation means:
a secure repository (we found Confluence a useful tool for keeping information in a familiar 'wiki' structure)
regular updates, so that the documents are a trusted source
access privileges, which means that employees can view and edit all the documents they need, but access to sensitive information is restricted.
Related: 4 Strategies for Successful Onboarding New Remote Employees
3. Take cybersecurity seriouslyRemote work expands an organization's potential "attack surface": employees are likely to work from insecure connections and locations. This means they can be putt...
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