Five ways to boost the effectiveness of onboarding remote employees

Many workers have now had the chance to experience remote and hybrid workplaces. This taste of freedom from commutes and hectic office life has led to a dramatic increase in people choosing to work from home full-time. 

Whether it be fully remote positions or as a “hybrid” worker, attending the physical office intermittently, employees have demonstrated their love for their home offices. Since 2020, the forced work-from-home endemic of flexible work policies have become the third-most crucial factor for job seekers, with 87% of people surveyed saying that, given the opportunity to work remotely, they will take it.

Therefore it looks like this new breed of work is here to stay. Thankfully, the evidence suggests that giving your employees this option actually leads to increased productivity thanks to the better work-life balance it provides. 

Because of this upward trend of remote work, employers must adapt and come up with effective ways to onboard and train their new remote employees – which might mean adapting the processes they use for office-based workers. It’s easy to just quickly mention something to a new person in the office as and when it arises, but it’s easy to miss out essential information unless you specifically make sure to cover it when you’re working remotely. In this post, we explain five core things you need to be covering to effectively onboard those new hires.

Get to know them early

The best thing you can do to get your new remote workers engaged right off the bat is to take some time to get to know them. After all, we’re all only human. And if  there is one thing most people love to do, it’s talk about themselves. This is particularly important for remote employees because you lose some of the casual office conversations when you’re not all together in one room.

So, preparing some icebreakers where they can do just that might be the perfect way to ease those first-day jitters and allow everyone to loosen up before diving into the official training. Try a few of these clever icebreakers to get the conversation flowing on your video call while your new employees enjoy their morning coffee or tea. You’ll find that happy and relaxed employees will learn more efficiently and will be far more engaged in your company and its wider success.

• Introduce yourself. Start everyone off with a few basic questions about themselves they can easily answer to reduce the pressure and prevent putting anyone who’s a little shy on the spot. Things like, name, age, and what they went to school for (or last job if they didn’t attend higher education) are easy-to-answer intro questions that get the ball rolling.
• Show and tell. Just like kids, adults love to show off their favorite things. Whether that be a pet or the items they collect is totally up to the individual. 
• Five favorites. Ask for a list of five favorite things to help you all get to know each other better. You can tie this into a specific topic that you think everyone might have an answer for. 
• Two truths and a lie. This classic icebreaker allows people to get creative while sharing more about themselves.

Clarify expectations and address common challenges

After you’ve gotten to know everyone, it’s time to get into your company's standard operating procedures (SOPs). This is where you should provide step-by-step instructions for your new employees on your routine operations. After providing an overview and additional documentation on your SOPs, make sure to clarify your expectations and ask for any questions your employees might have about their own tasks.

During this time you’ll want to address common pitfalls and challenges that you might face and how to overcome them. Make sure to frequently check understanding throughout this process to prevent issues from arising down the line.

Check-in frequently and provide an existing employee to shadow

Although you don’t want to hover over or pester new employees while they are busy sinking their teeth into their independent training materials, it is important to check on them. Set designated times during the day so they can be prepared with any new questions or concerns they may need answers to. 

The ideal situation while onboarding new staff is to have an existing employee they can shadow during their first few days. It’s also highly beneficial if multiple new workers are being trained at the same time so you can buddy them together. This creates camaraderie among your employees and will help build collaboration that will benefit the workplace.

Provide multimedia, diverse training modules and tools

Everyone learns differently and at different paces, so we should be taking this into account when preparing our virtual onboarding materials as much as we do for in-person.

The following are just a few ways you can add multimedia to diversify your training modules and tools to better accommodate the different learning styles of your new employees.

• Interactive games such as virtual trivia, jeopardy, or scavenger hunts.
• Videos and images that convey the materials effectively.
• Short quizzes to check understanding of the material.
• Using accessibility-friendly online tools 

Make them feel connected and engaged

When it comes to onboarding, it’s key to remember to make your new employees feel connected and engaged with your existing staff and the workplace as a whole, rather than just to their position. 

In a remote-first company, it’s easy for employees to feel overlooked and underappreciated; particularly for those who aren’t as extroverted or outspoken as their peers. Although being able to work in the quiet and comfort of their homes is a great benefit, when it comes to connecting with a team, it can become a negative.

Even after onboarding and training have wrapped up, keep the conversation going with workplace channels where your employees can connect and collaborate with each other. You never know what kind of innovation could spark from a low-pressure chat between colleagues.

To support your recruitment efforts, it’s important to implement the right interview scheduling software within your company. With this in place, and our five top tips in mind, you’ll be able to build an effective process that can help you to find the right hires to push your business forward. Remote workers can bring so much to your company through their drive and unique outlooks. So look to the future, keep these tips in mind, and bring your workplace to the forefront of the remote-first industry with successful onboarding the moment they log in.