Onboarding Remote Employees
In an age where digital work is everything, there’s one thing that often falls by the wayside: onboarding remote employees. Hiring the ideal remote employee isn’t the end of the story.
Leaving them to figure it out on their own or piecing together training can lead to a poor experience and higher turnover. Research from Glassdoor found that organizations with solid onboarding processes improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%.
Send Over Appropriate Paperwork
New hires should be able to quickly and efficiently fill out their onboarding paperwork immediately. Instead of sending over various documents, set up a process for onboarding remote employees. Your remote workers need straightforward access to everything from payroll to benefits information.
Make it easy to navigate and include a checklist, so your new hire understands precisely what’s required and how.
Get Your Employee Handbook Organized
Onboarding remote employees also necessitate a comprehensive employee handbook. The handbook is an opportunity to go over your company culture, expectations, and policies, including time off and benefits. Your employee handbook should also set expectations for work and productivity and consequences for underperforming behavior.
Focus on the Company Culture
A remote workforce still needs to identify and adapt to your company culture to scale your business and succeed. It’s still possible to focus on your values and culture from day one with remote employees. Start with a weekly round-up of meetings, whether on Slack, a Zoom call, or email, to shed light on how employees integrated company values and culture.
Set Expectations Early
Onboarding remote employees require a different level of expectations. Do you want them to be on a Slack channel all day? Are they free to complete their work autonomously, or will a time tracker be used? What defines your standards for productivity and performance? The more you can identify how your remote employees are expected to work; the more successful the situation is for everyone involved.
Read more about Why You Need an Onboarding Program for In-Person, Virtual, and Returning Employees.
Walk Through Communication Tools
Technology is at the forefront of the remote workforce, but it’s easy to forget employees need training in this area. Using Trello, Monday.com, or Asana may feel intuitive to you or your team, but new employees need training. Use training videos, schedule a meeting with the IT team, or bring on a consultant to give your new hires the resources they need to make a successful transition.
Offer Job Training
Just like a brick-and-mortar office, remote workers need job training to transition into their roles. Periodic calls or a library of training videos may be to get the process started. Perform regular check-ins with your new hires and team members to ensure that they’re performing their roles to expectation and what type of support they need. Remote workers can often struggle with autonomy and asking for help when needed.
Create Team Building Opportunities
Going online doesn’t mean you can’t have team-building opportunities for your staff. Scheduling a virtual class or virtual cocktail hour is one place to start. You can also offer a day of paid time off to be used for a volunteer project.
Ask employees to say something about their experience or create a short video to share what they did. The more you can create team bonding experiences, the higher your morale and productivity will be.
Schedule Periodic Calls
Even the most accomplished and flexible remote employees need some touchpoints to do their job successfully. Schedule periodic video calls to meet face-to-face, discuss the work, any issues, and how things are going. Getting regular status updates or a simple email check-in during the in-between times can also help your remote employees feel connected and accountable to the company.
Arrange an In-Person Meeting
Remote employees can still manage in-person meetings now and again, provided they’re not on the other side of the world or across the country. Even if they are, make an effort to schedule an in-person event near them. The gesture will go a long way in creating more of a bond between team members. Instead of just being someone who works behind a computer, your remote employees will have a tangible hand in helping grow your business.