Are you having trouble recruiting remote employees? Virtual onboarding is an excellent way to acquire dynamic talent from all around the globe. Except, it is full of challenges, with the prime one being employee retention.
Similar to a host of other companies, your enterprise also chose to adopt remote working. Well, with the COVID-19 pandemic at its apex, there was no other practical option to maintain a smooth workflow. Besides, it has proven to be a lot more advantageous than you may have anticipated, hasn’t it?
Still, what about onboarding remote employees? How can you tackle the snag of communication, building trust, and motivating the new personnel? You will get answers to all these questions and more in this informative blog. Plus, there's also a surprise waiting for you. Read on to unlock!
Before going ahead with the exciting part, let us get a hold of what is remote employee onboarding all about!
Recruiting is one thing, but onboarding is an even essential step. It refers to acquainting the new hires with your company norms, standpoint, approach, and team members. When you appoint personnel remotely, you will have to adopt a different tactic.
It is quintessential for a new recruit to settle in the new environment and align with the company’s interests. That is why you cannot overlook the onboarding process. Customarily, you can follow formal or informal techniques or opt for a blend of both (the wiser option!).
The official remote onboarding process will include conducting online workshops and training sessions, meetings, etc. On the contrary, an informal section like calls and meet-ups helps the employees understand the company's culture.
But why adopt the virtual onboarding process in the first place?
According to Bayt.com Future Hiring Trends in the MENA survey, a massive 81% of the respondents anticipate significant remote hiring growth. Plus, 74% confirm that their enterprise has already resorted to an all-embracing virtual recruitment process. So, why this shift towards the remote work culture.
The answer is simple. It comes with diverse benefits for individual workers and the organization on the whole. These include dynamic work culture, working through different time zones, and tapping global clients, among others.
Once you recruit remotely, you need a robust remote employee onboarding process to avail all these benefits and more!
One of the prime benefits of onboarding is enhancing the new employees’ productivity. An individual joins an enterprise with expectations to learn and grow professionally. They are at their most productive stage in the first month of joining—something you need to nurture. It is the time when you can facilitate growth and shorten their learning curve with valuable training sessions.
An effective onboarding plan is what you need to retain employees successfully. It helps employees connect with the company and understand their roles, especially in a virtual arrangement. Moreover, the challenge of employee retention is at an all-time rise. This makes the need to plan and implement a thoughtful remote onboarding strategy even more indispensable.
Employee involvement in the functions of the firm plays paramount importance in retention. It makes the individuals recognize the place they hold in the company. Additionally, it instills in employees a sense of commitment towards the organization. Remote personnel need it even more due to the absence of physical participation.
Employees cannot give their 100% to a business until they blend with the team. Through a vigorous onboarding process, you need to make the newcomers feel at home and build trust. Implementing effective familiarizing strategies will enhance communication within the team horizontally as well as vertically. Remember that remote employees can only meet the crew virtually, which is why taking meticulous steps is quintessential.
So far, you are aware of the importance and benefits of onboarding remote employees. Yet, drafting and implementing the best onboarding practices, specifically in a remote environment, is downright challenging. Well, here is everything you need to know about how to onboard remote employees.
You need to make your new employees feel valued from day one. Though you cannot directly meet them in a remote working environment, make sure all the necessary online arrangements are in place. Cyber tools and portals are incredibly vital, especially during virtual work. More so as IT problems can make significant glitches and hamper the workflow.
An excellent way to ensure a seamless process is by providing your new employee with the required system access beforehand. This way, they can get to work from the first day and understand the professional culture of your enterprise.
While verbal communication is essential, you need to send a comprehensive, well-written work plan to the new employee. These documents outline the individual's role, provide work guidelines, and acquaint with the official enterprise status.
The new personnel wants to learn what they are stepping into, and it is your job to convey detailed company information. You can also mention the organization's expectations from the employee and a roadmap of how they can perform their duties.
You need to introduce your team to the new member, and what can be better than a welcome video conference session! It is the new way of showing the new recruit around as well as informing the old members about the same.
The call can be a mix of formal and informal gatherings. Here, you will announce the new personnel's roles and position in the company. Additionally, you can add a few casual engagement activities to break the ice.
You need to clearly convey your company's expectations and norms of working with the new team members. Every individual has a distinct working style, and it gets even more diverse in a remote situation. Familiarizing them with the way how your enterprise rolls is a crucial step right when the employees join.
For example, communicate about the rules of applying for leave 24 hours before, deadlines (if any), meetings they cannot skip, etc.
Connection and communication are key aspects behind the smooth working of an organization. And they gain even more importance in a virtual office. A fantastic way of going about onboarding remote employees is by maintaining frequent one-on-one meetings, especially for the first few months.
The new members may not be open enough to express their doubts and queries. You need to initiate the communication from your end and ensure they have all the support they need. Plus, you need to stress the point of staying connected. Ask the employees to keep the managers in the loop on their work round the clock.
Perhaps, the new member of your company is finding it difficult to cope with a remote environment. Alternatively, the new employees are not comfortable with a particular approach to work. You need to consistently check-in on your team to ensure they have a seamless experience.
Apart from that, it can also benefit the organization. If you want to reduce or completely eliminate employee turnover, you must get hold of the areas you lack. Acquiring feedback from the employees is a great way of recognizing the fields that require improvement.
Having gone through the virtual onboarding checklist of 6 effective practices, do you think you are all set? Well, here is just what you need to level-up your game—an employee onboarding software, like AfterHire!
In this tech-driven world, why stress your team with the cumbersome burden! An efficient onboarding software can do just fine (frankly, even better)! It is an unparalleled option for effortlessly handling all the onboarding tasks.
Still not sure? Here is how an onboarding software tool can ease HR's responsibilities, allowing you to focus on other vital decision-making matters.
Remote working comes with a host of benefits that you would've never envisioned while working from a regular office. It lets a company get hold of individuals with vibrant skills from all over the globe. Removing barriers of distance and accessibility allows you to tap a large talent pool that can significantly boost growth. Plus, employees themselves enjoy countless benefits like flexibility, comfort, etc.
That said, it also includes numerous challenges that may create a glitch in the workflow. However, the best part is overcoming each of these setbacks with the right strategies and tools is an effortless matter. Moreover, the returns that you will receive are entirely worth the effort.
In this article, you get your hands on some of the best practices for successful onboarding remote employees. Following these will help boost employee growth and enthusiasm and help you retain the exceptional talent you have acquired!
