COVID-19 had far reaching impacts on how we work, and employers shifted pretty rapidly to a remote work plan wherever possible. Even with vaccines on the horizon and a possible end in sight to the pandemic, remote work has gained serious traction. According to the recent
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Remote onboarding presents its own challenges. Picture your new employee’s first day: he or she is starting alone at home and simply turning on their computer that they received a few days before in the mail. But the experience can still be very uncomfortable… they don’t have anybody to meet physically, they won’t be able to enjoy a
Online onboarding will also feel more tiring than the in-person sessions. The reason is that in most physical onboardings a lot of the knowledge is distilled through casual conversation. In remote onboarding all the knowledge about the company is compressed into many short video calls, similar to learning a new topic from scratch by yourself with online classes. Expectations are challenging to communicate as well online and must be explained clearly from the beginning. Obviously an onboarding will be much easier, even with video, if the employee knows exactly what he or she should work on and why.
Fortunately video conferencing has become the norm for many now, but it is important to make this process as interactive and engaging as possible while covering everything new employees need to know.
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There are a few things that we recommend at Livestorm, as a remote and international company operating in various different time zones, to make for a comfortable employee onboarding, even if it can only happen through video.
Set up onboarding presentations for newcomers: At Livestorm, each Department Head (Head of Marketing, Head of Sales, CPO, CTO, CEO) takes 30 minutes to welcome the group of newcomers during their first week. Because the presentation happens through video and online, it’s actually much easier to organize than in-person meetings in an office or across several offices. During these meetings, the Department Heads give the new hires a complete overview of the goals, teams and KPIs of their department.
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It’s a great way for the new hires to build connections and meet key stakeholders. The IT team can also set up a Slack channel for the new hires to communicate together and share challenges or questions between themselves. This will help new employees build connections with their peers and feel as an integrative part of the company, even though they are only sitting at home, in front of their computer.
Schedule an informal 1:1 video meeting with their manager: Even if the remote manager can’t give a proper face-to-face welcome, he/she should make sure to connect with the new hire on their first day for a simple, informal meeting.
This 1:1 meeting through video will help the manager and the new hire to get to know each other. To make things informal, we suggest grabbing a cup of coffee and moving the discussion to a different space, such as a kitchen table or living room, to set the tone that this will be a more casual, informal conversation.
This meeting aims to replace the informal time that a manager has with his/her team, during lunch time in the cafeteria or at the coffee machine. While those moments may feel a bit “forced”, they are essential to make the new employee feel welcome in the company.
Organize a meeting to introduce the team: Meet the team through video and don’t forget to introduce everyone: what they do, where they live and how they can work together in the future. It’s important for the new hire to know their environment and colleagues. They should be able to build connections (despite the video onboarding) and have peers to turn to when needed.
We recommend assigning a buddy for each new hire. They are someone, other than the manager, that the remote employee can turn to in case of a question.
Availability, expectations and ways to connect: It can be hard to onboard and train someone remotely. The manager should make it clear from the beginning that he/she is available.
Because it’s harder to onboard an employee remotely without the in-person manager interactions, there should be other channels for the employee to connect with his/her manager. Slack is a great tool for this, but sometimes, it’s hard to explain certain things in a written manner. Consider using Slack and a video platform together so employees and managers can connect instantly over video and take 5 minutes to answer a question or show how to do a certain task using video and screen share.
Set up on-demand trainings: After the informal meetings comes the formal onboarding process with training sessions about the job. When several employees are onboarded and have similar responsibilities, we suggest setting up an on-demand webinar. It's important for teams to be able to collaborate at different times, especially when the company is international and working in different time zones.
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Choose a platform that will let you record the training and provide it to new employees on-demand. Once they finish their first tasks, they can go through the training at their own speed. Explore how to launch polls automatically during the on-demand training and have employees answer them to test their knowledge or comprehension of the topic matter.
End your week with downtime togetherL At the end of the week, gives some time to employees to take part in an activity together. It could be an informal gathering or to play an online game, like a trivia quiz or scavenger hunt.
It’s another way to make sure that your new employees are part of a real organization and not simply a number that started in a certain week.
If you follow all those tips, it should have a direct impact on your employees’ participation and motivation. Indeed an employee onboarding is an important step for each individual, so make sure that your organization does everything it can to make those employees feel welcome - even if it’s only through video. Tapping into the interactive elements of video platforms can make the process more engaging and more personal. While many employees will return to the office in the coming months, remote work is certainly here to stay, so getting an engaging online onboarding process in place is important for all businesses right now.
