Tips and Checklists for Setting up a Remote Employee Onboarding

On their first day, new employees have too much information and stress levels during a global catastrophe when starting a new job. In addition, many people juggle work and childcare, and many work remotely for the first time. In the case of COVID-19, where you have transitioned to a remote workforce, how should you welcome these new team members? There are ways to do remote employee onboarding with just as much efficiency as traditional onboarding through a computer screen in your office. It can be difficult to create a smooth and engaging onboarding experience for employees who haven't been onboarded remotely before, one that puts them at ease during a time of great uncertainty.

Tips and Checklists for Your Remote Employee Onboarding

The pre-onboarding steps

It is vital to accomplish these remote employee onboarding tasks two or three weeks before the employee's first day on the job to set the employee up for success. The first day on this remote employee onboarding checklist is essential for ensuring your new hires have a positive experience and are less anxious.

You can show someone your appreciation by sending them a welcome kit with your company's branding. Include nice good like-shirt or hoodie, stationery, and technology in your employee appreciation kit. Send laptops, mouse, and headsets to all new hires before they begin working for your organization. Be sure you have correctly installed the software on your laptop before using it.

A "swag kit" is part of the remote onboarding checklist and should contain an organizational handbook explaining the values, principles, code of conduct, and policies of your organization (both distant and otherwise). They must have access to Slack, Zoom, email, and the portal, as well as their login credentials.

Paperwork management

Sharing all essential documents and requesting that the new hire submit all associated personal information before the first day will help lessen the paperwork load on the first day. A vital step in the onboarding process for remote employees is to set up their account profiles in a company portal such as ADP or SuccessFactors.

You could ask them for access to that portal for onboarding remote employees. Using DocuSign can also be used for signing documents related to insurance and law. Include your values, principles, code of conduct, and policy handbook with any swag kits you send (even at a distance). You will also need their login credentials for Slack, Zoom, and the portal.

Welcome process

On the first day of employment, you have the opportunity to make a lasting impression on new employees. Remote onboarding should focus on providing a seamless experience to remote employees.

You can do so by sending them a welcome email when they join remotely. You might even see a link to a company's intranet in addition to the first day's schedule, information on the intranet portal.

Ask them to introduce themselves to you so that you can get to know them better. The Human Resources department should be the first to greet new employees, followed by the IT department and any other relevant departments.

Spend more time on explaining the remote work culture, the member benefits, and the workings of various departments. The remote employee gets an opportunity to learn about your products and services.

Providing your employees with a virtual tour will make them feel included in the workplace interaction. Videos, interactive photographs, and slide shows can all be used as forms of tours. You can help keep anxiety levels among your remote team members as low as possible by providing initial guidance and handholding to new employees.  

The first week after remote employee onboarding

To avoid overloading new employees, prepare them for a few easy weeks. In addition, do product training, explain their job role, and answer all questions they have. Your remote employees need to be familiar with company productivity and collaboration tools for remote teams. Plan a session to emphasize the importance of team communication tools within your company.

New virtual hires and their managers should hold regular check-in meetings to help them feel like they belong. Onboarding situations involving remote participants are made more comfortable with these meetings.

During onboarding, give new hires non-critical tasks so they can get acquainted with your system and tools. People learn faster when they observe the importance of organizational culture. Watch your new coworkers in action by inviting remote employees to project meetings.

Plan out KPIs for onboarding

A new remote hire should focus on learning, measuring, and adapting during the first few weeks. KPIs which are realistic and measurable should be the targets for continuous improvement.

Expectations should be spelt out for new employees by their managers. Organizations and employees need to communicate employee expectations in the remote employee onboarding. Ensure data drive remote onboarding. Onboarding KPIs should be defined clearly both in the short and long-term and measured as soon as possible.

Team members who have a clear path of progression are more likely to remain on the team. To encourage remote employees to be more productive and efficient, discuss the appraisal process and how your organization offers growth opportunities.

Continuous transition support

A new remote hire needs to learn, measure, and adapt to the job for the first few weeks. To ensure that targets are measurable and realistic, you must undertake the continuous improvement of those targets. The manager must discuss job expectations with their new hires.

There needs to be clear communication between organizations and their employees. Data should be a driving force in onboarding for remote employees. In onboarding, it is crucial to define measurable KPIs both immediately and over the long term.

The chances of team members staying on the team are higher when they have a clear path to advancement. Discuss how your organization offers growth possibilities and what the appraisal process means to remote employees to encourage them to work more efficiently and effectively.