Covid19 has changed the way of working and working remotely is starting to gain its importance as far as the new normal is concerned. This shift of office workers to a work-from-home setup is a challenge, especially during such a tough time. On top of that, it becomes even more difficult when you must add new hires to the mix.
The aim of on-boarding employees is to make sure that the new employees become familiar with the professional expectations and work culture of the organization. This helps in knowing whether the new hire proceeds comfortably and gets adjusted with their new role or do they have any problem.
Tactics used in this process include formal meetings, videos, lectures, presentations, computer-based orientations to introduce new jobs and organizations. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, these tactics can’t be used. During this time employees and companies are forced to work remotely as there’s no other choice.
Onboarding a remote employee is unlike the on-site onboarding because, to put it straight, remote employees are far away. It takes unique processes to set up remote workers with the required technology and types of equipment, to make sure all their paperwork is done smoothly and that they feel connected, well associated, and valued by their new team.
5 Best ways of remote on-boarding
The key to efficiently onboard remote employees is to create a detailed onboarding plan. This includes all onboarding processes but most importantly, includes milestones that can be used to measure how an employee is progressing through the process, what different skills are used, way of performing the work, kindness in doing the job, and many such things.
#1: Introduce Employees to the company/organization.
The first step to onboard remote employees is to introduce the company/organization and its existing employees, with whom they have to work. By this, they can effectively know about their working place, social culture, and the team members; though virtually.
#2: Provide Employees with an introductory welcome kit.
Consider creating a welcome kit that can be distributed virtually to new remote employees. It should be used to ask for a short introductory bio of the employee like name, phone number, email-id, place of living, graduation, skills, work experience, etc. Even the training kit that has videos or session’s wise training should be made use off.
#3: Onboarding employees in a group or the organization.
Onboarding employees in groups can help to make the entire process less stressful for both the employers and the employees. By setting up group meetings help the employees to know their team members effectively. This technique proves helpful while the newly hired remote employees, in order to make them feel comfortable and connected and not letting them feel isolated. It also encourages a sense of belongings which is important since employees will be working from a remote location.
#4: Provide secure access to online tools used for working in an organization.
The key to successful onboarding is to provide secure and effective tools for login credentials for work. Nowadays many such tools are available in the market like Microsoft teams, Zoom, Google meets, etc. With the help of these tools, employees can do their job in an effective manner and without having to worry about their data security.
#5: Setup a milestone for the Employees.
In the starting weeks of work, it is recommended to set up a milestone for the new employees. This will help the organization to know the way of working style, skills, kindness, interest, determination, and passion of the employees towards their work.
Lastly, Covid19 has changed the way organizations used to work. It has not only made it challenging but also interesting at the same time for new employees, joining your team. By using these steps as guidance during this time, you can help your new employees get acclimatize and prosper to work in their new work environment.
