No matter if your company has been remote since the start or if you’re new to the remote working environment, you can always learn new remote employee onboarding tips to improve your virtual onboarding process.
From potential technical difficulties to struggles connecting with your team, the issues associated with virtual onboarding can be smoothed over with the right strategies in place. Here, 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council list out what those strategies should include in order to be successful.
What's one onboarding idea all remote companies should consider implementing, and why?
1. A meeting with the company's CEO
One onboarding idea all remote companies should consider implementing is a simple onboarding meeting with the company's CEO. This is an excellent way to get to know the company and the CEO, as well as ask any remaining questions that haven't been answered. —Andy Pandharikar, Commerce.AI
2. An remote employee onboarding buddy
New hires should have weekly meetings with a peer to chat, ask questions, and help get the lay of the land. It should be a peer, not a manager—someone with a similar title or title that's on the same level. —Kerry Guard, MKG Marketing
3. An outline of the employee's first few weeks
To improve your onboarding process, create a detailed document outlining the employee's first two to four weeks, down to the hour. Spell out what they'll be learning, who they will be working with, and how their effort contributes to the collective goals and vision for the company. For remote teams, share the document with all stakeholders. This central plan brings clarity and calm to everyone involved. —Daniel Reilly, B2X Global
4. An online software system for onboarding admin
We have had several remote employees working for us for the last seven years. For onboarding, we use online software to capture all the documents, do I-9 verification, and conduct reference checks. These things become more crucial for remote onboarding. We have a detailed online orientation plan where I talk to the employee every day for the first week and everyone on the team will have an intro call. —Piyush Jain, Simpalm
5. Virtual team-building activities
Companies should make sure they are addressing the social aspect of onboarding, especially with a remote team. In addition to the dissemination of information that goes along with any onboarding process, it is important to schedule some fun team-building activities. This allows established employees to get to know the new hire while helping the new hire feel accepted and comfortable. —Reuben Yonatan, GetVoIP
More articles from AllBusiness.com:
- 5 Steps to Successfully Onboarding New Employees
- 12 Ways to Make New Employees Feel Welcome
- Enterprise Sales: The Perils of Selling to the Wrong Customer
- 7 Tips on Running a Successful Virtual Company
- 13 Important Soft Skills to Look for in Job Candidates
6. A standard procedures document
One way remote companies can improve their onboarding is by having a standard procedures document that covers the basic best practices of getting work done. How should emails be structured? How should documents be collaborated on? Should email or Slack be the primary messaging tool? Surprisingly, many remote companies never do this, and performance suffers because of it. —Richard Fong, SeniorStrong.org
7. Snail mail welcome packages
It can be hard for new remote employees to feel integrated, so we have started sending welcome packages in the mail, containing a personal note, employee handbook, merchandise, and goodies. After that, it’s important to schedule video meetings—they don't have to be long—with all the people they’ll work closely with so everyone can put faces to names and will feel less daunted to reach out. —Emily Stallings, Casely, Inc.
8. Company-wide communications
When it comes to onboarding, remote companies should consider implementing practices that make new employees feel welcome and seen. This could include sending a company-wide email or chat to let everyone know someone is joining the team so there's no confusion. People can reach out to say hello and welcome the new employee to the team. —Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
9. A drip email campaign for new hires
To make the onboarding process organized and automatic, you can create a drip email campaign for your new hires. As soon as they join, create an email campaign that sends them one email after another in a specific sequence. This sequence can contain relevant information and a list of to-dos. In this way, you won't have to oversee every step and your new hire will have things to do. —Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
10. Feedback forms for remote employees
Companies that want to improve their onboarding should send feedback forms to recent hires. We've found that our newest hires can give us insight on how to improve our onboarding process. If you plan on hiring someone new, the information from the person you hired the month before could help with the process. We've used this strategy to successfully improve our onboarding program. —Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights
RELATED: Attracting and Recruiting the Best Talent for Your Business
