Remote employment or telecommuting has become more popular recently. A few years ago, only a select few employees had the privilege of working at home. Today, employers are willing to allow their staff to work remotely if it’s more practical and economical.
And if this is your first-time hiring work-from-home employees and you don’t know how to onboard them into your company, you may want to read this short dos and don’ts guide.
Do: Prepare The Onboarding Process Weeks Before It Is Scheduled
You don’t want to make your new hires feel that they’re trapped in a snooze fest when you start their onboarding. To prevent that, you must plan the onboarding procedure a few weeks before you schedule it.
For example, you may want to find fun ways to welcome new employees, such as organizing a mystery event, launching contests to keep them on their toes, and engaging an exceptional speaker to do the onboarding process for you.
Don’t: Forget Everything You Have Prepared For
During the onboarding process, don’t forget about the things you’ve planned to say or instruct your new hires to do. Keep an eye out for these things, as they may bite you back when you least expect it. Remember that you are responsible for all their mistakes during the first few months in the organization.
To ensure you won’t forget, make a checklist of what you want to say or what the new hires need to do. For example, list the apps they need to download, passwords they need to remember, and the protocols they need to follow.
Do: Educate The New Team Members
You don’t onboard employees just because it’s a tradition. Onboarding’s purpose is to give you and the new hires to get to know each other, the company, and their roles and responsibilities. You don’t want your new employees spending their next weeks in the dark, useless and inutile.
To onboard them correctly, be sure to start from the ground up. Explain to these new hires what your company stands for, how its founders built it, and who the people they need to know are.
Of course, encourage or even force them to ask questions. They need to know as much as possible as people’s expectations of them will quickly rise in the following weeks. You wouldn’t want to find out that after a few months in the job, they don’t even know their boss.
Don’t: Overload The New Hires With Too Much Information
While preparing and educating your new hires is essential, you don’t want to force and torture them to absorb everything you have to say in one day. If you’ve come up with long materials for your onboarding procedure, give them ample time to understand and remember those things by extending the onboarding process a couple more days.
Also, don’t just let them sit in front of their computer listening to you. Let the new hires have the chance to interact and converse with you and others. Having them speak up will allow them to retain many things.
However, if you can’t spend more days onboarding them, leave them some materials they can read and watch. Even if you’ve already covered the topics included in those resources, it would still be best to provide the links to new work-from-home employees. They may need it as a reference later if they want to review a few of the things you’ve mentioned.
Do: Let The New Team Members Get To Know Each Other
Aside from letting them participate in your discussions, it would be best if you also let the new hires communicate with each other. New hires frequently look out for each other as they stay in your company. If one member encounters a problem, they would often rely on their teammate before they try to talk to you. For that reason, you shouldn’t hinder them from becoming acquainted and establishing friendships.
Don’t: Forget About Them After The Onboarding
While the new hires will often be helping one another, there will be times that they won’t be able to address specific concerns by themselves. As a result, they will need to contact you to get some help.
So, after the onboarding, keep your business communications lines open to allow them to reach you whenever they need help. Letting them get a hold of you will also allow you to update them with information you may have forgotten to tell them before.
Do: Review Them About The Things You Said
Finalize the onboarding process by thoroughly reviewing all new hires on the final day. Please encourage them to reflect on what you’ve spoken to them briefly. And as a final test, have students recount what they’ve learned.
You can do this by handing out your onboarding checklist. Encourage them to check off the topics they’ve understood perfectly, and allow them to ask questions about the topics they’re confused about.
Conclusion
Those are the do’s and don’ts of remote onboarding. It’s a variation of the usual onboarding process but with a twist. However, be sure not to forget all this; remember that the fate of the new personnel is ultimately in your hands.
