First impressions matter and employees’ early experiences heavily influence staff retention, productivity, and overall success. Shannon Karaka outlines eight actions to help improve remote employee onboarding in your organisation.
A great onboarding programme makes new employees feel comfortable with the entire team, knowledgeable about tools and processes, and excited to settle into the role.
Yet the traditional in-person welcome, including the chance to ‘grab a coffee’ with new workmates, is not always available as companies hire remotely, and even globally. To take one example, according to analysis by researcher Technology Investment Network, New Zealand’s largest 200 technology firms are expected to recruit over half their staff offshore by 2028.
Remote onboarding challenges
Common challenges to onboarding remotely include:
- Difficulty in making company connections.
- Demonstrating culture.
- Keeping new hires engaged.
- Effectively managing their technical environment and equipment.
An effective remote onboarding experience will fit the unique specificities of the new hire’s role and the company’s culture. Deel famously has no head office, and my more than 4,000 colleagues in 20 time zones work from home or co-working spaces, so we have developed a robust onboarding and ramping up process.
Here are eight actions to help supercharge remote employee onboarding for your team.
1. Tools of the trade: Onboarding can be an avalanche of forms and tools, so keeping things simple is vital. Using an onboarding platform integrated with your existing software provides a better new employee experience. Employees should receive the same make and model equipment as their colleagues and have it working on day one. Use a specialist device management company to provision devices seamlessly across borders.
2. Welcome new hires to the team ahead of time: Help your new hires feel part of the team even before their first day starts. Send them a digital welcome package including a link to your employee handbook, your company’s social media handles and an invitation to a casual video call with their soon-to-be peers (limit it to their immediate team to avoid overwhelming them).
3. Give new employees early access to their tech stack (and don’t forget tutorials): A smooth tech experience is crucial to a remote employee feeling welcomed and valued. The week before a new hire joins the team, create their work email address and invite them to log in to their new account and join or set up all of the platforms and tools they’ll use. Make sure to include a link to a video tutorial for each platform, program, or tool so they know how to get started before meeting the team virtually.
4.Separate check-ins and training: The employee’s first few months in a company require a lot of work to learn the job and processes and build meaningful relationships. Develop a programme that will allow new hires to focus on each segment separately. If you try to do both simultaneously, you risk de-prioritising training or supportive check-ins. Use a mix of online and in-person training to fit time zones. Employees can learn at their own speed and have an instructor-led lead online classroom training.
5. Schedule waterfall check-in meetings: A waterfall check-in schedule is front-loaded with meetings between the new hire and their manager. As each week passes, the frequency of meetings gradually decreases until you reach your standard check-in schedule. As these meetings are virtual, allow extra time to ensure video connections are working.
Shannon Karaka.
6. Mix self-led learning with social events and interactive activities: Virtual onboarding can feel lonely (and dull) for new remote workers. In addition to self-led learning, consider expanding your plan with media such as audio interviews of the founder or podcasts about the industry, perfect for a mid-day walk or screentime break. Invite employees to create an introductory video, answer a personalised quiz that you share with the team, or create a mood board that represents who they are.
7. Talk about your company culture and set clear expectations: If you don’t set a clear and intentional onboarding schedule, technical training and paperwork can monopolise a new hire’s experience. Demonstrate culture wherever possible. If your culture is social, schedule introduction calls, or lunch-and-learns with new hires and employees from across departments.
Demonstrate communication style, too. If your team solves problems and communicates over Slack (instead of email or video meetings), initiate conversations on the app and redirect new hires if they send an email or request a call with you incorrectly.
Demonstrate expected behaviours. If you expect a new employee to be online and available for specific hours each day, do the same. Update your Slack status regularly to make expectations clear.
8. Survey your current employees about their remote onboarding experience: Ask your current hires for feedback on how to improve the onboarding. Approximately three months after an employee joins the company, send them a survey or interview them about their experience over a video call.
Onboarding remote employees can be complex, but the digital tools and platforms available have made the process far easier and faster. Together, they can lead to a better onboarding experience for recruits which, in turn, makes for a more engaged, more committed employee.
Shannon Karaka is the Country Leader, Australia and New Zealand for Deel.
