Employee onboarding, in particular, sets the tone for the entire employee experience. Consider how you can create a process that will engage and retain the talent you’ve worked so hard to recruit, then collect feedback and fine-tune it. Some companies fly remote workers to the company headquarters for employee onboarding. New hires should be made aware of this well before the offer stage, and should receive details of their travel arrangements and itinerary shortly after offer acceptance.

With these considerations in mind, we’ve summarised our top 5 tips for a successful remote onboarding process. As well as IT equipment, as a responsible employer you should also make sure a new remote employee has everything they need to work safely and securely at home. Ergonomic assessments of home office workspaces go under the radar compared to the high profile they now have on company premises. But home workers are just as prone to getting bad backs, RSI and other long-term injuries from poor posture as they work. Good practice in this area is to send out a questionnaire during onboarding asking about desks, chairs, screen heights etc. Providing proper office chairs, screen risers, wrist supports and more will help keep home workers healthy and productive.

How to welcome your remote employees to the team?

Ideally, a call should be scheduled with the new employee before day one to check they’ve received everything they need – and that it’s all in working order, too. Consider using an onboarding portal, or a central system for new starter information. This can include all of the company onboarding information, induction documentation, Employee Handbook, Homeworking Policy, values guide and company processes. For remote employees, written guidance that can be referred to is incredibly useful and reassuring. Make sure they have information on key contacts in the company they can call on for support.

• The information contained in our blogs have been provided for information purposes only.
• New remote employees should go through the same onboarding activities as all other employees, even if they’ll be working entirely from home.
• Review your remote work policy during your onboarding process so your expectations are clear.
• Making these workers feel connected is difficult because you don’t have those face-to-face interactions to build on.
• Better control over data across the organisation with a single source of truth for each client.
• But employers are also realizing that People Ops programs intended for office employees need to be adapted for this group.

Create a searchable knowledge base and let them absorb the information on their own time. Foster collaboration across teams and help your new hires build meaningful relationships. Online onboarding has the same objectives, but the process obviously differs. It requires more attention and planning, as you can’t expect your new hires to simply learn by observing how things are done by their colleagues in the office. Successful onboarding depends on several key factors, including the effective use of technology and, above all else, efficient communication. We explore the challenges and best practices of remote employee onboarding in more detail in the upcoming sections of this article.

Job hunting in the age of remote work

It’s no easy feat to ensure a seamless onboarding process, but a careful balance of strategy and knowledge can certainly help. The quality of your onboarding strategy can either define, or undermine, your startup. New talent is the lifeblood for a business that craves marketplace competitiveness. Without key people priorities, your business remote onboarding best practices might struggle to access the right knowledge and expertise. Oliver, “Ollie” Munday has been working with HR leaders for more than a decade to understand the unique challenges their businesses face. He believes that an engaged workforce is the difference between success and failure, and brings that passion to every conversation he has.