Regardless of company size, every employer needs to deploy an effective onboarding process to ensure their new hire understands how to be successful in their daily job and what their input means to the overall organisation.  According to Glassdoor, a strong onboarding process will have the effect of improving new hire retention by 82% and productivity by 70% but in these strange and socially distant pandemic times, how do employers go about effectively onboarding new hires when so much of the process is about social engagement across the organisation.  Following are 6 useful strategies to help chart a successful remote hiring and onboarding process.

1          Create and implement a clear job description and candidate spec

Prior to commencing any recruitment drive, make sure you have a clear and concise job description and candidate spec.  Create clear expectations for what your desired outcome is for the new employee’s first 12 months in the job.  Whilst possessing the right key skills for the role are essential so too is ensuring you identify candidates who will fit into your company’s culture, ethos and values so when creating a job description and candidate spec you need to really sell the role and company.  This will help your talent acquisition teams to run a much more successful recruitment drive.  This should be standard practise but it is even more crucial in our current pandemic world.

2          It starts the day the candidate accepts the offer in writing

Just as in normal times, the day your new employee has returned their acceptance letter you must begin the onboarding process.  Along with the company information booklet you might consider sending some merchandise from your business either for the employee or their family, this is a small price to pay for making the new employee and their family feel special and valued before they have even started working for you.

3          Have through screen meetings

During the resignation period of the new employee you should be keeping in touch with them on a frequent basis.  You can hold formal and informal meetings so they begin to get a flavour of what it’s like working with and for you.  Set up a Zoom call for a professional meeting where you can update them on certain information which will help them integrate more swiftly when they finally do come on board.  Holding a casual Zoom meeting where other colleagues have been invited to join is an excellent opportunity for everyone to meet for the first time, even though it is through screen.  You need to be invested in this process and deliberate in your intention of creating a welcome experience.  Tip – when you are having a face to face screen meeting with your hire do not check your emails or take other calls, do the decent thing and give them 100% of your attention.

4          Create a sense of belonging – over-communicate and over-engage

For remotely onboarded new employees it is vital that you create a sense of belonging, they will not have had any opportunity to meet people in person so over-engaging and over-communicating will help with their coming up to speed on things and starting to feel like a team member.  Remember they will not be picking things up by osmosis as they are not in the office meaning it is much, much harder for them to understand how things get done or what your ways of communication are.  They will want to find people they can connect with who can help guide and support, be available to answer any ‘stupid’ question (no question is ever stupid), they should be able to connect with this person outside of work – think of it as a mentoring programme, someone who can help guide them through the ways of the business and most importantly someone who the new employee can be totally open and honest with.  If you do not already have a Buddy system in place then now would be a good time to start but do ensure the Buddy will be an appropriate fit for your new hire.

5          Introduce your company culture

Working remotely means it will be that much more difficult for your new employee to get a sense of company culture but this is a vital piece of fostering positive employee engagement.  This means you will need to devise remote meet ups and events with a focus on fun and interaction so over time your new employee gets to meet everyone in the business and they become acquainted with their new colleague.  Get creative with ways of uniting people, have a weekly ‘show and tell’ – what produce has your greenhouse grown this week, who has baked the best decorated cup-cakes, have a remote pub quiz. 

6          Strategize your onboarding programme

Without the opportunity to meet people whilst waiting for the kettle to boil in the kitchen or overhearing conversations around the office the new employee is not benefiting from early stage learning because they are working in their own home silo.  By following your strategic onboarding programme you will help ensure your new recruit gets to connect with everyone relevant to their role and have the relevant tools and experiences to begin learning and being successful in their new job.

Points to remember with remote hiring and onboarding

1          Is your onboarding process geared up for a remote world?

Think about your onboarding processes – are they relevant to today’s remote based working world?  If not adapt, evolve, change.

2          Engage a specialist to recruit for you

Not all managers or HR teams make the best recruiters – engage the services of a specialist recruitment consultant – they know the right questions to ask and partner with you to understand your company culture, ethos, values, pains, goals, vision and they sell a compelling story to potential candidates providing them with all the facts and figures the candidate needs to know to make an informed decision as to whether your role and company are the best fit for them.  In turn you will receive a selection of carefully targeted and filtered candidate CV’s whose skills, experience, personalities and salaries fit your criteria and business culture.

3          Avoid work-shy candidates

Be aware of candidates who require a lot of motivation from you or need a high degree of management to keep them on task.  You will not be there in person to hold their hand, unfortunately in this Covid world employers need people who can apply themselves diligently but equally know it is ok to ask any question or for support.

4          Don’t forget to include everyone

Finally remember to make sure all your team are made aware of the new person starting, maybe have a company wide meeting so the new employee can say hello and introduce themselves, give them opportunity to offer to their new colleagues a time to chat so they can all become familiar with each other.  The most unlikely friendships can be built from quarters you least suspect so open it up to being company wide – that way everyone feels like they are being included. 

Onboarding remotely is hard work but the long-term benefit will be worth the effort.