Best Practices for Remote Employee Onboarding

A healthy professional relationship with employees starts with the onboarding process. Companies that take their employee onboarding seriously can easily develop a positive work culture that ensures higher engagement, retention and productivity. Since 91% of new hires consider quitting within the first month if a job doesn’t live up to their expectations, it is safe to say that onboarding can make or break the talent acquisition process.

Onboarding challenges have increased in magnitude with the onset of remote and hybrid work environments brought about by the pandemic. Things like face-to-face introductions, lunch meetings, in-person training, etc., have become almost non-existent in the new normal. This makes it harder for employers to welcome new employees and make them familiar and comfortable with their organization’s culture.

In this blog, we’ll explore some remote onboarding best practices that can help you ensure high retention and organizational success.

Download our onboarding infographic to learn the five simple steps of effective IT onboarding.

1. Start Before the New Hires Arrive at Work

Onboarding is a process that should ideally start before the new hires join the organization. Usually, there are a few days between the hiring of new employees and their first day of work. Make use of this time to identify their IT needs. Everything from hardware, security logins, software tools, personalized devices, etc., should be determined. This prevents any last-minute scrambling and confusion on the day the new hires start work.

2. Have a Systematic Orientation Program

Your onboarding process cannot be random. It should be consistent for all new hires throughout the organization. You need a systematic orientation program to make this possible. Your program should list out the tasks that need to be done before the new hires start, the tasks that need to be done on their first day, documentation guidelines, follow-up procedures and more. When you have a solid orientation program, you can avoid a disorganized and lengthy onboarding.

3. Set Up Hardware First, Then Focus on Software

The new hires should receive all necessary hardware, including computer, mouse, cable, USB sticks, phone, etc., on the very first day. Any delay in setting this up will slow down the employee training process and affect productivity from the get-go. Make sure the new hires are first provided with all the hardware required to perform their job. Even if the required software isn’t set up on time, you can still install it after delivering the hardware components.

4. Document the Process

Without documentation, you won’t have a frame of reference for future onboarding. You need an automated documentation tool that ensures seamless documentation of every step of the onboarding process. Besides, it will be much easier to share your training manuals, guidelines, SOPs, etc., with the help of a documentation tool.

To know how IT Glue can help document your onboarding, request a demo.

5. Set Up a Buddy System

Your new hires need to know the ins and outs of office operations during the first few days. You can use a buddy system to ensure efficient knowledge sharing with the new hires. You can assign an experienced employee to assist new hires with various activities like raising a ticket, accessing a software tool, etc. This reduces your workload and allows you to delegate minor tasks to other employees. This also allows the new hires to connect with other team members and get accustomed to your work culture.

6. Onboard on the First Day

Once everything from hardware devices to software login access has been set up, it is time to onboard the new hires on the first day. You need to provide them with all the necessary access and teach them how to use the tools securely. You can also share details about team lingo and terminology. The key here is to not overwhelm the new hires on the first day. Only provide them with the basic necessities they need to get started. You can share training guides and tutorials for other, more complex requirements.

7. Follow-up and Review

Your onboarding process doesn’t end with orientation on the first day. You need to regularly follow up for at least the first few weeks to ensure the new hires have a good grasp of what was imparted during onboarding. If they haven’t, you need to ensure that they do and then identify how you can improve your existing orientation program. These reviews are vital to avoid future mistakes and make the onboarding process more effective.

How IT Glue Can Help

IT Glue is a leading cloud-based software company that understands the importance of employee onboarding. Our SOC 2-compliant documentation platform can help you document your onboarding process and ensure consistency. IT Glue features an immutable audit trail, multifactor authentication and next-generation password management engine — all of which are fully integrated and linked with all your documentation.

To know more about how to onboard/offboard employees effectively, download our checklist.