Challenges and solutions to successful onboarding in a remote work environment

As long as we have a workforce, we will have workers who need to be onboarded.

Onboarding involves much more than merely signing some papers and getting a tour. It is the process of training your new hires with everything they need to know to do their jobs well. On average, onboarding is comprised of 54 separate tasks. Some estimate that it can take up to take up to a year for an employee to reach their peak performance potential.

Now imagine having to do it remotely.

Although the tendency to work remotely is likely to remain a part of our modern work culture, only 17% of organizations have put effort into creating programs for onboarding new hires in a remote workplace.

Given that onboarding is the perfect opportunity for an organization to make a first impression, it is one of the most important drivers of employee success and retention.

For instance, compared to new hires with poor onboarding, those who have good onboarding experiences are 50% more productive, 54% more engaged at work, and are 69% more likely to stay with the company for at least 3 years.

Also, companies with good onboarding achieve 2.5 times more revenue growth and nearly twice the profit margins compared to companies with poor onboarding strategies. 

Five Main Challenges

As tricky as successful onboarding can be, attempting it in today’s remote work environment presents five main challenges to workers: 

• More socially isolated – This is the biggest concern of remote onboarding because it is especially difficult to build connections at work while being physically distant. 
• Poorer help with technical issues – It can be more difficult for a remote worker to get help with technology when they need it, compared to an in-house employee. 
• Decreased employee engagement – It can be a battle to engage remote employees and get them excited about the onboarding process from afar. 
• More challenging to learn role – Everything a remote worker learns about their job is from onboarding alone. This worrisome when you consider that a new hire is less likely to say that they don’t understand something during a videoconference compared to in person.
• More difficult to learn company culture – The company culture is normally learned implicitly as you spend time in the workplace, where you get a sense of how everyone feels about their work and the organization. Remote workers have very different exposure to the company as they’re learning about the culture.

Practical Suggestions

Here are some practical suggestions for overcoming each of the 5 challenges of remote onboarding. Some suggestions can be started before the new hire’s first day.

• Build connections
• Before Day 1: 
  • Send a welcome package to the new hires’ home
  • Have leaders and key team members handwrite welcome notes to the new hire
  • Create welcome videos from key members that are accessed online
• During Onboarding: 
  • Have virtual meet and greets (egs: lunches, coffee breaks, informal Q & As, spontaneous conversations around a virtual watercooler, or socialization games)
  • Assign a peer mentor and/or new hire buddy  
  • Encourage collaborative learning and exercises with other departments and other new hires
  • Consider onboarding in groups – it helps socialization and learning while decreasing redundancies in training
  • Schedule regular check-ins – this allows you to learn how the new hire is progressing and get feedback about your onboarding process 
  • Have regular all-hands meetings, retreats, and/or events are effective promoters of company-wide bonds
• Get technical help
• Before Day 1: 
  • Ensure access to email, systems, company intranet, messaging apps, videoconferencing, chat, learning modules, and all onboarding materials
  • Including a manual of which tools to use for different purposes and who to contact for help and how
• During Onboarding: 
  • Arrange a training session with your IT department 
• Stay engaged
• Before Day 1: 
  • Employee engagement is normally very high at the start of a hire’s job, but plumets to 22% very quickly
  • Some extra effort here would be anything to make them feel welcome at the organization and excited about their new position 
• During Onboarding: 
  • Create individualized outboarding plans for each new hire based on their learning style and role
  • Offer multiple approaches to learning (egs: reading, watching videos, role-play scenarios, listen to stories, participate in a cohosted discussion, or anything that makes learning engaging and active)
  • Have regular check-ins to make the new hire feel like they’re a contributing part of a team
  • Celebrate the completion of onboarding as a way to increase engagement
• Learn role
• Before Day 1: 
  • Have a cross-departmental team scrutinize your current onboarding process to prioritize, combine, and plan the timing of all onboarding tasks
  • Give the new hire a set of clear expectations of what they have to do and when
  • Point out how their work enforces the larger purpose of the organization
• During Onboarding: 
  • Most remote onboarding is done by a combination of videos, videoconferencing with live training, or interactive training courses with games to boost engagement
  • Give the new hire resources that they can go through at their own pace over a 30-90-day period
  • Ensure that their first project is small with cross-collaboration, and the manager should play an active and present role throughout
• Learn culture
• Before Day 1: 
  • Take time to explain the company culture
  • Give the new hire a digital employee handbook and access to all social media channels, stories about the company, and details and pictures highlighting work anniversary celebrations
  • Include some company swag in their welcome package (coffee mug, t-shirt) and welcome letters from their team and/or leader
• During Onboarding: 
  • Set up calls between leaders and new hires to hear the company story firsthand and ask questions
  • Add experiences to your organization that bolster your culture (eg: company-wide remote cooking lessons, book club, community outreach)
  • Create a sense of community within your organization that gets everyone involved

We’re Here to Help

Although onboarding a new hire remotely involves some extra challenges, we are here to help and invite you to contact us at info@primebenefitsgroup.com. Let’s work together and create solutions that work best for you and your organization.

Additional Resources

• The HR Specialist: 15 Qs to ask employees in first 60 days
• Remote employee onboarding checklists: 
  Owl Labs – Remote Employee Onboarding
• Miro – The ultimate guide to remote work
• Snacknation.com – Employee onboarding checklist