Onboarding Remote Employees
Are you onboarding new hires remotely? It's even more important to be intentional about how you onboard employees when you can’t do it in person. Last year I wrote about the 5 things managers need to get right about onboarding. Here, updated for today’s remote environment:
1. Connect with your employee before her first day. Send the sort of welcome letter you'd like to receive. Could be an overview of the team and challenges/opportunities, or a handwritten card expressing your enthusiasm for her start. It’s a nice touch to track down some company swag and send to her house.
2. Ask an experienced employee to be an informal buddy. Choose someone with a keen sense of your culture and a good attitude. Not you. Encourage new hire and buddy to meet over video and ask buddy to introduce new employee to others and invite her to virtual activities. This relationship should last for the first few weeks.
3. Provide a first-day welcome that builds community and belonging. Start with an announcement that includes her professional background + some details about her interests. Plan a virtual lunch or happy hour with the team and have everyone share their role and a few details about their lives outside of work. Then set up 1x1 video meetings where she can get to know her most important stakeholders. Debrief with her after these meetings to help her put things in context.
4. Plan a series of learning sessions. While customer visits and site tours are out for the time being, think about the video assets you have: what's on YouTube or your company intranet that she can watch + discuss with her buddy? Video from a recent all hands meeting? Recording of a quarterly investor call? Video of a manufacturing facility that was produced for last year’s leadership offsite? Dig up these gems to help her get the feel of the company when she can’t see things in person. Here too — don’t leave it to her to watch/read this important stuff by herself. Create a way for her to discuss with a colleague so she retains and contextualizes what she learns.
5. Create experiences that last beyond the first day (and week). It’s impossible for people to absorb everything they need in a day or a week. Create a program that supports her through her first 3-6 months. This isn’t just a schedule of activities. Talk with her about what she observes, what she is learning, what ideas she has, and help her connect them to her role. Use your network (and your manager’s) to intentionally introduce her to people she may have met in the cafeteria, but obviously won’t meet in her own kitchen.
Most companies haven’t done a good job onboarding employees in our normal work environment. Doing things right virtually can be a differentiator for you. Plus, as I said last year, onboarding employees in this way is simply more human: if we remove all the silly bureaucracy we have come to expect in the corporate world and imagine how we would like to be welcomed to a new group, we imagine something much closer to this than what we’re doing today.