Remote employee onboarding is one of the crucial processes for your business if you want to work with remote workers. Do you remember the first day you reported for work in a new physical company? Do you remember all the nerves you felt arriving in a strange new place where you probably do not know even a single soul? Funny how even the people who interviewed you are always nowhere to be seen.
Anyway, you have an idea of how things would have gone south if no one took the initiative of welcoming and showing you around. The experience is the same for remote workers even though they work from their convenient locations.
That is why you need a solid virtual onboarding process. It will set the tone for the employee’s career and journey in your company. It is also a chance for you to lay the groundwork for your working relationship with the employee.
What is Remote Onboarding?
It is the process of welcoming new employees into a remote team, introducing them to the business, and helping them understand how their roles contribute to the overall goals. It is similar to onboarding an employee in a physical environment, only that this time you do it virtually.
Some of the tasks involved in this process include giving the employees access to the system, introducing them to other employees, training, and educating them on policies and procedures. Today’s discussion will discuss some challenges you may face during this process and solutions you can explore.
1. Providing Access to the Right Tech and Content
A recent study found that 90% of remote employees face issues with IT during the virtual onboarding process. It is not a surprise that the new remote employee you hired has no access to reliable internet or the computer they are using does not have the right specs.
In other cases, the employee may not have access to the software you want to be used for your projects. Some of these software are very expensive. Therefore, not every virtual assistant may be able to afford them. All these are issues you need to address for your remote worker to feel settled in the work environment.
Solution
Deliver equipment to the new employee: With many reliable courier services available, you can ship the relevant equipment to your employee. If the shipping cost is too high, you can arrange with the new employee to buy the equipment at the nearest electronics depot.
Schedule an IT session with the new hire: one advantage you have is that you are working with someone who knows their way around a computer. Therefore, a meeting with the IT to help them set up the systems required to perform the tasks.
2. Making Onboarding a Monotonous Process
If not careful, you may fail into the temptation of taking the onboarding process for granted. It is not unusual to find a company sending handouts and manuals to the new employee for them to study. The expectation is that the new employee will read the materials and familiarize themselves with the company’s operations.
Solution
Personalize the onboarding process: the problem with making the onboarding process a norm is that the new employee may take it for granted too. Also, it ignores the fact every employee has unique needs. Therefore, there is a need to schedule individual online video-call meetings where you can conduct a personalized onboarding. There is also no harm in requesting feedback from the employee.
3. Remote Employee May Feel Isolated
There is a big likelihood that the anxiety of being new may turn into a feeling of isolation, especially if no one is around to welcome you. It is even a bigger challenge for remote workers because they are all alone at home.
Solution
Schedule time for connecting with the new hire: one of the onboarding objectives is to make the new remote worker feel like part of the team. Therefore, one of the onboarding meetings should include a team introduction meeting. You can schedule this on the same day you have a meeting with the rest of the employees. It will prove useful in breaking the ice with the rest of the employees. Also, include the new employee in any team-building activities you may have in your business.
4. The Danger of Information Overload
There is the temptation to swamp the new hire with all the required information to perform their tasks. While it may be tempting to equip the employee with the information they require to perform the required tasks, it may be added pressure on them.
Solution
Provide a structure for learning new information: having a structure for learning this information would help ease pressure on the new employee. You can ease the information supply through an employee training program. It will be easier to share information related to the employee’s specific duties during the training sessions.
You can also store the information on Google drive, where the new employee can access it whenever required. Hence, it is important to integrate your new hire into the business’s systems to ensure that they can access all the information shared with the team. For example, you can add them to your project management tools such as ClickUp, Trello, or Asana.
Have You Automated Your Onboarding Process
The process of remote employee onboarding may be much more complicated if you have not automated your systems. Most of the solutions suggested here would work best if you have automated your onboarding process. Let’s help you get started by developing custom onboarding journeys by streamlining all your business processes. It is not for your new employees only. We plan to help you create a desirable first impression even when onboarding new clients.