Virtual Onboarding: A Program Set-Up
Most managers know that onboarding new employees electronically is challenging, and many are aware of the long-term consequences of a poor onboarding process. Onboarding entails more than just ensuring that your new hire has access to a computer. Productivity, engagement, and retention are all boosted by an efficient onboarding program.
Here are ten steps to ensure an effective onboarding program:
1. Reexamine Your Previous Onboarding Program
・Analyze Data From Previous Onboarding:
Analyzing historical onboarding metrics may reveal exactly what is missing or needs to be changed in these processes. Examine the timeframes for a newbie to adjust to the workplace and learn all processes. A lengthy procedure could indicate that they don't have the resources to comprehend what's going on in the firm entirely.
・Reconsider Your initial Onboarding Schedule:
Reexamine everything in the program using three critical questions:
- Does it make people feel like they've made the right decision in joining your organization?
- Does it make them excited about the company's mission and vision and how their new job aligns with that?
- Does it help them build relationships on which they feel they can expand?
2. Ensure a Welcoming, Hassle-Free Kick-off
Even organizations with remote workforces usually chose to complete their onboarding in-person before the epidemic, so it's doubtful that a new employee joining your organization has ever undergone an entirely virtual onboarding process. Create a strategy to alleviate first-day anxieties and allow your staff to feel welcomed and confident right away, keeping this sensitivity in mind.
・Assign experienced employees as Mentors:
Assign employees with a strong understanding of the organization and the ability to lead by example. It'd be the virtual equivalent of having a compatible colleague meet you for coffee throughout the first few weeks, ready and available to answer questions and provide progress reports. This improves onboarding while also benefiting the new hire, mentor, and firm as a whole.
・Before the first day, establish a connection with the company:
Find a way to make an applicant feel like a family member as soon as they accept the job offer. Reckitt Benckiser, a major consumer goods corporation, offers new workers a care gift before their start date. It's chock-full of the company's wares, as well as a heartfelt statement that connects the wares to the company's aim.
・Before the start date, set up technologies:
Offering a session with IT to show each new employee how the videoconferencing platform, communication channels, and other company tools work will help reduce first-day nervousness. Doing so ahead of time reduces technical concerns and allows new employees to be completely present and at ease on the first day. Some companies provide new employees with a new laptop and phone before their start date, fully configured with the appropriate company settings and security standards. This fosters a sense of belonging to the company and alleviates new employee fear.
3. Foster Team Spirit from the Very Start
Personalization and interaction are crucial when onboarding employees digitally. Onboarding establishes the foundation for colleague connections by showcasing an organization's lived values, introducing its culture, and setting the baseline for colleague interactions. The most significant things a manager can do are intentionally developing integration with individual team members, exhibiting empathy in the learning curve, and supporting consistent open communication.
・Develop solid one-on-one relationships:
Encourage your new hire and their teammates to schedule a mix of formal conversations to cover rules, responsibilities, and business objectives. They also need to plan shorter, informal interactions over coffee, lunch, or debriefing on a recent meeting to combat the lack of spontaneous opportunities for small talk and other relationship building that would typically occur in an office. One advantage of virtual onboarding, similar to virtual interviewing, is the widespread availability of coworkers through video, so these encounters should be simple to plan.
・Encourage your team to participate:
Empower your entire team, from the CEO to all levels of your organization, to participate in the onboarding process. This will provide visibility to the new employee of your company's purpose, objective, and vision, as well as the amazing individuals who work there to foster collaboration and promising partnerships. Also, solicit comments from recruits on improving the experience in the future.
4. Organize A Cultural Experience
In a typical onboarding training session, you would present information about the company's history, beliefs, and culture. Building business culture and making new workers feel included in a new reality, on the other hand, is difficult. Include the following in virtual training to develop a business culture:
- Virtual team happy hours for employees to get to know one another.
- Remote first-day lunches to make newcomers feel at ease.
- Photos and movies that show your history, events, and so on.
- A company-wide newsletter to keep everyone up to date.
- A "cultural mentor" to assist new staff in settling in.
Additionally, keep the team in touch by regularly organizing video calls and instant chatting so new hires feel included.
・Choose a culture buddy:
It's beneficial to assign someone the new employee may approach with inquiries about the culture. After a crucial group conversation, the buddy might debrief with the new employee, pointing out acts that aren't following the company's culture or how others might see his or her manner.
5. Establish Clear Expectations and Link the Individual's Work to the Organization's Overall Mission, Vision, and Objectives
For the first 100 days and beyond, a recruit should have a clear sense of what success looks like. New hires should understand how their responsibilities contribute to their overall performance. When a new employee joins the team, the hiring manager should share significant communications and presentations made by the organization's leadership on its strategy and goals to understand how their job fits into the bigger picture.
6. Make Use of Technology
・Using video instructions to explain things:
Video lessons can be beneficial by properly describing how to traverse your virtual world. A welcome video is one method to accomplish this. A buddy system, which links new hires with seasoned staff who have been onboard for longer and know where things are situated and which processes must be done first, is also an excellent tool.
・Make use of virtual collaboration software:
The gap between in-person and virtual onboarding will be bridged by using virtual collaboration technology like Spatial, which interfaces with familiar platforms like Microsoft Teams. It uses VR to simulate our workplace atmosphere, create new virtual tours, show the material in new ways, and finish presentations in an immersive environment.
One of the most critical factors in employee success is onboarding. Getting off to a good start gives you a leg up. Starting on the wrong foot undermines a new employee's confidence and causes the organization to rethink the hiring decision. What distinguishes the finest onboarding companies — whether in-person or virtual — is that the effort is deliberate and does not finish after the first week, 30 days, or even 100 days. Your onboarding program should only be the start of a long-term development plan that focuses on improving your workers' cultural alignment, cross-organizational relationships, and job performance.
1 HBR, 10 May 2021, James M. Citrin and Darleen DeRosa, How to set up a remote employee for success on day one, Accessed 29 Jan 2022, https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-to-set-up-a-remote-employee-for-success-on-day-one
LinkedIn, 3 Nov 2020, Bruce M. Anderson, 8 steps to creating a virtual employee onboarding program, Accessed 29 Jan 2022, < https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-management/steps-to-creating-virtual-onboarding-program
Forbes, 2 Oct 2020, Stephen Baer, Virtual Onboarding: How to Engage Remote Workers Early On, Accessed 29 Jan 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2020/10/02/virtual-onboarding-how-to-engage-remote-workers-early-on/?sh=5aaf4d4ef0a3
Forbes, 7 Sep 2021, Expert Panel, 14 Important Steps to Improve Virtual Onboarding Procedures, Accessed 29 Jan 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/09/07/14-important-steps-to-improve-virtual-onboarding-procedures/?sh=4e4f7494557e
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