Onboarding the Modern Workforce: Best Practices for Employee Onboarding for Remote and Hybrid Teams

With remote or hybrid workforces becoming the norm globally, an increasing number of companies are working towards onboarding new hires remotely. A recent survey conducted in 2022 also found that 80% of people (8 out of 10) are working in a remote or hybrid environment, making them an integral part of most organizations’ cultures.

A well-structured and organized onboarding program paves the way for success and creates a positive employee experience without any wasted time, resources, and effort. It ensures that employees stay in the organization longer and enhances employee productivity.

But how can you integrate an effective onboarding process for your employees? In this blog, we’ll explore the best practices for employee onboarding for diverse teams as more and more organizations shift to hybrid and remote working modes.

What is Remote or Virtual Employee Onboarding?

Remote or virtual onboarding is the process of integrating and familiarizing new employees with an organization’s culture, processes, tools, and expectations, all conducted in a virtual environment. It ensures that new hires feel welcomed, equipped, and engaged, despite working remotely from different locations.

Unlike traditional onboarding, which often involves face-to-face interactions, remote onboarding relies on technology, virtual communication tools, and innovative strategies to create a seamless experience for the new hire.

The key highlights of remote onboarding are:

• Pre-boarding Essentials
  • Shipping hardware (laptops, phones, etc.) and providing a welcome kit with resources.
• Tech Setup
  • Creating email accounts, software logins, and ensuring secure IT access (VPN, MFA).
• Onboarding Resources
  • Sharing detailed instructional documents, videos, and digital handbooks.
• Virtual Orientation
  • Conducting live or recorded sessions to introduce the company, role, and expectations.
• Team Integration
  • Scheduling virtual meet-and-greets and assigning a buddy or mentor.
• Ongoing Support
  • Regular check-ins with managers/HR and access to IT or onboarding help desks.

Challenges and Solutions for Onboarding Employees Working in Remote and Hybrid Teams

However, 37% of remote organizations find virtual onboarding quite challenging. This is because onboarding employees remotely goes beyond simple logistics.

The more critical parts of a successful remote onboarding include establishing a strong foundation for managing relationships across the organization, building an understanding of the culture, and finding ways to connect the individual’s work to the broader organizational mission, vision, and employee goals in new hires.

Modern technology, such as video conferencing and similar collaboration tools, can replicate several aspects of in-person onboarding in a remote work environment and help organizations create a potent onboarding process.

The availability of a wide range of tools further helps HR departments automate various parts of the remote onboarding process. These include online calendar tools, electronic signature software, performance management systems, and more.

To help you navigate this better, we’ll share some of the best practices for employee onboarding for remote and hybrid teams here.

Best Practices for Employee Onboarding for Remote Teams

Remote onboarding is critical but often overlooked in any organization. Here are some of the best practices for employee onboarding in remote and hybrid teams so they feel part of the culture and are set up for long-term success.

1. Set Clear Expectations

First and foremost, it is crucial to set clear expectations among new hires regarding the onboarding process to ensure a seamless transition. Recent data also found that companies with well-defined and proper onboarding programs have seen an increase of  82% in retention rates.

In addition, effective remote onboarding can enhance employee performance manifolds. Data suggests that a robust onboarding process improves new employee productivity by more than 70%.

By clearly explaining the profile, job responsibilities, and work deliverables, companies can help new employees foster a sense of accountability and work ethics right from the start. This kind of effective remote onboarding practice can lead to a more engaged workforce and higher team effectiveness, thus promoting a positive work culture.

2. Troubleshoot Online Issues Proactively

In a hybrid work setup, technical issues can cause a lot of unnecessary stress,  especially during the first day of the employee.

Following are some of the best practices for employee onboarding to ensure better navigation:

• Make sure to prepare any access credentials and equipment in advance, such as laptops, project management software, company email addresses, virtual meeting links, and more.
• If the new employees are supposed to set up the required hardware and software themselves, have a technical support member on standby to answer questions and resolve technical issues quickly.
• Give notice in advance if the IT department needs remote access to a new employee’s desktop. Also, address any privacy or security concerns well in advance.
• Be explicit about the company’s standard procedure for virtual conferencing or remote meetings, such as muting the mics or putting off the camera.

To be effective, remote workers need clarity and easy access to the right tools in the virtual workplace. These include messaging apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, video conferencing tools such as Zoom, and other apps and tools.

3. Build a Connection

When working remotely, new hires don’t get the opportunity to explore the office and meet their colleagues like their in-office counterparts do. This can be an issue, as the data suggests employees with close relationships with their co-workers are 50% more satisfied.

Here are some of the ways you can help your new hires build a connection with their colleagues are discussed below:

• Communicate their start date to team members: It is very important to clearly announce your new hire’s arrival date to the team before they start. Adding new joiners to your communication channels before their start date is also a great way to help them find their way around the platform much faster.
• Host icebreaker sessions:  One of the best ways to build connections with new hires is by introducing them to their team. This encourages them to get to know each other and is also a good way to nurture these connections.
• Schedule 1:1 sessions with team members: After the initial introductions, it is best to begin scheduling 1:1 sessions for new hires with their colleagues so that they get to know each other better.

4. Leverage Technology for Remote Integration

As remote or hybrid work culture continues to rise, it has become a necessity for organizations to connect with talent globally. Statistics also show that remote hiring can boost organizational efficiency by up to 67%, thus allowing companies to take advantage of a diverse pool of applicants without geographical limitations.

To navigate this better, here are some of the useful technological integrations  companies can make to streamline the process of remote onboarding:

• Adopt advanced HR systems, such as cloud-based systems, that simplify the recruitment process.
• Streamline aspects such as job postings, candidate tracking, etc., in a seamless interface to save time and resources.

Integrating such technology helps enhance the overall recruitment experience and also ensures that the companies stay competitive in a rapidly evolving job market.

5. Clearly Explain the Company Culture

When working remotely, new employees must learn about the company’s culture from the outset. To ensure this, you need to spend more time with them than you generally would in a face-to-face environment. Make sure to create the space for your new hires to ask about the way things are done as well.

Some of the tips you can employ here to make the process smooth and streamlined are:

• Schedule multiple virtual training sessions for your new hires to learn more about the company and its culture. You can make use of Google Slides for training presentations, share various internal training videos, or send them easy links for online tutorials. These are excellent methods to help them get up to speed on their own time.
• To build confidence in new joiners before any real work is assigned, prepare a few simple tasks for them to complete early on. For instance, you can have them watch a short video, set up their company email or software profiles, and so on.
• Conduct live one-on-one video sessions between instructors and new hires to help them learn the basics of their respective team or department, proprietary software, etc.
• Clearly outline work logistics and expectations by documenting processes, solutions, how-tos, guides, and policies. This will help you engage your remote employees and encourage adopt remote-first communication and workflow practices better.
• Schedule weekly one-on-one check-ins with new hires to field questions, ask about challenges, or focus on areas to grow and build trust. Managers can also interchange formal meetings with coffee chats to listen to employees, share, and have open conversations to build trust and accountability.

6. Develop a Sense of Belongingness

The latest piece of research revealed that 58% of employees find it challenging to fit into an organization’s workplace culture when working in a remote environment.

To navigate this challenge, it is important to create a sense of belongingness in employees early on.

Here are the best practices for employee onboarding you can do this include:

• Add all new hires to channels like Slack, where they offer the required instructional materials to encourage collaboration.
• Every new joiner should be assigned a mentor or a peer onboarding buddy who they can shadow for the initial few days to grow and learn together. Onboarding or orientation buddies help set the expectation for how to build relationships with other team members in the organization.
• Provide opportunities to access various online courses during or after orientation, as targeted training is key to achieving success in any role or profile.

• Keep checking in regularly to help new hires feel welcome and supported.
• Encourage them to socialize with other new hires and help them learn about the company and its culture.

7. Evaluate the Effectiveness of Remote Onboarding

The inability to lead successful remote onboarding can lead to a poor turnover rate for employees. By implementing proper onboarding metrics, such as new hire turnover rate or 360-degree feedback, HR teams can significantly improve the success of your onboarding program, identify various issues in the process, and improve retention as well.

A few of the important metrics organizations can track here include:

• New employee turnover rate: It is the metrics that can help you track the total number of employees who leave the firm within a specific time period or first year of employment
• Time to productivity: Time to productivity is a metric that helps you measure the total time it takes for a new joinee to become operational and productive.
• Onboarding satisfaction: This metric helps you better understand new hires and how they are coping in a new organization after a specific period of time.
• Retention threshold: As the name suggests, the retention threshold is a metric used to determine the point at which new hires leave the organization.
• Training completion rate: It is yet another important metric that helps you monitor the total number of new employees who finished their training on time

To sum up

With the number of people working remotely increasing, it becomes important for employers to have an effective remote onboarding process in place. Since onboarding is the first impression a new joinee gets from your organization, it is critical to do it well so that your new team members succeed in their roles.

The best practices for employee onboarding discussed in this post serve as an excellent starting point for building a successful remote onboarding experience for your new hires and helping them on the path to long-term success.

theEMPLOYEEapp can help you align and motivate your remote employees to level up your workforce with great ease. Some of its features that make remote onboarding easier include goal-setting, peer recognition, manager feedback, knowledge sharing/e-learning, rewards, and social performance.

Request a demo with us today!

FAQs

1. What are the most important elements of successful remote onboarding?

A well-designed remote onboarding program can help new hires feel welcome and engaged from the start. The best practices for employee onboarding for remote teams include clear communication, effective training, and ongoing support.

2. What is the 4 step remote onboarding process?

Remote onboarding is a detailed and thorough approach to integrating new employees. It includes orientation, training, and ongoing support to help new employees become effective contributors to the organization. 

3. What software is recommended for remote onboarding?

Some of the most common software for remote onboarding include an HRIS, such as BambooHR, a video-conferencing tool, such as Zoom, or an online chat platform, such as Slack.