Creating a virtual onboarding program is all about creating a welcoming environment for new employees.
Onboarding is an important part of the new hire process. It’s how you help your new team members feel like they are part of your company and that they belong. But what do you do if, like many of us, your company is now onboarding in an all-remote setting? Having a solid virtual onboarding plan is just as important as having a plan for in-person onboarding. Whether you’re unexpectedly working remotely or you’ve had a distributed work plan for a while, investing in your virtual onboarding program now will continue to pay off down the road.
Whether you’re actively hiring or plan to hire soon, your hires will all need a quality virtual onboarding program when the time comes. We’ve made it easy to engage and support your new hires by identifying three areas of focus:
1. We know that when you communicate with someone, you want to be heard.
Communication is a crucial part of any new hire onboarding process, but it can be especially difficult when your team is distributed. That's why it's important to have a clear plan for communicating with new hires and creating certainty for your remote teams.
One way to do this is by using a new hire communication channel that allows managers to intentionally communicate about things like working hours and communication norms for the team and company during a virtual kickoff meeting. Make sure you're not just sharing this information once; instead, make sure that you continue to communicate with new hires throughout their onboarding process. You can do this by asking questions such as, "Do you have a preferred method of communicating?" or "What are some ways we can stay virtually connected?"
Another way to create certainty is by sharing ways for new hires to virtually meet the team. New hires get access to info like what to expect during their first few weeks of onboarding and can make connections with the broader team through online tools by sharing fun facts, personal hobbies and interests.
2. We believe that belonging is the key to communication
Belonging starts on day one. We have an ongoing effort to share our employee resource groups (ERGs) and community-based communication channels (example: Slack or Notion) with new hires on their first day. This way, when they start work, they have a place where they can get involved and contribute to the culture by sharing a piece of themselves with the company or building a community.
Next, we think about all the opportunities you would have to form connections in person: How can you replicate those, virtually? Think up creative ways to bring new hires into the fold! If you're able, send new hires a care package of employee swag so they immediately feel like a part of the team. Other ideas might include storytelling—by recording a video of your leaders talking about historic cultural moments at the company.
3. You've got the product, the team, and the customers—now all you need is to make sure your operations are running smoothly and efficiently.
When you're onboarding employees across locations, it's important to make sure that everything is aligned. Otherwise, you risk causing confusion and making your new hires feel like they're in the dark about their responsibilities.
One way to avoid this is by using onboarding platforms or a shared calendar and task list. This helps you keep track of who is responsible for which tasks. This helps your team stay on track, and it will help them succeed in their roles.
Another thing you can do to ensure that your new hires have a great experience is create a remote onboarding guide for managers. This will give them all the information they need to make sure that remote employees are introduced to the company culture and processes early on.
Finally, removing technology obstacles from their first week can really pay off and improve a virtual onboarding experience. For instance, if your IT team has a virtual IT onboarding session before your new hire's official first day so they can hit the ground running without technical difficulties, then they'll be more likely to get up-to-speed quickly when they start working remotely!