The ongoing threat to public health means working from home is now a reality for many of us, and so new employees joining your organisation will require more support than before. This guide will share apps, initiatives and ideas for digital solutions to consider including within your Onboarding process.

The quality of your organisation’s onboarding is a significant determining factor as a new employee struggles to adapt within their first few weeks, or whether they integrate quickly into the team . The onboarding experience begins the moment the candidate accepts your offer. This period, until completing probation, is a crucial stage to provide employees with everything they need to acclimatise and succeed in their role, from technology to training.

Adjusting your onboarding strategy for remote working enables organisations to build better relationships; helping new employees feel welcome and confident in their decision to join you – particularly during this societal isolation.

Read on to determine how best new employees can be effectively integrated into your team.

Getting Started

The signing of legal documentation and employment contracts can be laborious and slow, particularly if new employees are expected to print, scan and return multiple copies over email, or even via postal services. Many of these options are unavailable for the moment.

Add some e-signature software to your organizational toolkit for a safe, secure and speedy method of adding digital signatures to all your forms. We recommend using a service like legalEsign for a simple, accessible experience.

Following this, you should provide easy access to comprehensive corporate policy documents where necessary, such as usage of customer data and work property, as well as health and safety. Creating a safety checklist will safeguard your team members working from home, so you can have confidence that they are adhering to guidelines as to what constitutes a safe working environment. You should ensure this covers electrical safety and emergency readiness, as well as wellbeing advice.

Tech Set-Up

Any employee embarking on a new role from a remote or home-office environment will require a computer and potentially and other hardware to be up-and-running advance of their first day. Send laptops and other supplies via courier so your employee can feel at ease and valued.

Next, arrange for a member of your IT team to provide some live set-up. Your new hire will need log ins, email addresses, access to databases, file- sharing apps and cloud backup software, like Google Drive or Dropbox, and other specific tools relevant to their role.

Following set-up, ask your new hire to share a photo of their workstation with you, so that you can clarify their understanding and observation of the updated work-from-home safety guidelines during this time.

Welcome to the Team!

Diarise a video conference call at the very start of their first day, then check-in at least once daily throughout in their first working week. Reassure your team members that they are not working in isolation, and that you are there to support them. You should also be available to answer any questions they may have, and encourage them to ask!

Apps like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom can help you create an immersive, interactive experience for your workforce, improving collaboration and employee engagement. To reinforce this supportive message, schedule multiple live video calls to introduce them to their new team. Some 1:1 time for new people to get to know their teammates, managers and employees from other departments is of great value, as face-to-face conversation will build connections between new hires and their co-workers.

Induction & E-Learning: Increase Speed-to-Competency

In the short term, collate a variety of recorded video conveying specific training on the duties of each role, as well wider organisational policies. Help your new hires to understand organisational mission and values, including your operating history and future plans. These can be filmed by senior figures including the CEO, as well as colleagues in human resources.

As a longer-term project, consider developing an e-learning system. Your new recruits can gradually work through a modular series of interactive courses and visual demonstrations. A smart learning platform will allow you track progress and determine development areas.

Any investment in recorded video will ease reliance on senior individuals with the responsibility of delivering multiple live training curriculum, freeing up their time and guaranteeing a consistent message. Video training can then be re-delivered on-demand should refresher courses be required. Many animated presentations can be quickly converted into video format, and screen-capture software is widely available to record specific demonstrations.

Power-Hungry

As a Friday treat to celebrate the success of a first week, why not order food for delivery on behalf of your new employee?

Use your detective skills to subtly find out what your new starter loves to eat. Deliveroo and UberEats apps have lots of favourites and will make for a welcome treat to congratulate them on joining your awesome team.

While we are largely denied the luxury of eating in restaurants and cafes (or even the humble meal-deal) some crucial team-bonding is still available! Access your remote workforce with their food orders and eat together on a live meeting – virtual Nando’s anyone?

Considering remote projects during this shutdown? Contact our team of expert Consultants for support.