It’s 2020 and you are hiring because your business is going fantastic and your company is growing more and more everyday. Well, let us say two things: 1) Congratulations! So many sectors are being affected by the current pandemic, but you are expanding your brand! That deserves some champagne and a huge amount of confetti! 2) But hey, hold on there. Keep your Italian party shoes inside your wardrobe because COVID-19 is still demanding us to not go out. Carry on with partying from home, having meetings from home, and yes you are right, onboarding from home.
So, how can you efficiently welcome your new crew members if you cannot do it face-to-face? Well, you are definitely not preparing a 4 hour daily online meeting for a week.
With this blog post we aim you can find new ways of onboarding from home and achieving that balance between your new team members autonomy and support from others.
On the basis that the pre-onboarding process(as having all the work equipment and systems accesses ready) is covered, you may also take in consideration these next five tips for your new employees' first days.
Interactive Company Compass
Summing up everything your amazing company represents is not an easy task to do, we know. At ahead, we like to define Company Compass as the collection of what is your brand’s Vision, what are the Values and what are the Goals to achieve.
But what is the best way to communicate the pillars of your company to your new employees? Be careful, not everyone has a golden memory, and the most probable thing is they will forget about it if you only mention it once at your "welcome meeting".
We recommend you to store all of this valuable information in a tool where your workforce can visually and easily interact with anytime and anywhere they want to. Empower them, do not bore them!
Way of Work
In the same vein as the previous point, once your new team members get to know your Company Compass, it is the momentum for sharing what your Way of Work is. This can collect some instruction as how your business departments or areas are distributed, how do they work aligned, how do you implement your technology or, simply, who do your employees need to reach for that specific question. It is about practical information.
Collect it and empower your workforce to interact with it. This will avoid loss of time and will make your new employees see you have given them the trust required.
Balance Giving Space with Checking In
Quick reminder: Do not replace "welcome meetings" with some “here you can find everything you need; I am out of here” attitude. Do not do that! The key is finding your most efficient way for onboarding your new team players from home.
Make sure you provide enough time for them to navigate through your onboarding plan, that they can feel their autonomy from their first days. But as already mentioned, it still is an onboarding process, so ensure you check in regularly to observe how great they are doing as how can you help and give support in the process.
1 to 1s
The best way for introducing to your new employees their new colleagues, the ones that will work hand-to-hand with, is providing 1 to 1s.Large team meetings are great, but in terms of efficiency, they do not perform as well as 1 to 1s. Firstly, because the interaction on a virtual team meeting is not as fluent and easy as in real life, and secondly, it is most likely your new team members will not catch all the names, roles and information they need, as who are the relevant people for their day-to-day.
Make sure they have personal meetings with that key people they will need to work with, so they can discuss in a relaxed and private way their future collaboration, as it is an ideal opportunity for them to get to know each other.
Present the Whole Band
It obviously depends on the size of your company, but have you ever been introduced to a group of people that you no longer knew who was who when the presentation ended?
Even though the destroying question, we still recommend providing this team introduction. But it must be a short glimpse.
Onboarding remotely has the advantage that the process of meeting the whole crew can be gradual. Internal social interaction within your company will help your new team members meet and connect with everyone, and will generate conversations and employee engagement within your social platforms.
You have done an excellent job in your recruiting process, so keep providing that quality. A fun and well-organized onboarding process will be the definitive impression of your new employee with your company. Conducting it from home should not be a problem! Simply different.
We, ahead, are a social intranet that help companies to storage all their valuable information in one place, as keeping all their workforce connected with our social features.
Do you want to know more? Cool! Check out our features!
