The initial impact of the pandemic was hard-hitting, with businesses thrown off balance out of the blue. Most of them ended up struggling to make the transition to the remote operations but things seem pretty normal now. Still, there is one challenge that small business owners are facing and that relates to getting new people on board. After all, the show must go on and you cannot stop hiring because you are still operating. A smart shift in your onboarding process, therefore, makes sense to realign the process with the current situation. Here is a helpful remote onboarding checklist that you can rely on for keeping your small business on track with getting new people in your organization.
Communicate with the new hire
Effective communication with potential employees is as important today as it ever was. But you can expect an inevitable change in how you do it as you are operating remotely now. Your HR team will decide who the point of contact would be because this is the person who would give the key information to the new hire regarding their first day. Also, consider the elements this information should have, such as the links to join video conferences, the devices they are permitted to use, the time their onboarding sessions would start, how they can get ready for them, and a clear agenda for the first few days. This would make them comfortable, particularly if they are working remotely for the first time.
Have a system for hardware setup and delivery
Since you cannot have new recruits at the workplace on the first day, the only way to deliver the requisite hardware is by shipping the items to their homes. Plan the entire process in advance, right from fixing responsibility for shipping to ensuring that your IT team configures the systems before shipping. You may consider setups over video conferences but that can be challenging. Sharing passwords and login credentials safely is also a part of the setup and delivery process. While you do implement this system, you need to prioritize timely delivery, which should be before the date of joining.
Modify your content for virtual learning
Like every business, you would already have an onboarding process but now it is time to realign by modifying the content and instructional modules to be accessible for the virtual workers. If you plan to give your employees a better onboarding experience, you will need to ensure that they understand your business, its values, culture, process, and everything else that would matter for them. Create a welcome package of useful documents in a PDF format and share it digitally, instead of sending across a hard copy.
Have a virtual onboarding presentation
The typical in-person presentation that you may have been using for years will not work for the new hires because they have joined in completely different circumstances. You will have to come up with a new presentation that matches the virtual learning environments. For instance, if the original presentation includes a YouTube video, it will not work well with screen sharing and will obviously not create a good experience for the employee. Instead, you can consider including visual aids on your screen to clarify things while conducting the presentation.
Schedule an HR orientation as well
While explaining the technical aspects of work to the new hires is important, you cannot overlook the importance of introducing them to the organizational culture and norms. Having an HR orientation session is equally important for a proper virtual onboarding process. You can do it for individual employees or as a group orientation for a few of them together. This is where you can ask them to sign the HR documents digitally, learn about company benefits, and interact with their mentor, team, and orientation buddy. Be sure to give them enough time to review the documents before signing.
Conduct role-specific training
After the formalities of getting a new hire on board are done, the next step is about providing them role-specific training so that they can get started with work. Apart from scheduling training sessions, provide them the learning material they would need. Also, they should have the contact information of the team members or others they would need to interact with during the onboarding process. A training session not only makes the person capable of delivering productivity but also sets clear expectations right from the start.
Encouraging feedback for the onboarding process is equally important because it can get you valuable insights about improving it. As work-from-home operations are here to stay, you need to get only better with time. Investing in the latest tools and software solutions is as important for ramping up the process as following this checklist is.
