Your new remote hire is all geared up to start; from equipment to paperwork, they are ready for their new role. But what will their induction look like?
Providing a structure will be crucial to ensure smooth onboarding, and it will get the new employee up to speed as quickly as possible, so they can start to feel comfortable and confident and be productive in their new role.
The main points of doing a remote induction will involve:
- Introducing the employee to their new job and their primary responsibilities
- What is expected of them and how their work will be assessed
- How they will carry out their duties and who/how they will be supported to do it
Before your new employee’s first day, ensure you have communicated with them and reassured them that their job is safe and inform them how the remote induction will work. It would be advantageous to you and your new hire to exchange contact information and arrange a Zoom/Teams video call on their 1st day.
Here are our top tips for mapping out their first weeks in the digital office:
1. Formally introduce
Where relevant, send out an email to the wider company (or appropriate teams) introducing your new starter. In the communication, include some information about the individual’s career background, what they will be focusing on in the business, and something personal which people can then use as an e-conversation starter – such as ‘dog lover,’ ‘keen traveller’ or ‘jujitsu medallist’ – and crucially, include the new starter’s email in the body of the text. Encourage a culture where new starters are made welcome.
2. Induction timeline
Provide a sense of routine from the outset by sending an itinerary for the first couple of weeks, including training sessions, one-to-ones, and time to work on specified tasks.
The first week is about easing them in and getting them up to speed quickly, so it’s important to have some initial and immediate workload on top of the training and introductions. Send diary invites for everything you schedule to help your new hire structure their day.
3. Training programme
Think about all the processes you may need to provide training on to support your recruit in performing their job. This may include things you deal with as they come up in an office setting, such as accessing the company intranet, accessing templates and critical files, or bookmarking sites they will use regularly.
4. Make them feel supported
From checking in regularly, providing mentorship to creating a safe space for honest and relaxed communication, you need to provide support in every sense to help your new employee to reach that familiarity and level of comfort that organically occurs in an office environment.
5. Feedback Loop
Digital onboarding is a learning curve for all parties, so there are bound to be teething issues when implementing it for the first time.
After week one, be sure to ask your new team member what can be improved. Perhaps they could have benefited from a more organised system or would have appreciated fewer meetings and more downtime to get settled in?
It’s also important to note what not to do on your new employee’s first week: Don’t overload them with work or new information on their first day or first week.
If you need any help with remote inductions, please do get in touch with me.