Best practices to ensure the best experience possible.
Onboarding has become a huge focal point for HR and People teams - how do you make it equitable for everyone when people are in office or at home? In one time zone or three time zones? Here are some best practices to ensure that everyone feels included and is provided the best experience possible.
From candidate to new hire
Once a candidate signs an offer letter, congratulations - they are now a new hire! The time between signing the offer and their first day is where HR and People teams can really shine.
Communication
Working together with your talent team (if you have one), make sure to have the transition from candidate to new hire work seamlessly. Having your talent team introduce your new hire to the onboarding team is an easy and effective way to support the hand-off.
Once the onboarding team has “met” the new hire over email, it’s time to communicate what the employee can expect - from action items they need to complete to when to expect the next communication from the onboarding team. This works well in document format where you can share information on the company, culture, benefits, and basic information like their manager contact details (like a Notion or Wiki page).
Employees also get nervous about wondering where their equipment is - so it’s key for IT to be part of the onboarding team to communicate what employees should be expecting in terms of hardware and when to expect it.
Manager Tasks
One key element to a successful onboarding process is how well prepared the manager is! Working with the people team, a manager should focus on creating a 30/60/90 day plan with clear goals and metrics the new hire is expected to hit at each milestone.
Other tasks managers should be given are to ensure they have a 1:1 scheduled the employees first day, team meet and greet over zoom
Day 1 and beyond
Day 1 can make or break a new hire’s experience at the company. The People team needs to be in close alignment with IT and the hiring manager to ensure a smooth first day experience.
Timing is everything
When it comes to managing a remote-first onboarding, keeping in mind an equitable schedule is important - if everyone must meet HR on their first day, ensuring that the time is equitable no matter when an employee is located must be a focus.
People Experience should also make the decision that all new hires start virtually on their first day so that remote employees in an onboarding cohort don’t feel sidelined by team members who might live close to an office.
Welcome Welcome Welcome
Onboarding remotely is somewhat terrifying and isolating. To help an employee feel welcome, the People team and the hiring manager should align on how the new hire is welcome to the company.
Whether a slack bot, the hiring manager, or an employee experience team member - a custom welcome message where the company can engage is an easy way to bring connection on day one. Allowing team members to emoji or comment helps drive some of that “meet + greet” feeling you would get walking through an office on day one.
Another small but special way to make a new hire feel welcome is to create a welcome lunch or small get-together with a variety of team members on their first day or sometimes their first week. This is a great way to recreate those organic instances in an office setting where a new hire meets someone in the kitchen.
Pulse Checks
Throughout a new hires experience, a pulse check from People Experience helps identify how onboarding is going, what is working vs what is not and to fix gaps before it’s too late. Creating a 7-day/30-day/90-day survey asking questions on various topics like connection, productivity, and manager effectiveness allows employees to share their experiences in real-time. People Experience should set up calls with the team members after filling out surveys to walk through their response and allow the employee to feel heard on how onboarding is truly going.
Remote onboarding will continue to evolve but with close alignment across People Experience, IT, and leadership an employee's first day can be very impactful. Keeping things consistent through the process and task management will bring an equitable experience regardless of where an employee works and lives.