Apr 30, 2020
The new realities of the coronavirus pandemic and the social distancing orders of state and local governments have forced many businesses to transition their workforces out of the traditional office space and into the remote home office environment.
For over eight years, my company has relied exclusively on the remote home office environment for its workers and has gained extensive experience in the recruitment, onboarding and retention of these vital home remote workers in the U.S. and abroad.
We have developed a highly successful program consisting of four stages: the remote interview process, preboarding, team integration and ongoing training/employee educational development. Based on my experience, here’s how you can navigate these four remote workforce onboarding stages.
The Interview Process
Over the past eight years, we have
discovered that a successful onboarding
program begins with a relevant and
detailed job description that informs the
applicant of the company’s objectives and
delivery methods. When creating a job
description for a remote position, it’s
important to be as detailed as possible
regarding the responsibilities of the
position, reporting structure and
explicit work requirements. You will also
need to pay close attention to the
software tool needs and skill level for
each of your remote workers to guarantee
that everyone is working on the same
system for efficiency and team management
purposes. Interviews can be conducted via
video conference using tools such as
Zoom.
During the interview process, the
remote applicant is further informed of
detailed job responsibilities and company
expectations. In each of their
interviews, the remote applicant should
typically meet at least three members of
the team that they may be working closely
with. In my experience, a remote
workforce is further developed into a
team when each team member has assisted
in their recruitment. You can implement
this interview strategy by communicating
with team members and managers on
specific job requirements to include in
the job advertisement. I do not recommend
delegating the interview to a recruiter
or someone without knowledge of the job
functions. Instead, involve senior
members of the team in the interview
process.
Preboarding
Once hired, the new employee should
undergo a detailed preboarding process.
This process should begin with a welcome
email that provides an itinerary for the
first few weeks and a management team
contact to answer any questions. This new
employee onboarding itinerary should map
out all the necessary employee forms to
complete, contact and bio information for
each of their new team members, a short
synopsis of department goals for the
year, along with any necessary client
project information.
At my company, we also like to provide
new hires with a company handbook and
access to our Slack channel, so that they
can “meet and greet” their co-workers
before their first day. To make them look
and feel a part of our team at their home
office, we send all new hires a polo
shirt and coffee mug. Slack is used in
most tech companies, but other
broad-based communications platforms can
be used for virtual “happy hours.” Making
a small investment in free gear also goes
a long way in establishing goodwill and
helping employees feel like they are part
of the team.
Onboarding
Beginning with their first day at
work, we like to integrate new hires with
their respective teams by having them
participate in a Zoom welcome meeting
with their team. We also provide them
with an organization chart that
identifies key management personnel and
includes an overview of reporting
requirements. One tip that I have found
helpful is to assign new hires a
dedicated mentor who can answer any
questions and help them succeed in
reaching project goals and company
objectives. This solidifies the
employee’s connection with the work and
helps them feel more welcome.
Also, weekly virtual one-on-one
meetings with supervisors can further the
integration process and help employees
reach project and professional goals.
Have your new remote worker participate
in one-on-one meetings with your HR,
finance, IT and product development teams
during the first week of work. Each of
these teams plays an important role in
the onboarding process by training the
new employee on a wide array of company
matters, such as time entry and company
products and services, along with an
overview of your brand and
competition.
Ongoing Training
The final piece to a successful
onboarding program is ongoing training.
Through these virtual training sessions,
my company likes to provide additional
support with processes and tools specific
to its operations. In my experience, this
can help increase employee retention,
foster innovation and improve overall job
performance in a collaborative work
environment.
One way to provide ongoing training is
through small weekly team meetings, where
the various small teams meet and go
through hot topics or issues that have
come up in the past week on their team
project. These should be short,
agenda-focused meetings that cover an
issue that needs to be handled by the
team. I have found that a team-based
approach to handling an issue works best
in this type of meeting and brings the
team closer together while working
through the issue resolution. Short
training videos, strong mentor
relationships and one-on-one meetings are
some of the most successful ways to train
your remote workforce.
Final Thoughts
Relying on a remote workforce is not
without its own set of challenges, such
as coordinating virtual meetings across
multiple time zones apart. However, I
have found that success in remote worker
recruitment and retention stems from the
development and implementation of an
onboarding program that directly involves
team members and management in the
recruitment and interview process, makes
the new worker feel welcome, and
continues with the educational and
professional development of the worker
throughout their career.