Remote Onboarding

LOCKDOWN YOUR RECRUITMENT STRATEGY

Against the backdrop of the current global Coronavirus crisis, it is natural that remote hiring will have to increase exponentially.

Some companies have already got organised and are not allowing the pandemic to hold back their recruitment efforts. They are carrying out video interviews for candidates and welcoming new employees albeit using various remote onboarding methods.

For candidates it is obviously not the ideal start to a new position. Starting a new job can often be stressful and is a time to prove oneself in a new role so doing this remotely definitely poses some challenges. Companies need to ensure they are supporting their new hires so that they can settle into their respective teams with ease and thrive within their new roles.

But experts across the globe are finding ways around these challenges and there is definitely hope for the recruitment industry and the clients that recruiters work with. Interestingly, some are saying that the global pandemic could also change the way employers hire forever for the better.

For example, there are some things that make virtual hiring easier than normal. Time is one of these things as it’s much easier to arrange a video call than a face-to-face meeting because you don’t need to also take travel time into account. Travel is another positive factor. Sometime the ideal candidate may be far away and unable to travel for the interview meaning that your candidate pool has just grown!

But once the hiring is done, the onboarding process has to start and handling this carefully and considerately is essential. Here at White Label Recruitment, we have created a virtual onboarding guide designed to make life easier for our clients in the engineering and manufacturing industries.

Pre-Onboarding

To ensure a seamless process, you should implement a number of things prior to your new hires first day, to guarantee a well-executed, properly integrated and fully onboarded employee in the first month.

• Provide contact details for HR, IT and Management
• Share company mission statement and strategy documents
• Create and share an organisational chart of employees and their roles
• Compile a checklist of new starter tasks
• Create a training and onboarding calendar including first day calls and Day 1 virtual meetings

Clarity

Minimise the potential for any miscommunication by asking the following questions of your new hire:

• What potential ‘distractions’ does your new hire envision? I.e. children, carer responsibilities
• Do they have a dedicated workspace?
• What technology do they have? I.e. do you need to help them with their WIFI and provide them with a laptop and a printer?

Integration

A big part of onboarding is ensuring that a new hire is well integrated with their new team.

• Arrange calls to with key people i.e. HR and IT
• Arrange calls with people like the Hiring Manager, Product Manager, Marketing Manager and Sales Manager so they have better insight into the business
• Encourage your new hire and their team to share information about themselves (e.g. home location, hobbies, interests, career history etc) to build familiarity

Expectations

Setting expectations is essential so that managers have visibility of what employees are doing, while ensuring that they aren’t feeling overworked or stressed.

• Set expectations of role, hours, parameters around routine and how to communicate
• Define short-term and long-term goals
• Be clear on how objectives are set and how you monitor output
• Establish clear timeframes for training, reviews and milestones
• Verify their understanding of tasks and knowledge of systems

Top Tips

Here are our top tips to guarantee a successful virtual onboarding process

• Prioritise detailed introductions between your new hire and their line manager
• Provide access to platforms and tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Trello, Google Docs etc.
• Ensure your existing employees prioritise support of the new recruit
• Arrange a team bonding session via Zoom such as a Pub Quiz

Examples of virtual onboarding

Many companies around the world are already finding ways of successfully welcoming new recruits to their teams. People are realising that as long as they are welcoming, encouraging and organised that it can be done nearly as easily as in person!

As an example, one of our Yorkshire based Manufacturing clients visited their new hire in person (while maintaining a safe distance of course) to deliver a welcome package including a laptop and equipment. The new recruits first few days at their new job was spent reading company documents and meetings were conducted via video communication software.

Our Managing Director Louise Davey spoke to a candidate recently to find that their new employer had also worked hard to ensure that his start date was not delayed. They had created a plan to onboard and train him up virtually meaning he started in April as planned. The client’s engineering team created remote online sessions, the HR department is doing their bit online and various team members are also helping out and working together to ensure he is welcomed into the team properly.

It is positivity like this that we all need right now, and it is fantastic to hear of how people are working together to find solutions to such new challenges.

Find out how you can also recruit in a positive and efficient way despite the coronavirus by downloading our Onboarding Guide here.