How to onboard a remote employee
1 Pre-planning
You’ve undertaken the remote interview - all has gone well and you’re now ready to offer the available position to your selected candidate. Great! But, all this talk of having a fantastic part-time or full-time remote managed team will look silly if you don’t have the right onboarding processes in place.
Pre-planning for any new member of the team starting is important, but multiply that by 5 if you want to onboard a new employee remotely. There are lots of little things with this that can make a huge difference, so we’ve outlined a few here that should help.
2 Keep connected
During the time between the candidate accepting the job and starting remotely, it is very important that you keep in regular contact. This is pretty normal anyway, especially when someone has 3-4 weeks notice to give. However when you are starting someone remotely, it means that email/zoom/calls need to be pretty regular, both to keep the candidate excited and because this will be the main form of communication going forward once they begin properly.
3 Laptop (if you’re supplying one)
Check their home address a couple of times, check the delivery times for any hardware such as laptops to be ordered, and make sure that it is booked to arrive at least a couple of days before their start date. Likewise, don’t just assume that they will have all of the right equipment at home - and consider workplace essentials such as an office table and suitable work chair. You may need to order those too.
4 Swag!
It’s not just business practicals you’ll need to order! If you provide new starters with company branded goodies, such as company t-shirt, mousepad, office plant, (we're big fans of Patch), you’ll want to make sure that you have them ordered in time for your new employee’s start date. Swag is also a great way of making a reasonably low-cost good first impression and is typical at tech startups that really value their brand and branding.
5 Email address
Best practice whether the role is remote or not, but make sure that you have set the new employee up with a working company email address before they start. They can then also start to receive company information and news - meaning they are kept up to date and hopefully feel part of the team.
6 Profile photo & bio
If you have an About us page on your company website, make sure that you get permission from your new employee to update that company profile page, including a good photo and bio. It might be simply a case of them taking relevant details from their LinkedIn profile or CV, but it is still best to involve your new employee in the process.
7 Team introductions
Team introductions don’t have to be left to the first day or first week and can be done prior to the candidate starting. However, do ask your new employee how they would like to be introduced and if they would be happy for this to happen before their official start date. Of course whilst all these steps are well-intentioned, you also don’t want to overwhelm your new starter with too much and too soon, so it’s best to see how much they would embrace all the intro emails / zooms first. Also, if your current staff feel comfortable, perhaps they could even film an intro message for the new starter to watch on their first day!
8 On the Day
This is where appropriate levels of planning will really need to kick in. You need to have enough planned so that your new starter doesn’t feel entirely left to their own devices, but at the same time, you don’t want to completely over-plan so that they potentially feel overwhelmed and even micro-managed.
9 Still treat it like that first day
Let them know that you understand that nerves may well still be a factor in starting on their first day. Working remotely doesn’t mean that nerves will disappear. Working remotely will also mean that in the short-term they may also feel slightly unnerved and out of the loop - again reassure them that this can be the case.
10 Team charts & introductions
Without flooding them with 101 different virtual meet and greets, plan who they will be introduced to and when. Prioritise who they should be intro’d to first. Perhaps some of the introductions can be done in week two and three to keep chit-chat regular, but not overpowering.
In the short term, send them an organisation chart so they know who folk are. Of course, if you work for a small but growing tech startup with a headcount of 10, those introductions and timescales can be easily streamlined.
11 Give them a buddy
On the first day, introduce them to their remote working buddy. It’s a simple way of creating a mentor/advocate/support function to help them out with any information they need or any questions they may have. Perhaps set some boundaries too, so that the buddy isn’t just answering questions all day, but suggest some expectations on how this partnership can help embed your new employee into the team and also help them through the whole host of info and training they will need to complete.]]
12 Work-related training
There are plenty of work-related online learning platforms that might help a new-starter brush up on an existing skill, but in the short term, the chances are you’ll need to offer a mix of both software-based systems managed training and practical show-and-tell of how their job role is currently undertaken. A step-by-step approach from showing them the basics from anything from how to access your database, logging in, to emailing, through to recording important calls - everything will need to be demonstrated.
13 Set expectations
First up, if you don't have an onboarding checklist, now is the time to write one! It will come in really handy when explaining the process to your new starter, and can also be used to record and date progress. It’s also a good way to show accountability.
From creating a timetable for their first day, through to objectives for the first month, or reconfirming their overall job duties and responsibilities, having clear expectations and checklists mean that there’s more of a chance that both the employer and the employee are on the same page from the off in terms of short, medium and long-term responsibilities and goals.
Also, allow for free time, and time for them to think, read, learn and make lunch!
14 Build a community!
We recently listed several of our favourite (virtual) activities that are excellent for boosting team spirit! Using these activities, or at least one or two can be a great way of sustaining and growing a team atmosphere remotely and also embedding new-starters into the team. Go check them out!
15 Review your process
Keep reviewing the process that you use to onboard a new employee. As your new employees become seasoned-enough team members, consult with them to see what they think was important about the onboarding journey, what they enjoyed and what they would suggest is done differently for the next person. This crowdsourced approach will hopefully mean your remote onboarding process, doesn’t just work, but encourages best practice and results every time.
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Offering personalised, consultative service, at TableCrowd Talent we’re a specialist recruitment agency with our finger on the pulse of the startup and scaleup scene. We are committed to matching graduates, professionals and C-level executives to exciting startup and scaleup jobs across London, the UK and Europe.