For many business owners the decisions they have made in the last 12 months about how they run their businesses means that for many, remote onboarding is here to stay.

There is no one size fits all but here’s our top tips on what to consider if your business has to onboard a new hire remotely.

• Use an online tool to send out your contracts of employment to speed up the time-consuming process of sending them in the post (and because not everybody has a printer at home) and to make the process less onerous.
• Make sure that there isn’t radio silence between when an employee receives their contract of employment and their first day of employment. Schedule in regular catch ups so that you can check that they have everything they need and so that they start to feel part of the team. If you can also consider inviting them to a team meeting so that they can meet everybody before their first day.
• Remember that your Right to Work checks can be done online, over Zoom, until 21st June 2021. After this date they will have to be done in person (although there is a call for digital checks to be allowed on an ongoing basis so watch this space)
• Make sure they have all their equipment in advance of their first date of employment and set up some time with IT on their first day so that they can check that everything is working as it should be.  
• If you can, schedule your new hires to join on the same day so that they can share their onboarding journey with a colleague. If this isn’t possible them assign them a buddy so that they have somebody they can ask when have any questions.
• Create video content to be shared with new joiners (and your existing employees) Providing a suite of content such as business updates and where the business came from and its purpose will mean that new joiners can find out more information about the company at their own pace. Why not go one step further and ask each department to do a short video introduction on their team and how they fit into the business.

Remember that when employees are being onboarded remotely, they won’t have the luxury of leaning over to their colleague and asking, ‘how does this work?’ We take for granted how vital this interaction is when an employee is getting up to speed in a new role and so as best as you can try to replicate this in other ways.

For help and support with your remote onboarding contact us today.