The sudden shift in the work landscape since the onset of the pandemic forced entrepreneurs to embrace working from home, seemingly overnight.
As it turns out, it's now the new normal!
In less than a decade, the number of remote workers has increased by 140% (and counting), and 70% of companies are currently looking to incorporate a hybrid work model.
However, with the 2021 Bureau of Statistics news release stating that in 12 months starting from November 2020, employee turnover totalled 68.7 million, employers are left seeking ways to ensure their employees stick around for the long haul.
Shockingly enough, the same report further revealed that a record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September 2021 alone, which further emphasizes the need for businesses to take deliberate measures to improve employee retention.
A successful onboarding process is one of the moving parts that ensure remote employee satisfaction, increased productivity, and higher retention rates.
To help you get started, here are four surefire tips to successfully onboard remote hires.
1. Deliver an Awesome Pre-Boarding Experience
Pre-boarding is all about providing clear information on the worker's job description and more about the company’s culture.
During this time, the human resource team helps the employee learn more about the company's objectives, mission, and vision.
Making proper introductions before their first day is a crucial first step. Share with them a list of all managers and company stakeholders, discussing how they are relevant to their new role. Also, discuss the nature of all these business relationships in-depth, to ensure the new employee understands their roles and responsibilities.
Besides, assisting them in setting up their work emails and familiarizing themselves with the essential technologies, tools, and resources you use at the workplace are other excellent steps to minimizing the anxiety of starting a new job.
Also, remind them what wowed them into choosing your company and tell them more about the employee value proposition.
2. Provide a Support System
For any new hire, understanding the power structure is a significant step to forming seamless working relationships - that's where mentors come in.
Mentors are experienced employees who will be the new employee’s 'point of contact' in case they need any information about the company and its processes. They help in knowledge transfer, clarifying roles, training, and helping them sharpen their skill sets.
Through this mentorship program, a new employee will develop social connections and build other networks vital to their job. Last but not least, they learn all the skills needed to advance their career in the organization.
3. Make Them ‘Feel At Home’
Set up your business for success by making remote hires feel welcomed on day one. You can humanize the onboarding process by having other employees welcome them officially to the company.
They can, for instance, create short videos with congratulatory and welcoming messages, sending them to the new employee’s email or social media pages. These can be less formal as hearing co-workers share their interests outside office hours makes them more relatable. It also fosters personal relationships, which promote collaboration, employee morale, and improve retention rates.
If possible, the company can send a welcome kit that comprises branded office supplies like pens, notebooks, mugs, etc.
As they settle in, make sure all employees remain well connected. Do this by, for instance, keeping an open communication channel. Also, celebrate their hard work and reward them. You can also establish fun company traditions such as yearly retreats and monthly office get-togethers to ensure no employee feels left out.
4. Inspire Them To Succeed
Motivated employees are enthusiastic, productive, and efficient - crucial ingredients you need for business longevity.
Promoting a healthy work-life balance is a great place to start, and it begins with establishing clear office and non-office hours.
As much as remote employees work from home, they need assurance that their employer prioritizes their personal lives. That means avoiding late-night calls and working within the stipulated times unless it is absolutely necessary.
Additionally, improve productivity by providing freely accessible learning materials that add value. Also, create a program that allows them to interact with top-performing workers and offer growth opportunities within the organization.
Wrapping Up...
Many entrepreneurs find the onboarding process tasking and time-consuming. But it doesn’t have to be.
Amploo is here to help!
Amploo is an efficient learning management system (LMS) and human resource (HR) solution for businesses. It is one of the best employee training platforms you can set up with a few clicks.
With Amploo, businesses — both big and small — can easily drag-and-drop training programs or create them from scratch. It is a highly scalable tool that seamlessly integrates with existing systems. In addition, its intuitive nature allows new hires to easily navigate the platform, making training fun and straightforward.
Amploo is making the switch from classroom-based training, offering a more flexible way to impact additional knowledge remotely and on-demand. Furthermore, it provides a single point of access for all your training and e-learning materials, enabling employers and employees to better track their progress.
Furthermore, this robust platform offers data tracking, personalization, automated alerts, analytics, and many more features, providing a practical and effective onboarding experience.
Developing, delivering, and managing staff training programs has never been easier!
