Remote Employee Onboarding Guide: Best Practices from the World’s Best Companies

Everyone has that experience of being ushered and introduced on the floor in a completely new environment during their first day. The unfamiliar smiling faces, awkward handshakes, and greetings, you don’t know exactly what to expect there, coupled with the unknown processes and technologies… 

Let’s admit it was an overwhelming experience for most of us as a new hire. 

Providing a captivating and fulfilling onboarding experience can be quite challenging even in the best of times. With the current situation where employees find it challenging to maintain the workplace employee engagement levels, these aspects stand out even more. Why? Because a new employee or employees looking forward to entering the floor on their first day might not feel assurance in the orientation process through this virtual working situation. They might not feel confident about getting familiar with the new processes and tools by sitting in front of a laptop staring at the screen when they were expecting to know about them directly on the floor hands-on from their senior coworkers. 

It is your responsibility as the employer to make sure that they do not feel that way. It is essential that employees feel welcomed from their very first day. Based on a research, nearly 69% of workers will ardently stay with their current organization for a longer-term and not look for opportunities elsewhere if they have a wholesome onboarding experience. 

These are some testing times, but the challenges posed are not insurmountable. This blog will present you some of the best onboarding, project management practices and tried, tested methods that you can incorporate in this working from home situation to make the fresh recruits a core member of your team. 

• Onboarding Workflow for Remote Employee
• Companies That Have a Great Onboarding Process and Programs for Remote Employees
• Techexactly Employee Onboarding Solution
• Final Thoughts

Onboarding Workflow for Remote Employee

With remote working becoming the new normal in a post-covid world, organizations are changing the norms of their usual onboarding programs to make it work virtually. As a manager onboarding a fresh new face into your team, it is important that you use the virtual platform to your complete advantage for establishing personal connections with that new team member. You should take the initiative to make the new team member feel accepted and part of the team so that they do not feel out of place or isolated especially given the circumstances.

Through using the various online meeting tools, aim to make the meet & greet between team members with the new hire as seamless as possible as they would have been in person. 

Like the usual onboarding process, the HR department can go ahead with the system of assigning a welcome buddy to each new hire. The buddy can be someone of the same rank or a rank above them, who has gone through the training of effectively aiding the new hires to get them accustomed to the new tools and technology. With the access to current video chat tools for doing meetings, emphasis should be given on making face to face interactions as much as possible, to integrate togetherness, help bridge any kind of communication gaps and build rapport. The welcome buddy should make sure to check in with the new employee every now and then, to see that they are well-informed about their workflow. They should be aware of who to turn to in case of any queries or concerns faced when they try to streamline their work processes.

With the remote working system, operating beyond the brick walls and cubicles of the office, the company culture also needs to break away from its generic corporate bindings and become mobile.

And this needs to be done to introduce new hires to the company culture from the very beginning. The HR management can do so by pairing each new hire or grouping the remote new hires with someone from the leadership or at the very least with a senior member. This method of remote mentorship will give them clarity about organizational goals and values, performance expectations and the team environment. Once they have a clear understanding and connection with the culture, they will feel enthusiastic to share it with their fellow co-workers as well. 

Companies That Have a Great Onboarding Process and Programs for Remote Employees

Let’s take a look at some of the top companies that have a great onboarding process in place to connect to their new hires remotely.

Creativity at Disney:

The onboarding process at Disney is the perfect culmination of creativity and uniqueness, where the new hires are not treated as employees but rather as cast members. Irrespective of their background and working experience of what they did before joining the company, everyone has to go through the Disney traditions on the first day of the job, even those who are rehired. The traditions include knowing about the illustrious history of Disney, understanding how the company became what it is today, bundled with group activities, trivia games where they can win glitzy prizes. 

This method of the Disney onboarding process is one of a kind in itself. It shows the company for what it is, exciting and motivating the new hires from the very first day. 

Stress on Individuality at Southwest Airlines:

Unlike the onboarding processes of other companies where it is mainly about forms, paperwork, work processes and technology, Southwest Airlines New Employee Orientation process is primarily focused on the employees. Their remote process puts more importance on highlighting the new employees to get them culturally acclimatized. The management emphasizes upon what the fresh talent can do to make a difference through their roles and inborn abilities. 

The aim of the employee onboarding at Southwest Airlines is to make not only the first few weeks but also the first working year as one of the most unforgettable and remarkable experiences of their lives by focusing entirely on the new joiners and letting them shine.

Their onboarding process includes inspiring them to do their best with motivational stories of previous employees, to make their days fun with luncheon sessions, and upskill them in all the required areas through training sessions. Also, onboarding with the Southwest Airlines as an employee has perks such as leveraging the travel and medical benefits that come with the job. 

Stress on family values at Ritz-Carlton:

At Ritz Carlton onboarding program, the onus is taken from Day 1, itself, to make the new employees feel like family members and at home. Compared to other organizations where the CEO of the company introduces themselves much later in the process, here, the COO personally leads the Ritz Carlton employee onboarding program from day one itself. And this tradition is maintained worldwide and now conducted remotely at every Ritz Carlton resort and hotel, irrespective of how busy or jam-packed his schedule is. 

This prestigious organization frames its orientation program to show its new employees how grateful they are to have them, rather than imposing their authority and overwhelming them. This type of radical thinking and approach goes a long way to retaining employees for the long term and inspiring them to do the best at their jobs from day one itself.

Flexibility at American Airlines:

The American Airlines online onboarding process usually involves the new hires to undergo a comprehensive orientation and training program depending on their requirement and skill set. The purpose is to get fully trained, to educate the employees about the company’s values, mission, and roles and responsibilities. The term of the training varies from individual to individual as all of them might not require the same amount of training. For some, it can be several weeks and for others a few days. 

The framework of their onboarding process is flexible that way. It does not focus on the group as a whole but each individual’s strengths and weaknesses, motivating them to realize the purpose of their roles and excel at them.

Extra Help and Support at Starbucks:

The regular and even the irregulars at Starbucks might often wonder how their innumerable varieties of grande lattes, espressos, cappuccinos, and coffees, all taste the same be it in New york, Madrid, or Delhi and even the experience at their stores seem same as well. You can link this uniformity in the taste and experience, to the comprehensive, and rocking Starbucks onboarding program. The management team plans the onboarding program so that the new up and coming baristas can take it slow and steady while gaining all of the experience and knowledge of their teas and coffees.

Starbucks is an organization that is committed to doing good by its employees, and so they provide all kinds of additional portable help to its new hires, such as training booklets, access to online training tools, and modules. This has been done to help them get up to speed for making drinks using their various syrups, whipped cream, and other patent condiments. This is all about the onboarding process that is being done remotely. 

The friendly coworkers give hands-on training on how to operate the machines, prepare the drinks and mixes, present and food, clean the machines and the store after everything is done. Other than the training manuals, the managers and coworkers are always there to support the new hires at every step.

How long does Starbucks onboarding take? 2 days of online training and 1 to 2 days of hands on training to become a barista depending on your learning curve and progress. 

Convenience at Subway:

Like the other franchises, the Subway onboarding program is conducted remotely, where all of the employee onboarding modules are available online. This allows the new hires to complete all of their mandatory onboarding tasks electronically, as per their convenience, be it from their computer, laptop, or smartphone by downloading the app of their partnership organization. They can also check their training progress via the app. 

Source: 99images

This is a very big step for Subway as through this way, they aim to lessen the pressure on their new hires, where they are expected to learn and complete numerous trainings on their first day. Through the app, the employees will have the freedom to do the training as per their schedule not feel pressured to complete them. This will show them the effort that the organization is taking to make the lives of their employees better and inspire them to give their very best.

Upskilling and Development Opportunities at McDonalds:

Other than following the standard procedure of training and upskilling their employees, McDonalds has gone for the long haul and launched an app that will help them to retain their employees for the long term. As a franchisee organization with an approx of 1.9 million employees working in its various branches across the globe, they are aware that most of its new joiners are high schoolers, or college students who are looking for more advanced career opportunities. Through the app, employees from around the world can work upon their English skills, and earn a college degree or high school diploma that can help pave a career plan for a better future. 

Source: prnewswire.com

Such initiatives incorporated in the McDonald’s onboarding process focussing on the personal growth and development of new joiners, resulted in boosting employee retention tenfold in an industry that always suffers from massive labor shortage.

Technological Innovations at Apple:

At Apple, a successful remote onboarding process comprises having technological configurations and solutions in place that can authorize control to the users. In this case, the users will be the new joinees so that they can participate in an automated, thorough and secure onboarding process. The people joining Apple seem to be very fortunate as Apple provides all kinds of solutions to combat the common challenges faced while conducting a remote onboarding program, with their rich techniques and capabilities.

Through their patent technology and innovative approach, they aim to inspire the new hires to take great risks, push themselves to the deep end and do great work. This creates an instant and effective engagement from day one itself. The letter mentioned above is the one that Apple hands out to its new hires to help motivate and inspire them. 

Other notable programs to mention are Hiton onboarding process and onboarding session Burger king all of which are leveraging the virtual platforms to connect personally to their remote new hires and help them onboard comfortably and effectively to their new job roles.

Tech Exactly Employee Onboarding Solution

To make the onboarding and training of new hires seamless and coherent, Tech Exactly came up with a custom app solution. With this app, you can provide customised corporate trainings to your new employees anywhere and anytime to ensure ideal and optimum employee engagement. The user-friendly workforce app serves the dual purpose of providing effective onboarding as well as communicating with dispersed employees in perfection. With features like private & Group messaging, alerts & push notifications, time sensitive or any new information can be communicated immediately to the concerned department in case of any emergency or to notify about a critical task requiring a quick turnaround. The Training Gamification feature makes the learning experience  engaging and fun and the Targeted Trainings feature is there to help the new recruit for tracking their progress and be reminded of the training courses they need to complete.

To know more, please visit our Tech Exactly page!

Final Thoughts

Remote working seems evitable now more than ever. Through employing the right strategies and a clear onboarding plan, prevailing challenges of doing remote onboarding can be easily overcome and effectively managed. 

At Tech Exactly, our motivated and proficient team of coders & developers have come up with breakthrough solutions to cater to clients facing frequent challenges with establishing remote onboarding programs for their new hires. With our high end mobile applications we collaborate and help businesses around the world, overcome the predicaments of remote working, and maintain stability in their workplace environments in these unprecedented times. Our ambition is to help our clients emerge stronger than before so they can achieve their organizational goals and objectives.  

Have a concept in mind and want to discuss it?  Go ahead and schedule a brainstorming session!