Whether it’s to make more money, eliminate their commute, or find a career that better aligns with their skills and interests, many people are excited at the prospect of starting a remote role. However, outdated employee onboarding practices can quickly turn those feelings of excitement into frustration and isolation.
At Journey Payroll & HR, it’s our goal to help businesses provide a better onboarding process for their remote employees. We believe an effective remote employee onboarding process can help avoid the common onboarding problems faced by employees and employers alike.
Remote Work Challenges for New Employees
Isolation & Loneliness
We can take for granted the importance of small talk and office interactions when it comes to building relationships with coworkers. Unfortunately, those are luxuries that remote employees don’t have. While remote work offers a ton of benefits, there are some growing concerns, namely loneliness and isolation.
It’s important for organizations to carve out dedicated times for new remote hires to meet their team members and be included in important conversations as soon as possible.
New Tools, Software, & Processes
While there will always be new pieces of software and procedures to learn, the learning curve can be more challenging for remote employees. Unlike in-house employees, they can’t lean over to their deskmate and ask “Hey, how do you do ‘X’?”
Make sure that every tool and process is clearly listed and its purpose defined. Additionally, provide information on how new employees can retrieve and/or create credentials.
Computer & IT Issues
Make sure that new remote hires are provided with the IT department’s contact information. Most importantly, ship all new employees their computer and other equipment a week before so that they have time to set it up and troubleshoot any issues that arise.
Business, Product, & Client Background Information
When a new hire needs information on a client or product, is there a place they can easily find the information or are they stuck pinging their teammates? Using a project management tool such as Asana or ClickUp allows businesses to easily manage projects and clients as well as have a centralized location for information. Alternatively, many organizations will create an in-house Wiki using something like Notion. Either of these options makes it very easy for employees to reference the information they need.
Unorganized & Outdated Onboarding Processes
An outdated and unorganized onboarding process is a surefire way to frustrate remote employees. Instead, keep your new remote hires happy and more productive by implementing remote onboarding best practices:
- Create and standardize your remote onboarding process
- Provide easy ways for new employees to get support
- Review and update your current onboarding process
- Implement regular monitoring and feedback
Start the Remote Onboarding Process with Journey
If your company has been looking for ways to improve its remote employee onboarding, Journey offers a variety of services to help. Effective employee onboarding procedures not only benefit the employee, but also the entire organization. Contact us today to see what Journey Payroll’s remote onboarding and HR services can do for your business. We can’t wait to help you thrive!