A Virtual Onboarding Program is Key for the Future of Work

Harvard Business Review reported nearly 33% of new hires look for a new job within their first six months on the job and 23% leave before their first anniversary.

You spend weeks and months searching for the best candidate for the job, you get fed up, so you outsource your recruitment, that is a lot of time and money you have invested in finding the right candidate. It is a no brainer to ensure you create the best onboarding experience that will set up them for success from the very start! Covid has changed the way we work and we have moved towards a more ‘remote’ way of working so you need a great virtual onboarding program. 

Here are five tips you to creating the best virtual onboarding experience for your new hires. 

1.     Onboarding starts during recruitment - Onboarding begins when you put up the job advert, not the day the new employee starts. LinkedIn is great to share insights into the company culture by posting interviews with existing employees, pictures from company events or videos from senior management. During the recruitment process, you should communicate the specifics of the role and the company to set expectations. Durning the interview process, create a virtual task the candidate can perform or a short assessment to assess their ability. Invite the candidate to a virtual catch with key team members to get to know them on a personal level. 

2.     Invest in technology – digital systems are key for onboarding, they can connect new employees to their teams and collect data before they even start. Programs such as Sapling or Enboarder introduce new hires to your company, culture, give them access to update their personal profile, answers questions about themselves and complete all onboarding docs and tasks easily. Digital training platforms such as Learning Management Systems can help new employees move quickly through a lot of information and they can return to the training program for a refresher at any point in their employment. They are also more customisable than ever, they can be adapted for different positions and learning styles so that all the information is more relevant and understandable. 

3.      Make it personal – If you want a personalised onboarding to be truly awesome, you need to make every employee feel like an important part of the team. Instead of trying to make the new hire prove their worth, the company needs to be making the effort to prove to the employee that they made the right choice in taking this job. Here are some examples to give it that personal touch.

·       A welcome package delivered to their home that includes, all their hardware - setup, induction schedule with a list of key meetings to introduce the employee to their teammates and a schedule of events for the first few weeks. 

·       A virtual team lunch sometime during the first week of employment is always a great way to break the ice too. 

·       Don’t forget the corporate swag! A t-shirt, pens, coffee mug, water bottle, calendar, and other branded items are always a nice treat for a new hire.

·       Virtual scavenger hunt with a list of tasks they need to complete during their induction – finding out about existing employees and interesting company facts.  

4.     Keep it simple - Think about what the employee needs to know to get them up and running as soon as possible vs. what can introduced over time. To assist with this, create a checklist specific to the employee's onboarding process, broken out by first day, first month, three months, six months to a year. With digital platforms such as a Learning Management System (LMS) and company intranet supporting your onboarding efforts, you could digitalise a great  learning pathway outlining what needs to be completed.  This gives employees realistic expectations of deadlines and helps avoid future stress over when they need to learn information.

5.     Evaluate - Feedback, from the new employee is central to understanding how well an employee is adapting, and whether they feel the onboarding process has been effective. Survey employees at the end of the first week, three months, six months to one year, with the aim of understanding whether their expectations were met, and how engaged they are with the organisation.

Remember it typically takes eight months for a newly hired employee to reach full productivity, take your time on getting it right!