Top Tips for Onboarding Remote Workers

We’ve recently added to our own team, onboarded remotely for the first time and we’ve had to adapt our processes and way of working. There have been many lessons learned!

We’ve asked our clients and placed candidates for their top tips together with our own findings;

In the first few weeks make sure there are lots of introductions. This needs to be with colleagues you’ll be working closely with but also with people from other areas of the business to help build the support network and gain an understanding of where responsibilities sit.
Regularly check in with anyone that’s been onboarded remotely. If you’re in an office it’s much easier to ask questions. Remotely they may not want to bother you on MS Teams so hold back.
Have virtual shadowing sessions with someone that already does the role using MS Teams. This way you can see the screen, watch what they’re doing and they can talk you through it.
Arrange a face to face meeting shortly after onboarding. No matter how many calls/meetings you do virtually with someone you get to know them a lot better when you meet in person.
It helps to have a formal written plan in place for the first couple of weeks so they know what meetings they will be attending and what they will be working on each day. This way if your mentor is busy you know what’s planned anyway, as you don’t really have a network of people to rely on straight away.
Set the new person up with a buddy, ideally they will be on video calls a few times a day either learning or just acting as if sat next to each other in the office (so working on their own things but there for that “over the desk” chat, but also there for those quick questions that come up. Often people sit and struggle as they don’t want to call someone and waste their time, if in the office they would just quickly ask over the desk).
Introduction calls, get key people in the business that are good for a new person to know to call them and introduce themselves and what they do. Senior leadership, ideally executive level, should take time to welcome new colleagues in a virtual coffee morning.
Video calls are the way forward, much better than audio only.
Have an MS Team call with the peer group, possibly not as an introduction as that can make them feel on the spot but use a normal meeting that they can meet all the team but normal work continues so they can start to get familiar with the dynamics of the team.
Have IT support ready, people are never as tech savvy as you expect and will need help.
Make sure all necessary equipment is delivered before the start date, gives a much better first day impression than sitting there not having all the tools you need.
Touch base with your new colleague daily (too easy out of sight out of mind, so you need to make a point of remembering they’ve started and speaking to them).
Use a function whereby you can share screens to replicate sitting side by side in an office – Microsoft Teams, Zoom etc.
Where newer colleagues are going through the same training/learning, set up a virtual office so that they are all dialed into the same meeting, they can work away in the background but when they require assistance there is someone on the call to help – replicates sitting in a team group in an office.
Record “how to” sessions so that they can be saved and played back to remind what they have been shown as it can sometimes be more difficult to pick things up remotely.
Don’t have remote training sessions go on for too long a period of time, keep them short and more often.
Keeping in touch with the future colleague ahead of the start date e.g. tell them arrangements for delivery of kit/car etc. Share team details and news with them to help them feel included ahead of time.
Give thought to the most appropriate start date – avoid Mondays if they’re busy for you, or month end etc. Also, it can be worth setting a slightly later start time to allow a manager to clear the decks so that they can then give the new colleague their full attention.
If they have a LinkedIn profile, encourage them to update it then use the platform to welcome them publicly to the team.
Key to a successful remote onboard is structure and that includes structured ‘free thinking time’ of at least 1-2 hours a day for ‘free’ thinking and reflection time. A plan for the first two weeks is usually sufficient. There had been cases where every hour is rigidly structured leaving the new employee with zero time to contemplate what they’re seeing, question things or immerse themselves in the culture of the business. Nobody learns by being bombarded with information.
Line managers must take full and absolute responsibility for onboarding new colleagues. They don’t need to do it all themselves but must be a world class steward and regularly signpost what will happen next. Daily check-ins during week 1 and 2 are very important.
Remind the team what it is like to be a new starter and ask them to consider how they would feel if they were coming into a new job and were going through a remote induction. Ask them to be patient and to be kind.
It’s critical to convey the business and departmental culture and reason for being within the first week. Human nature dictates that we all want to understand why we do what we do before moving onto the how we do it part of the learning journey.
Reassure colleagues that it is perfectly normal not to know everything at once and that they will feel a little uneasy for the first 3 months or so.  Normalising the fear of failure associated with not knowing every person, process or department inside out reassures colleagues that their fears are perfectly normal in context with any learning journey. Explain, repeatedly, that there is no such thing as a silly question!
Ask for feedback! Don’t assume you got it right, there’s always room for improvement. Oh…and tell them about any other vacancies in your business so they can use their brand new fresh network of contacts to help fill them!

Please let me know your thoughts and if you have any additional tips.

Right International have a proven track record of identifying and sourcing the top talent across the claims and wider insurance market. If you are looking to add to your team now or in the near future, I would welcome the opportunity to help – please contact me.

All the best,

Gary Pike

Founder & MD

Right International Insurance Headhunters