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Recruitment & onboarding: How to set new employees up for remote success

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Daniel Cherin

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3 Sept 2020
3 min read
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In the face of the ‘new normal’, the job market is pivoting from face-to-face interview and application processes to virtual recruitment, application and onboarding.

For recruitment and people and culture (P&C (Human Resources) professionals, there are five fundamental features to delivering a strong and effective onboarding experience.

The five fundamentals of onboarding for remote success:

1. First Impressions Last:

A critical point for recruiters and P&C representatives to acknowledge and deliver is a streamlined and frictionless onboarding process from day one. 

It acts as a representation of how efficiently the organisation operates and sets that standard onto every new employee.

During times of crisis, such as COVID-19, it ensures employees, new and old, of a commitment to business continuity and reducing friction.

2. Reliable Technology:

Ensure to have a sound and established communications process with reliable technology.

The rise of SaaS technologies has drastically reduced the friction of remote onboarding and communications. Features such as video conferencing mean face-to-face contact and the much-needed physical communication cues are not lost in limited communication channels such as SMS and email.

 3. Extensive Communication:

As a candidate progresses through their onboarding journey in an organisation, there are multiple interaction points with both the P&C team and the hiring manager, to help candidates understand the process and documentation requirements.

Through dynamic workflows, which possess logical coding the P&C team is able to send different individuals within the same journey messages specific to them.

I.e. Successful candidates receive a congratulation message with prompts on the next steps while unsuccessful candidates will be given a consolation message with options on potential steps for them to take. 

4. Company Assets and Hardware: 

Given the constraints of lock-down, posting out hardware such as laptops, company phones and merchandise to the new starter requires a thorough process which requires communicating to multiple stakeholders; from P&C representatives, logistics stakeholders (internal or external) and the new staff member. 

Updates and delivery communication is key to ensuring a frictionless and timely turnaround in getting the new starter set up for success.

Within the confines of COVID-19 and with every city and state in a dissociated form of lockdown, using communications technologies such as notifications, contactless delivery signature ensure universal solutions for organisations regardless of level of lockdown and isolation.

5. Meet the team and key stakeholders:

From the very beginning, it is critical that new starters meet and connect with their team and key stakeholders in the organisation.

Meeting with key representatives from each department and presenting a brief on the form and function allows new employees to connect with the wider business and avoid their function from becoming siloed.

Using communication channels which deliver information directly to stakeholder’s phones or email to notify and send schedule of upcoming meetings, two-way feedback channels as well as video conferencing, onboarding in a remote working environment can be easily achieved with success.

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