How to improve the virtual onboarding process for remote employees

The onboarding process has been one of the most responsible parts of creating a successful and professional team. Now it’s even more challenging when many companies choose remote work after the pandemic.

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Companies should get used to it because working from home is here to stay. The only solution is to adapt and create a new virtual onboarding process that would be very helpful for new employees to feel accepted as soon as possible.

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No worries. I’ve prepared some tips to give your new employees a great onboarding experience.

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Organize better your virtual onboarding process

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When creating an onboarding process, think about the goals you want to achieve first. Set the main things that should be learned with every online training during the first week. Then, put down the parts and topics that should be covered. 

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Chanl helps you to create agenda templates before you jump on a new employee training. You can organize your onboarding meetings and cover all crucial subsectors for new hires to get to the point as quickly as possible. 

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When the virtual onboarding process starts, create agenda before each training meeting. Write the topics you want to cover and the goals you want to reach within the specific session.

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Answer some questions you consider important and essential to be covered:

• Set the participant for the specific onboarding meeting. For which employees is this virtual onboarding meant for?
• Will this onboarding training include introducing the basic working style?
• Would you talk about the company’s values and culture and it what extent?
• What is expected from the new hire to accomplish with that online training?

When you clear topics, set the time necessary for covering each one of them. This helps you stay organized and ensure everything necessary is noticed. 

‍View templates

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Wish them a warm welcome

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Getting a new job is exciting yet stressful, and it’s your responsibility for new employees to feel welcomed and adapt as seamlessly as possible. The best way is to write a welcome letter by email. It should include the company’s expectations of working together and explain the new hire’s role. 

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It is better to schedule a conference with other team members and make the onboarding friendlier. 

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After the meeting, use async videos to meet them with the company’s cultures and values, advise them on protecting their data, or give tips to organize their work better. Prepare a video course, with images and text, and send it to the new employees. If your company has already a video as such, you can use it as well. 

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This will save you tons of time in explaining things that could be learned asynchronously.

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Chanl helps you to pin those videos and let everyone come up with opinions or questions in the same place.

‍Read more 

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Make the virtual onboarding process longer enough

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It’s pretty essential to give new hires enough time to get familiar with the software, new coworkers, and company culture. Sometimes the new hires need support not just on the first day but during the entire first working week. 

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Send emails, schedule daily meetings, and clarify all their misconceptions about the role and tasks.

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Moreover, instead of scheduling 1-on-1 meetings, you can put all new hires for the same or similar positions on one page. Sending them a stream link before every meeting helps you collaborate with them before and after the meeting. Allowing them to write their questions makes your onboarding process to be straight to the point.

‍Chanl stream and async videos

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Assign them a work buddy

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Some of the new employees may feel uncomfortable asking a thousand questions. Get them a buddy and make them feel less awkward while asking about unclear topics. 

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The working buddy's responsibility would be to help the new one deal with all the obstacles in the company easily. That person should be the first one, new hires reach out to when they find something difficult or need advice. Make sure the assigned person is in the same time zone as the new hire.

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This kind of monitoring and supervising will minimalize the pressure of working directly with the hiring manager.

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Help them with home office setup

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Maybe it’s the first time for your new employee to work from home. Nevertheless, you can help them with all the needful staff, and make an ideal place for working. Whether it’s the internet, hardware, tools, or financial assistance is a great way to reduce the stress of working in a new environment.

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Ensure they’re set up with the right tools and resources from day 1.

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Collect the feedback about the virtual onboarding process

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Gathering feedback from new employees will make your next onboarding process much better, more interactive, engaging, organized, and productive. 

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There’s no need to ask directly for feedback, but try it in a different way.

• What was your favorite part of the entire process?
• Which things do you think could be improved?
• What do you think was missing from the process?
• What steps would you add to our virtual onboarding process?

You can ask them on a daily basis, so you can immediately improve the whole onboarding process.

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Make every onboarding process better than the previous one

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Before it’s too late, record all your training video calls, during the entire process. After collecting the feedback you’ll make the next onboarding program much better than the previous one. You’ll know exactly what were the obstacles and help the new team members solve them right on time.

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This would be very useful for the new hires as well, in case they don’t remember some discussions from the previous meeting.

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Chanl helps you in giving and extracting all key points from each call video. There’s no need anymore to listen to long videos. Read more about how it’s helpful for you.

‍Meeting AI insights

Final thoughts

Your main goal in the virtual onboarding process is to make new team members feel supported. Give them the opportunity to express their opinions. Also, be transparent and give them as much information as possible. Avoiding misunderstanding leads to a successful onboarding program. 

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You’ll end up with one more professional team member and an excellent onboarding program for the next hires.

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