By Marcus Thornley, CEO of Totem
Since March 2020, businesses have adjusted and been flexible in the eye of an ever-changing business landscape. The move for all office workers to work from home last year had a huge impact on many businesses and employees, but in the months after the initial lockdown many were used to their remote working routine.
With businesses and their people fully equipped to work from home, there has been a forgotten issue that companies are still trying to contend with – successfully onboarding new people remotely.
The number of businesses looking to work completely remotely or with a hybrid working model once the work from home message is removed by the government has increased hugely. There are of course benefits to remote work, but business leaders and HR professionals must be ready to bring in correct strategies to support onboarding staff remotely – if not they could see an increase in employee churn as society returns to some semblance of normality.
Issues with onboarding remotely
The myriad of problems that new staff found when being onboarded during the past year has been tricky for businesses to deal with. There is no doubt that business and HR leaders have tried to improve the process, but it does seem that onboarding remotely has had a negative impact on how new staff felt when joining a team.
Our report, Forgotten hires: How to get onboarding right, which surveyed 1,000 UK-based employees who started a new job remotely between March 2020 and February 2021, found that only 15% of new starters last year had an “excellent” onboarding experience. Issues such as not being sent the right equipment and not having the chance to build relationships were mentioned as major factors in losing part of the enjoyment of onboarding at a new business.
Anxiety when starting a new role is naturally high too when people move into a new company or role, and this is exacerbated from remote working when employees and employers alike lack the visual cues or continuous conversations which are often heard in an office for feedback.
The troubling fact is that if businesses do not keep a watchful eye on their onboarding strategies and actively look to engage people, then employee churn could increase. First impressions carry a lot of weight when people start a new job, so anything that could hinder one recruit’s initial experience could dampen how they feel about the business and its culture.
While remote onboarding is more difficult, there are ways that businesses can adapt to make sure staff feel as welcome and appreciated as they would in an office environment.
How to improve remote onboarding
There is unfortunately no ‘one size fits all’ strategy for onboarding staff remotely. People will prefer different ways to get involved and feel welcome in a new team, but that doesn’t mean that your business shouldn’t focus on making sure staff feel as welcome as possible when they begin working for your company. I always think – it’s better to do too much and make people feel incredibly welcome than do too little.
One way Totem helps make new staff feel more welcome is by adding recruits to our social tech platform as soon as they sign their contract with us. This allows them to get a feel for the company and its culture, while also feeling immediately part of the team – it’s a simple and effective way to support new starters.
As well as this, your business could look to introduce a mentor or buddy scheme which would allow additional time for new staff to get to know other people in the business. Working in an office allowed employees to strike up conversations easily, but with this opportunity often lost with remote working, it’s clear the impetus has to be on the business to allow these relationships to form through these sorts of schemes.
To make sure new members in your business are feeling welcome and morale remains high, it’s also worth investing in technology that uses real-time data to analyse how employees are feeling. Understanding and reacting to any low moments can allow you to adjust and spend more time supporting new members of staff in settling into the business while working remotely.
This investment can also make it easier for companies to better understand how their people want to work as pandemic restrictions ease. Our data indicates that a hybrid model, where people can work part of the time at home and part of the time in the office, is a good option, and that new recruits are more likely to want to be in the office as they onboard within the company. The most important thing though is that companies ask for feedback and insight on this, and implement actionable changes to best support employees with where they want to work – rather than making everyone come into the office or work from home.
Businesses have had to contend with a huge amount of change during the past year. The adjustment to working from home has been remarkable, but business and HR leaders must not lose sight of the issues that remain in remote working. Onboarding new staff is vital to business success and creating a strategy around successfully onboarding staff at home will benefit all future employees and make sure that staff churn does not increase.
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Source: http://hrnews.co.uk/remote-onboarding-the-hidden-challenge-of-working-from-home/
