Remote Onboarding Guide: Navigating the Process and Avoiding Mistakes

hat is the worst thing that can happen during onboarding? A feeling of being disconnected.

Imagine John, a newcomer who expected a fresh start. Yet, instead of warm welcomes and clarity, he faces tons of emails, setup issues, and a welcome letter that feels impersonal. 

No talks with pals and colleagues, just boards, checklists, and credentials to fill. Sounds like a nightmare, right? That can happen without a well-thought-out onboarding, especially if it’s a remote process. 

Read on to learn more about virtual onboarding, its challenges, and crucial remote onboarding tips to ensure your new hires feel engaged and supported.

Remote Onboarding: Peculiarities of the Process

Before all, remote onboarding is concerned with welcoming and integrating new employees into the organization via sharing information and pieces of training online. 

There, except for technically plugging a person into your corporate network, you're to make them connected by bringing support and educating them on company culture and values. 

Traditional onboarding vs remote onboarding process

Just like the traditional onboarding process, it involves certain stages: pre-onboarding, welcoming and introduction, determining roles and processes, and demonstrating corporate culture. The process of integrating a new hire often includes administrative paperwork, peer and team meetings, immersion into the company culture and values, and role clarification. 

Yet, even though remote onboarding involves the same elements, it takes place virtually, shifting the focus and perception of remote workers. 

Thus, trainers and HR specialists need a different approach, relying more on structure, planning, digital tools, and proactive engagement. 

Without them, the virtual onboarding process will lead to isolation and affect employee retention rates. 

Key points to consider when handling remote onboarding

• Structure and clarity. Before the person starts a day on a new job, you should have a well-designed flow for them to blend in. Think of a road map or checklist with details to anticipate issues and questions and see the ultimate goals and resources.
• Technology support. As you onboard remote employees, make sure you have enough tools and resources. It includes hardware, software, access, and places to host onboarding materials (that should reflect your onboarding training curriculum.
• Clear communication. Next, you should think of how you communicate before, during, and after each stage of the remote onboarding process. Include personalization, give clear instructions, and define communication channels. It's about setting expectations and avoiding disconnection. 
• Feedback mechanism. Lastly, the effective onboarding requires check-ins. Thus, make sure you have tools for feedback, surveys, and reviews. The proper response to them will allow you to integrate the employees better.

How Do You Onboard Remote Employees?

With all these things in mind, we designed a simple guide on how to help you build a successful onboarding process. There, we will focus on structure, planning, and technology, giving you actionable tools and remote onboarding tips. 

Step#1. Start with A-level pre-boarding 

While for an employee, the onboarding starts with a welcome letter, it’s not the same for the HR specialists and trainers.

In the pre-boarding stage, a trainer should collect all necessary information for the onboarding of employees, from logins and passwords to main activities and communication guidelines. It brings the ground for a clear onboarding welcome email that welcomes, guides, and gives a roadmap. 

What are the key components in a pre-boarding stage?

• Learning or training portal with all data, information, and materials.
• Tools that new employees need for remote onboarding.
• Working emails and logins, accounts, and permissions for access and communication. 
• Documents on new job and expectations.
• Information on the team and ways to build relationships with them.
• Key activities and onboarding tasks for subsequent weeks.

Note. Onboarding checklists that can be passed from department to department may be a helping act from HR and help standardize the process.

Step#2. Develop a welcome message/kit for the onboarding

Once you put up portals, accesses, and documents with the essential onboarding information, it’s time to develop a welcoming letter. Make it personalized and communicate the next steps. 

1. Start with a warm greeting and introduction to the company’s mission and culture. It’s important to be specific regarding the department and role. 
2. You may include a welcome video from managers, team members, or leadership. Also, you can encourage other people to greet a new team member in the corporate chats or an email thread.
3. Leave room for a greeting call to break the ice and ensure there’s no disconnection.
4. Assign a buddy if it’s what your onboarding strategy provides. 
5. Avoid being generic, or at least personalize messages based on the department. 
6. Direct a person to the portal or place where the onboarding training will be personalized and structured. 

Note. Below is what your onboarding portal may look like, with an intro page and step-by-step guide, tasks, and checklists.

Step#3. Communicate and collaborate since day one

The subsequent step contemplates adding collaboration into onboarding. Why? Successful onboarding is always a two-way process. So, plan the first to be clear and provide opportunities for the creation of collaborative experience. 

Even if your remote onboarding program is self-paced, make sure the department, manager, or team has at least one call with a new hire on the first day. It will ensure that, even though they are not physically present, they can connect virtually. 

The opportunities for interaction and shared learning matter, as they support knowledge retention, not to mention integration into the processes.

The great strategies in this regard include: 

#1. Creating a separate space, channel, or chat for new hires

It may be a Slack channel, a separate community, or a messenger group. It all depends on the size of the organization and communication policies. 

#2. Introducing “buddies,” mentors, or experts

Reviewing the policies and guidelines in a self-paced mode is one thing. Yet, you should also add a personal touch and show values. Thus, introduce buddies, mentors, and experts to guide and share knowledge.

Note. If you’re to use training modules or separate software, you can add meetings as a separate activity or step for employees to complete. Here’s an example of how you can introduce an onboarding call.

#3. Using collaborative tools

What for? For document sharing and making onboarding interactive. The simplest ones refer to Miro, Notion, and Trello. They have tools to make it engaging and encourage interaction.

#4. Assigning collaborative tasks and assignments

It isn’t an obvious one in terms of onboarding. However, it can encourage new remote workers to introduce themselves and integrate into the team. 

You can ask new employees to complete technical skills or role-specific tasks to be peer-reviewed, group problem-solving exercises, or just set filling documents out as separate onboarding tasks. 

Note. To make onboarding more engaging, ask a person to share some information about them. You can set it as an assignment or an additional option. Yet, it depends on your organizational and corporate culture. 

In the end, focus on creating a shared experience rather than a solo task, that way, you would enhance engagement and add to workplace culture.

Step#4. Make remote onboarding experience unique

So, a one-size-fits-all approach to onboarding is likely to be ineffective in a remote environment. Why? Firstly, it’s a way to show why your company is different from others. Secondly, you can personalize the process and show that new employees are valued and understood.

Importantly, to do it right, you need to identify the new hire’s specific needs upon notes during hiring interviews, talking with hiring managers, or surveying. 

One of the approaches is to ensure that a new employee actively communicates with colleagues who have similar tasks. Managers should schedule regular one-on-one or check-ins to address concerns and provide guidance. 

At the same time, if you plan on using training software, then most of them allow the creation of customized learning paths or sub-accounts for the onboarding of different teams.

An onboarding LMS or software can help L&D specialists automate training experience, customize training portals for teams, and create specific paths or libraries for new hires based on their responsibilities.

Step#5. Keep the schedule organized, don’t be afraid to nudge 

Without a doubt, remote onboarding can feel pretty overwhelming unless you set clear milestones. Besides, you can always help new hires to follow the track. 

How? Well, first, make sure the onboarding roadmap is detailed and includes key training sessions, assignments, and reviews. In this regard, it’s vital to plan the first week and link onboarding to the 30-60-90-day plan. 

Note. The 30-60-90 plan is a concept to set goals and milestones for the new hires to reach in the first 30, 60, and 90 days. There, the 30-day plan is about learning, the 60-day training plan focuses on contributing, while the 90-day plan contemplates taking initiative. 

What are other ways to keep the training organized?

• Share structured checklists with new hires so that they move step-by-step.
• Integrate assignment management.
• Use drip content (locking training modules unless it's time or the previous module is finished).
• Encourage managers and HR to provide gentle nudges, follow-up messages, or video calls. 
• Apply notifications and reminders via emails, chatbots, or a learning management system.

For instance, Google uses nudges to affect the performance of its employees. According to this study, the strategy of email nudges helped them improve their productivity by 25%.

Step#6. Seek regular feedback and iterate

We haven’t forgotten about one of the pillars of effective remote onboarding – feedback.

It’s crucial to set up scheduled feedback loops. Thus, to notice potential issues, you should gather feedback via surveys, one-to-one meetings, and feedback forms. 

There, pay attention to the employees’ remote onboarding experience, gaps in knowledge, and needs. For instance, you may use tools like Google Forms, Slack polls, chats, or special tools. Other than that, ask managers to schedule regular check-ins at the end of the week. 

Note. If you're to use LMS, you can ask for feedback after each lesson or module, yet it's important to keep balance and not overload new hires.

Step#7. Track the results and improve the program

Lastly, as onboarding affects retention and operation, you should pay attention to results and reporting. That way, you will be able to improve them for the next cohort of new remote employees and add to the corporate culture. 

What are the metrics to track, and how do we see that the program is effective? Focus on such as engagement levels, satisfaction scores, and completion rates. 

Notably, LMS and employee training tracking software often provide dashboards, reports, and scoreboards to monitor the onboarding of employees. 

Here's how boards within a specific LMS can help you track attendance and scores:

As a result, it's a tool to recognize and celebrate milestones, including completing training modules or achieving performance goals.

Key Mistakes to Avoid in a Remote Setting 

Considering all the pillars and steps, it’s fair to say that building the onboarding process is not an easy task. It requires you to take into account many factors and details. And what may happen is that you lose balance in the pursuit of control. 

That’s why you should anticipate the issues and avoid certain mistakes. Here are some of the most popular ones:

Mistake#1. Overload with data or information

New hires can feel overwhelmed when presented with too much information at once. Thus, don’t bombard them with extensive reading materials, training modules, and guidelines on the first day. It may lead to disengagement. 

How to prevent it? Structure onboarding in phases. Use management tools, digital libraries, or LMSd to deliver content gradually and prioritize key information. Also, break learning into digestible segments and provide a central knowledge hub for reference.

Mistake#2. Fatigue from Software and Communication. 

Besides, too many tools and excessive virtual meetings can cause digital fatigue. They may not want to dive into it at once. 

A possible solution is to streamline communication by using a limited number of essential tools. Other than that, balance synchronous and asynchronous training to find the best mixture for your new hires. 

Mistake#3. Lack of Personal Connection

On the other hand, new remote employees may struggle with isolation if you don’t provide enough connection to the team. 

In this regard, a good option is to assign an onboarding buddy and use interactive platforms for team bonding. 

Note. Nevertheless, the best strategy is to answer to the needs of new hires and, upon the feedback and surveys, tweak your programs. It's where adaptive learning may be handy. 

Conclusion: Time to Think of Onboarding LMS?

All in all, remote onboarding can either make or break an employee’s first impression. Without a structured approach, new hires may feel lost, overwhelmed with information, or disconnected from their teams. 

There, a well-designed virtual onboarding process will ensure clarity, communication, and engagement from day one.

That’s why you may think of using training tools or LMS for onboarding. The reason is quite straightforward: it may streamline training, organize content delivery, and personalize the learning experience. 

If you're thinking of such a tool to bring more order, explore our next article on the Best Onboarding LMSs to find the right solution for your organization.