How to Onboard Remote Team Members

Remote Onboarding is different because it does not take place in the office. A simple determination with far-reaching consequences.
One problem which became apparent right at the beginning was that the hardware was not at the new team member's office on time. Since the devices have to be ordered and labelled and afterwards shipped again, we need a little more lead time than before. Especially since the delivery routes are currently slower. Another problem is that the new team member has no access to internal (communication) tools. We use Slack and Microsoft teams for internal communication. To give the new team member access to our internal tools, we have added a Welcome Call as the first active step in remote Onboarding. Via Microsoft Teams, the new team member can make video calls with us, even with his private email address. In the Welcome Call, everything is set up, passwords are handed over and afterwards, arrangements and the rest of the Onboarding can take place via internal company tools.

The task of integrating the new team member was also challenging. Normally series of unplanned communication occur in everyday office life, e.g. while waiting for a program to be downloaded, getting a coffee or having lunch with different people.
In this way, you learn who is an expert on the best coffee or who questions can be directed to regarding the preparation of an offer. In remote, this access to the other members is missing. The technical solution was relatively easy for us to manage. For the process solution, on the other hand, our approach was initially seemingly paradoxical. In particular, the planning of unplanned communication.

Conclusion

Remote Onboarding has special challenges. Technically, the implementation was relatively easy for us at TDSoftware because we had already used remote communication tools before. Our previous experience with online job interviews and arrangements with international customers helped us here.

More challenging was the team building. Tea-time worked better than expected. It seems to be a simple step, but to enter into non-targeted communication in a planned way, helps to establish a sense of familiarity and belonging to the team. Time will show if the integration, during the Onboarding, has reached its target.

What are your experiences with remote Onboarding? Did you have special challenges or did you postpone the recruitment of new employees for the time being? Please leave a comment.

If you want to contact Julia or have questions about the procedure, please feel free to network with her on Linkedin or Xing.