5 Tips for Onboarding Remote Workers

Hiring an employee can sometimes seem like an easy task. However, finding a person who fits all of your company’s needs is a real struggle. But the good news is, when you can’t find a local who could help you take your operations to the next level, you can always hire a remote worker. But, even with all the devices and software allowing them to connect with their co-workers, becoming engaged as soon as they start working for you can be tough. With that said, we came up with five tips that will help you effectively onboard your remote workers.

Introduce them to your team

Welcoming new employees is an important part of building a good team. You can evaluate your staff’s reactions and see how the new employee fits in. Also, when you hire a local remote worker, having them spend a day in the office is great idea. They get to meet their co-workers and pick up tactics and strategies they’re using. However, when you hire a remote worker from another city or country, having them take a look at how you do things in your office is not an option. Instead, you should think about sending a company-wide email and introducing the new employee to your current staff.

Help them in the first seven days

According to experts, it takes about seven days for an employee to really integrate into a new company and lose habits they acquired in their previous job. Sometimes, this means they’ll make mistakes in their first week at new work. This is exactly why you should keep a close eye on them and make sure they turn to you or a manager at your company with any question they might have. In fact, it’s desirable to send them a few emails during their first week at your company, just to check if they need any help.

Choose the right remote workers

It takes a lot of work to recognize a candidate who can contribute to your company the way you want them to. Well, choosing a remote worker is even more difficult, since quite often, you’ll only communicate with them through email. But, if you manage to find people who share your ambition and are willing to put effort into their work, it’s guaranteed they’ll help your company grow. A foolproof way to find remote workers is to turn to an employment provide. You can consider the idea of turning to experts in disability employment services and hire a disabled remote worker.

Break training into steps

Usually, when bringing in a new employee, you need to have them complete a training before they start working. This strategy can be employed when hiring a remote employee, but you need to bear in mind that communication might lack as you have to rely on email and software such as Skype. The best way to ensure this doesn’t become an issue is to break training into small elements and assess their handling of a task before moving on to something new. Even once you assign them “real work” you should break it into small parts and give them feedback in a timely fashion.

Assign them a mentor

Even though we said it takes seven days for an employee to figure things out, it doesn’t mean they’ll instantly be as productive as their co-workers. There will still be things they need to learn and techniques to master. And to help them get there, you can assign them a mentor who’ll coach them and answer any further questions they might have. The best thing about assigning mentors to your remote workers is that it helps build a healthy company culture, which is the key to success. Moreover, it keeps your new remote employee satisfied.

Final thoughts

Even though the trend of hiring remote workers is growing, identifying the right remote employee and onboarding them isn’t easy. What you need to understand is that it’ll take them some time to adjust to their new job so don’t expect them to get a lot of work done in their early days in your company. But, if you follow the five tips we covered in this post, nothing should stop them from integrating into your business just fine.