Remote work setup has quickly become a norm in most businesses nowadays. In fact, according to an Owl Lab Study, 16% of companies globally now allow employees to work remotely. Moreover, 4.7 million workers do their jobs remotely at least half the time in the United States.
Similarly, most companies and businesses have now reopened and are finding ways to keep the office environment they used to have. However, questions linger on whether it’s still ideal to keep employees on remote work. Although the answers tend to differ depending on the circumstances, many companies have chosen remote working as their preferred solution.
If your company is one of those who decided that remote working is the best option, then you will have to onboard and train your employees remotely, too. With that, you should consider the best practices to implement them effectively.
Effective onboarding increases the chance that employees will stay, while proper training of newly hired remote workers can allow you to pinpoint the skills and knowledge that you want them to acquire. You can learn more about this by continuing to read.
1. Create Strong Connections Within The Organization
Employees can’t rely on organic and unforced relationship-building at office events, hallways, and office lunches in a remote work setting. Thus, you must implement combined formal and informal interactions between the newly hired remote employee and other coworkers in the first week of onboarding to gain a contextual knowledge of team dynamics.
If your schedule permits, you can invite newly hired workers to spend some time with you and other coworkers at the headquarters, at in-person lunches, and other offsite opportunities as their manager. However, if this scenario isn’t possible, you can still do some remote-based practices for your team to spend nonwork-related time together.
For instance, you can schedule a welcome call or maybe host an online team lunch wherein new hires can meet and greet their superiors, coworkers, and even perhaps the people in the human relations department. Doing so will establish connections within the organization.
Likewise, company virtual events like informal ‘coffee’ meetups can significantly impact onboarding. New hires can develop a foundation of trust and encourage open communication, a significant component of success within an organization through these events.
2. Train Employees On Company Systems And Technologies
Giving each new hire a session with the IT department about how the communication channels, a videoconferencing platform, and other company systems work could significantly be ideal for reducing first-day anxiety. Doing this can reduce technical problems and allows new employees to be wholly available and more relaxed on the first day of the job.
Besides, your company can send a series of videos showing the step-by-step instructions on setting up their work computers. You can also continue to assist and be open to consultations as time goes by.
To note, it’s also vital to allow company-specific software and programs to be remotely loaded. This is so that when workers turn on their work computers, they can download the required programs and software with the necessary permission.
3. Use Different Types Of Training
Remote training can’t be a one-size-fits-all solution. Some employees do well with reading and reviewing materials. However, others need real-time video interaction and instruction.
Some approaches you can consider are as follows:
- Real-Time Learning: Training can be done on synchronous channels such as Zoom meetings, computer-linked sessions, and conference calls. Here, all newly hired workers or individual remote workers can learn as the information is shared. Overall, it’s knowledge acquisition based on immediate needs.
- Self-Directed Learning: New hires can gain access to learning materials at their own pace and then participate in activities, have comments, and have assessments based on the required deadlines.
- Blended Learning: This is a mixture of real-time and self-directed learning that is more flexible and allows training to be adjusted based on the type of learner and learning situations.
Wrapping Up
Many companies still opt to do remote work entirely as it has proven to be successful and is preferred much by most employees, especially those who do long commutes daily. Continuing this setup has allowed them to be closer to their families, forming stronger bonds in the long run
However, going remote means that the onboarding and training process will also be done virtually. So, you have to find ways to make it effective, even remotely.
Altogether, some practices you should implement within the company or business are creating solid relationships for the newly hired remote workers, training them in company systems and technologies, and using various types of training.
