With the majority of companies continuing to work remotely, employee onboarding is one of the many processes that can’t be done in person. For some of you, the plans you made for welcoming your new employees can no longer be carried out. You may be trying to figure out a new plan to make your employees feel welcomed and prepared for their new career within your company. While onboarding is different for every organization, we’ve put together some guidelines and ideas we feel are a great starting point for refining your plan.
Plan of Action
Before you scrap all of your plans and head to the drawing board, is there anything that you can carry over? Maybe you can still use that introduction presentation you planned by streaming it through Zoom. You can’t have that group lunch in person, but you can schedule a video conference around that time for employees to ask questions and get to know each other. Video conferencing tools such as Zoom and Google Hangouts are great ways to connect with your new employees.
While many documents are handled digitally these days, there may have been a few papers you wanted to physically give your new hires. While you're transitioning your materials to a digital platform, take the time to look at your formatting. This is a great opportunity to see if your resources are designed in line with your company’s brand. It never hurts to go over your documents, emails, and anything else new employees may see.
Mapping out each touchpoint for your employee will give you insight into how you can transform onboarding into an amazing, memorable experience.
Welcome Email
Never underestimate the power of a well thought out welcome email! A proper welcome email should get your employees excited for their first day at work. The beginning should express how happy your team is for gaining this new employee. Give them a schedule if you have one planned for their first day as well as what supplies they might need. Finally, give them a way to get in contact with you if they have any questions before the first day. A well-crafted welcome email should be informative, clear, and inviting.
We've created a first-day email template for you.
To access in Word click here.
To access a pdf version, click here.
Cheat Sheet
Something we’ve seen several companies do a variant on is a “cheat sheet” for their new employees. This could be a document or webpage made exclusively for new hires with information pertaining to them. Some of the things you could include could be:
A welcome message or fun image
A list of all the new hires including their pictures and department
A schedule for their first couple of days
Any extra or fun events coming up that employees can participate in
A checklist of supplies and forms new employees should have
Conclusion
Whether it’s remote or in person, the purpose of a proper onboarding plan is to welcome new employees and catch them up on the company’s day to day activities. In this age of using digital means to contact others, it is the perfect opportunity to experiment with new ways of engaging your new hires. At the end of the day, your goal is to make your new employees feel welcomed and comfortable in their new work situation.