5 min
Deputy Head of HR Services Department at Unicon Outsourcing
Last year, remote work not only was legally approved in Russia, but also opened up cost-saving opportunities for businesses and presented new challenges for teams previously unfamiliar with remote sourcing, recruitment, and onboarding.
Zulfiya Yupashevskaya, Deputy Head of HR Services Department at BDO Unicon Outsourcing, has shared with us the good practices that the company employs to onboard new employees, help them quickly adapt to the company, and encourage the team spirit of the work group.
Provide the New Employee with Technical Support
The first thing to take care of is the workplace and access to the key corporate tools. At this point, the onboarding of office and distance employees is not very different. The prospective manager will want to make sure that on the first day:
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The employee understands whose equipment they will be using for their work, their own or the employer’s,
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Technical support team promptly sets up the account and grants access to the appropriate folders,
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The employee is invited to the corporate chats to avoid unexpected difficulties in communication.
If the job interview was conducted offline, then it is advisable to e-mail a questionnaire on the technical capabilities of telecommuting to the employee before they proceed with the remote job. This way, the manager will see whether the new employee will be able to quickly connect to audio and video calls, and how stable their Internet connection is. The employee will get an idea of the technical support they will need for their work, what communication channels are used by the new team, and to what extent their employer will support them technically.
If the employee does not have the necessary equipment, the employer may consider providing office equipment with pre-installed software. If the new employee intends to use his/her personal equipment for work, the employer and the employee may want to specify the appropriate refund in the employment agreement or in a separate addendum. In addition, company managers are advised to incorporate a refund procedure for damaged company equipment into local regulations and decide whether the company will reimburse Internet costs to telecommuters.
Explain the Company Hierarchy
More often than not, the remote worker is first introduced to the company and the team without any face-to-face meetings. Some experts believe that because telecommuters do not have to leave their familiar surroundings and step outside of their comfort zone, their integration is quicker and smoother. However, both the individual mentality and the reasons for choosing a remote job may differ drastically from employee to employee. Therefore, if you feel that a person craves personal introduction and a chat, it is worth considering a face-to-face introduction, as well.
Nevertheless, even if it is not possible to arrange a tour of the office or a personal meeting with the team, this does not mean that the manager only has to explain the duties to the fresh-comer. Employees will integrate faster if they have clear understanding of the corporate hierarchy, know how the current regulations are structured, and what values form the corporate culture.
To make employees feel part of the team, BDO Unicon Outsourcing ensures induction sessions for every new employee, introducing them to the company, key function managers, and each other. This allows new recruits to learn how the whole company functions and to navigate business processes with more confidence. We have also introduced a corporate chatbot so that employees who do not know whom to contact or have lost contact details of a colleague can get those details at any time.
Introduce the Newcomer to Their Colleagues
A unique challenge of integrating teleworkers into a work group is that more often than not the newcomers struggle to form and maintain social ties with people they have never met before. Therefore, the most common way of meeting and greeting within a workgroup or department is to include a video interview in the onboarding processes.
For instance, some companies ask candidates who have successfully completed an interview or a probationary period to record a reply to a short, generic questionnaire that helps them introduce themselves and their role and tasks in the company. In these recordings, the newcomers talk about their experiences, past jobs and plans, and answer additional questions that have been collected in advance.
Another common way is a team call, where team members get to know each other, introduce their roles and ask the newcomers any questions they might have. As this is the next best thing to offline talk, it helps newcomers to build interpersonal relationships, overcome emotional barriers of dealing with strangers, and get used to the corporate communication style faster: for example, figure out how the team members address each other.
Introduce Corporate Mentorship
New employees are often afraid of coming across as incompetent or become embarrassed to bother their colleagues. This can lead to new recruits trying to figure things out on their own, making unintentional mistakes or delaying tasks. A mentoring system will help to smoothly integrate the new employee into the work flow and avoid miscommunication. We have designed our corporate onboarding system in this way. To encourage the colleagues, we have also introduced an annual award for the best mentor who regularly shares expertise with the team and reward the nomination winners with corporate prizes. This approach places the new employee under the supervision of a more experienced member, who supervises the novice’s work through the first few months. This way, the new employee always knows who to turn to for guidance if they have questions about a task, require help in filling in paperwork or have doubts about their authorizations.
The mentor does not only supervise the quality of the newcomer’s work. As they are in regular dialogue, the mentor can monitor the newcomer’s workplace behavior, get feedback on any concerns and worries of the new employee, and see how they are coping with their duties.
A strong mentoring system is a win-win solution that, on the one hand, allows employees to grow familiar with their responsibilities during the first months on the job and, on the other hand, helps the mentor to develop managerial skills useful for their career advancement.
Develop Onboarding Materials
The sooner the new employee gets access to guidance and business process regulations, the easier their adaptation will be. A folder or a presentation for newcomers providing information on the business units, mission and values of the company to help the newcomers navigate the corporate system and databases would be a good example.
IT solutions can also facilitate the navigation. Today, the market offers plenty of tools that will remind you of your work schedule, show the annual calendar plan or allow you to check contact details of your colleagues at any time on your portable device.
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