How To Effectively On-Board New Staff in a Virtual World

Welcoming brand-new team members is an exciting prospect.  

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But!  

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With remote working here to stay, this has become slightly more challenging for HR professionals.  

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So, lets reshape your current processes.  

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Why is Remote On-Boarding Important?

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The world has changed.  

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Across all four corners of the globe, employees are lapping up the slew of benefits from flexible arrangements, enabling them to reduce the amount of time spent in conventional working spaces.  

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Laying foundations to on-board people remotely will cast the net wider, provide additional support to people with health or mobility conditions, and keep you operational without even needing a permanent office.

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‍What’s The Current State of Play?

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• 47% of American workers prefer hybrid models (stanforduniversity)  
• 58% of UK workers prefer hybrid models (mycreditsummit)
• 13% of workers go in the office on Fridays (bbc)
• Over 55’s are most likely to work from home permanently (techtalk)
• The term ‘remote work’ gets 18,000 Google searches per month (standoutcv)

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What are The Benefits of Remote On-Boarding?

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The desire is clearly there, so let’s now flip this around, with focus on how this can benefit HR professionals during the on-boarding process.  

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Access To Top Talent  

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Logistical restraints can be a huge turn off for people seeking new roles.  

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By eliminating the need for in-person on-boarding, companies can attract highly skilled workers regardless of their location, which expands the pool of talent and promotes greater diversity in hiring.

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Well-Being

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Think about introverts, for whom the orientation process could be daunting.

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Joining a new business with tons of new people, and lots of new processes is going to be a whirlwind.  

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Enabling them to acclimatise on their own terms, away from the overstimulating nature of busy offices, may be the extra surge of comfort they need.  

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Efficiency

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Digital files will remove any need for printing, posting and scanning during your on-boarding process.  

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Forms can also be filled out and submitted online, saving you time and reducing errors.  

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Online training or inductions can be issued virtually, enabling new hires to complete this on their own time and at their own pace.  

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Automation tools can streamline repetitive tasks, such as sending welcome emails or setting up new hire accounts - this can help free up HR staff to focus on more complex tasks.

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What are The Biggest Challenges with Remote On-Boarding & How Can We Solve Them?

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On-boarding people remotely is a huge plus; however, this can only be achieved with the right tools by your side.  

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Below are common challenges, along with snippets of how Workiro, and its enterprise content management features built for HR professionals, can support you in this journey.  

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Getting Things Signed

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New starters often sign their life away.  

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From the offer letter to the final employment contract, it’s a conveyor belt of files, and without the ability to add e-signature, this can’t be done remotely.  

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Workiro supplies legally compliant solutions, with simple functionally making it super easy to add these into files, with notifications sent directly once people have signed on the dotted line.

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This critical function is part of Workiro’s software suite, removing the need for third-party apps, and with it, the prospect of files going missing, especially if they're being sent through email.

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‍Offering Frequent Support

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Talking things over will be a regular occurrence early on.

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Stumbling blocks will emerge, so prompt communication could be hugely beneficial to not only get things completed on time, but to offer immediate reassurance should the issue be stressful.

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Workiro provides real-time chat, sitting directly next to any files, tasks and previous conversations, and what’s more, you get to choose who gets involved, therefore increasing confidentiality to make new starters feel more comfortable when expressing their concerns.  

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Gaining Full Visibility of Tasks

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You may need additional support from other departments to complete on-boarding, whether that's signing off salaries with the hiring managers, or scheduling orientations.  

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More people, means more tasks, and more tasks, often creates more documents.  

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Unless you can see, action, and chase everything, you may lose track of progress, and fail to hold people accountable should they be slowing key stages.  

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Workiro ignites consolidated overviews, packing everything into the same place through our web app or on your mobile phone, so you gain access to the full picture without wasting time scouring emails or shuffling through your hard drive.  

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Prioritizing What’s Most Important

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HR is a busy profession, and in fact, some days, your workflow can become just that little bit too hectic to manage.  

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Unless you’ve carefully segmented tasks into some kind of order, you could be spending time on general admin, when you should be finalising a crucial document for new starters.  

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Using Workiro’s catch-up feature, you’ll get the most pressing tasks sent straight to the very top of your to-do list automatically.  

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This means pressing deadlines, such as monthly payroll, can be given the focus it needs alongside important on-boarding steps.  

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Thoughts From Workiro

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“Keeping on top of your internal communication is imperative but can also feel overwhelming if you are not keeping track of the people you are contacting. Having a tool like Workiro gives a clear list of connections and the threads of communication tied to each, which helps us keep up to date with where we are in the process.

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Also having the ability to see when messages have been read, nudge connections to acknowledge their receipt or understanding, and being able to change the ownership of tasks to different participants all helps in keeping on top of internal communication.”

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– Kelly Wyatt, Learning & Development Lead for Workiro

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Using SuitePeople?

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Workiro is the perfect companion to NetSuite HR, with its capacity to form a ‘single source of truth’ inside your module.  

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Download our free HR eBook to learn more about our NetSuite integration, and how this truly empowers HR professionals for the brand-new era of work.