By: Fadime Yilmaz, Experience Strategist – UX Researcher, LTIMindtree Consulting

Finding and attracting the right talent for any organization and retaining them is more challenging now, especially with the effect of the Great Resignation, as employees have become more aware of what they want and need. As per Gartner, the rate of employee turnover is 50-75% more than it used to be before the pandemic, and the time to fill a role has increased by 18%. This has many adverse effects on employee motivation and productivity, leading to high company costs. To replace an employee, an employer will need to spend an average of 16–20% of that worker’s salary; the total cost of turnover per employee ranges from 100–300% of the individual’s salary. How can companies retain the talent they have spent so many resources on?

In an article, Dr. John Sullivan, Professor of Human Relations, compiles some recent studies that show the high failure rates for current recruiting processes:

• New hires fail within 18 months in 46% of cases.
• In the first six months of a job, 50% of hourly employees quit or are fired.
• New management hires fail between 40% and 60% of the time within 18 months.
• Within the first 18 months of their tenure, nearly 40% of CEOs fail outright.

There are many reasons for these high failure rates, such as uncaring leaders, unsustainable work performance expectations, a lack of career development and advancement potential, no meaningful work, absence of support for employee health and well-being, etc. On that note, a good onboarding process is the first step to lowering this ratio.

A good onboarding process is more than HR; it is much more complicated than completing paperwork and signing forms. It is integrating new hires into an organization and making them familiar with the company culture and environment. Recently, with many companies starting to hire and onboard their employees remotely, it has become harder to get new hires up-to-speed.

Brandon Hall Group has identified a poor onboarding process as the company’s biggest mistake. According to their report, ‘organizations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%. Companies with weak onboarding programs lose the confidence of their candidates and are more likely to lose these individuals in the first year.’ Hence, the onboarding process for new hires is critical for an organization’s recruiting success. Gallup Analytics shows that one in five employees either report a poor or no onboarding experience, even though onboarding is crucial. Furthermore, just 12% of American workers think their firm does a good job onboarding new employees.

So, here are five tips for creating a successful remote onboarding experience:

1. Start Onboarding Early:

Pre-onboarding is part of the onboarding process and should always be addressed. Prepare the paperwork and have it signed before the employees’ first day. It will save time and help focus on employees’ needs on their first days.

Send a personalized welcome email to the new hires before their first day. Including a personalized video message might help employees feel connected with you before they officially start work. In this email, include a digital guide to give them an overall picture of the company’s onboarding process and/or a checklist for the onboarding tasks that they must complete in 10/30/60/90 days. Be transparent about the process, steps, duration, etc., and tell them beforehand what they must prepare for their first day. For example, LinkedIn sends a congratulatory email to all new hires, followed up with an interactive PDF detailing their role and what to expect on their first day.

Provide a list of primary contacts before their first day so – the new hires know who is responsible for their onboarding process, who they should contact for questions and problems with the technology and tools, etc.

Using a central hub for employee onboarding is also a good idea, as new hires can reach everything in one place. They can sign their papers, get HR-related documents, find contact information, search for and access any information they seek, etc., on one platform. Pre-schedule meetings with the necessary contacts through the central hub will be much more efficient than just providing contact information. Assign onboarding tasks and provide customized training courses through this central hub.

2. Build a 1:1 Relationship:

Remember that emotional support is the most important part of a successful onboarding process. For new hires, creating a sense of belonging is essential. As per the North America CandEs Research Report, communicating and engaging with new employees during the pre-onboarding process can improve the onboarding experience by 83%. Additionally, receiving a quick call from the hiring manager can increase their relationship with the employer by 68%.

Prior to their first day, contact them and introduce their team members. Help them build a 1:1 connection and learn what each team member does at the company. Google focuses its onboarding process on managers. Twenty-four hours before a new employee starts, their managers get a notification about each new hire with five tasks, such as discussing their roles and responsibilities, assigning them a buddy, helping them build a social network, setting up check-ins once a month for the new hire’s first six months, and encouraging them to speak openly.

Provide onboarding buddies to help new employees navigate the workplace. This will help familiarize your new employees with the company culture so that they learn how work is done at your company. Apple, for example, has the iBuddy system, where new hires are paired with an existing employee to help them connect with their colleagues. New hires can ask questions about their role, the company, the culture, and workplace habits. Also, assigning a mentor will reduce the risk of their feeling overwhelmed and lost.

Sending out welcome kits is another good way to welcome new employees and make them feel at home and help boost the company culture. Giants like Salesforce, Dropbox, Coursera, and Google are well-known for their elaborate, exciting welcome kits.

Moreover, remember to embed DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) into your onboarding process. It’s essential that all new hires feel included, respected, and valued as a part of the team. First, define DEI for your company, train your employees (particularly managers), and teach them how to prevent bias.

3. Provide the Technology and Tools on Day One:

Setting up the technology and tools before your new hire’s start date is essential for successful remote onboarding. Send them electronic assets before their first day. Also, offer a session with an IT person to ensure they don’t have issues using the tools and technology and help them feel comfortable on their first day. Having everything ready to go when they start work will keep your new hires engaged, help them adapt to your work environment more quickly, and improve their motivation and success from the first day.

4. Training:

Offering role-specific training sessions during and after onboarding is essential to increasing employee success and retention. As per Gallup’s study, employees with a well-defined professional development plan are 3.5 times more inclined to strongly acknowledge that their onboarding process was exceptional. During the onboarding process, for example, you can organize IT sessions for technical training or plan HR-related guiding sessions for solving their queries. For example, Meta provides every new employee with a boot camp; an onboarding program. They aim to help new hires learn the tools used at Facebook and familiarize themselves with their culture and values.

Share useful company resources with new employees so that they can be reached whenever needed. Many companies use Learning Management Systems to manage and track employee training even after onboarding.

If you want to be more innovative and make your new hires excited and more engaged, you can include gamification throughout the onboarding and training processes. ‘Gamification in onboarding means implementing certain gaming principles, such as progression, multiple levels, achievements, etc., into the post-hiring processes.’ You can create digital checklists where employees check the tasks they complete and answer questions after each training video.

Virtual reality (VR) can improve employee training and increase employee retention. Provide virtual tours of your company or office, have new hires participate in VR hands-on training sessions, and create digital workplaces where employees can have real-time interactions.
One can also designate a mentor for every new employee to serve as a valuable source of professional knowledge. Mentors can help mentees improve their professional skills, understand the company culture, and build connections. Allocating mentors is the most critical strategy in Quora’s onboarding process.

5. Check-Ins:

Finally, regularly check in with your employees to uncover their needs, problems, and goals. Set up a 1:1 meeting 30-60-90 days after they start their job and allow them to give feedback about their onboarding process and gain insights about how they like their position. During these meetings, ask them about their onboarding experience, how their first week or month was, their suggestions to improve the onboarding process, what expectations were met and what were not, if they need any more training, etc. Digitize the feedback loop through the central hub you use for onboarding by providing surveys. Identify how satisfied, content, and challenged new hires felt to improve the onboarding experience and increase employee retention. According to a Forbes article, ‘82% of employees appreciate positive and negative feedback,’ so these check-ins will also be a good opportunity for you to give them feedback about their performance and adaptation. Employee feedback is critical to reinforce positive behavior, improving performance and promoting employee loyalty.

Conclusion

It is challenging to create a memorable welcome for your new hires remotely, but companies must find ways to tackle this challenge as remote work is becoming more common worldwide. With these five tips, you can easily offer your new hires a pleasant and welcoming remote onboarding experience and increase employee retention and success. The benefits of increased effort are worth it in the long run.

We, at LTIMindtree, can help you reimagine your onboarding experience in an innovative manner.