Traditional methods such as career fairs, on-campus events, and in-person interviews are still in use, but COVID-19 is changing how businesses recruit. Starting a new job amid a global pandemic can be pretty stressful. On their first day, new employees are bombarded with information. Not only that, but many people are juggling work and childcare, and some are making their first venture into remote work.
Instead of in-person events and interviews, an increasing number of businesses are adopting a digital-only strategy for hiring. Sending messages on sites, having video conference interviews, and onboarding new hires remotely are all examples of this.
If you’ve been trying to onboard new team members but haven’t been sure how to engage with them and make them feel welcome, this virtual onboarding guide will instantly help your new hires feel welcomed and included in their new team.
Engage With Coworkers
Your teams’ first chance to engage with their new coworkers is during onboarding documents, and you can instill confidence in them as soon as you provide these great ideas and activities. Allow your new employee to communicate with key members of your team right away. It’s an excellent approach to introducing everyone to one another.
Prepare A Schedule
What do you want your new employee to learn and do in their first week? Make a schedule for their first week, including intervals between video conversations and enough check-ins and touchpoints to ensure they don’t feel neglected or forgotten. Make a list of “self-study” elements (documents, important articles, websites, competitor information) to fill in the gaps in the new employee onboarding documents flow. This will also assist in breaking up the monotony of being on call all of the time.
Being Mindful
Typically an incredible way to welcome group bonding is through group meditation or 10-30 minutes of mindfulness. Most importantly, it signals to new hires that you just care about their well-being and for them personally. Welcome your groups to attend group meditations for a set period during Mondays or welcome them to share a few thoughts to the group almost how they are taking care of stress amid their workweek.
Stress Reduction
Stress reduction as a group can be an excellent method to shift your team’s attention to work-related stress management. This may not appear to be a virtual activity that will help your team form lasting friendships, but you’d be amazed how powerful this type of activity can be in forging deep human bonds. If your new hire has never met anyone in their workplace before, you can assist them to feel more at ease by scheduling brief face-to-face meetings with them. Bringing a small group together and having them conduct a virtual meeting can be a fun approach to getting the entire company involved in a new and exciting onboarding document.
Guest Speaker Virtual Discussion
Another topic in the virtual onboarding process is having a virtual discussion with a guest speaker might assist to engage new hires as well as existing employees. It will be refreshing for new employees to hear from a range of people during their new hire journey, whether the speaker is someone here like a prominent figure who has some experience to share or if you hire an outside expert. This will reassure new hires that you care about their development and learning far beyond the day-to-day duties they are responsible for, which will go a long way toward ensuring that they feel connected to the firm and cared for.
Friendly Competition
Giving your team members the opportunity to compete might be a fun method to include entertainment in your onboarding document. You may create competition for almost anything, whether it’s a learning goal or simply for fun. Individuals or teams could, for example, pitch their greatest new product ideas, create a short film about the company’s culture and onboarding document, or share their best photo or video with a personal story – anything goes.
Conclusion
Make your new employee feel esteemed, acknowledged, and part of the group by emailing them a welcome bundle that incorporates your representative handbook benefits data, and company swag (e.g., sweatpants, note pad, write, pop socket). These types of events assist new employees to break the ice, create lasting memories, and will be a great experience. Customize your onboarding documents using customizable tools to give a better experience to your employees.
