Onboarding New Hires in a Remote World

Much of what you’re hearing right now about remote work has focused on people who used to go into the office or plant every day and now find themselves working from home. Mostly, we are working with our same colleagues, just physically distant. But as this pandemic drags into the fifth month a lot of people are—willingly or not—changing jobs and joining new teams. A growing number of leaders need to consider how we bring new team members up to speed quickly.
Onboarding at many companies is a slow, frustrating process for both the employer and the new hire. Managers need to stop whatever their “real work,” is and spend a lot of time getting the new person settled. For the individual, there’s a lot of sitting by yourself reading manuals, setting up computers, inventing passwords that will get approved, and not being entirely sure what to do next.
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