The main goal of employee onboarding is to help new hires acclimate to the social and professional expectations of their new work environment. As a result of successful onboarding, they should be able  to proceed comfortably and effectively in their roles. Nowadays, companies choose to hire remote employees and onboarding becomes a major challenge. It is known to all that effective onboarding can increase retention, performance, and job satisfaction but there are few practices to implement in order to ensure it. 

Organized and Clear onboarding plan: The key to efficiently onboarding remote employees is to create a detailed onboarding plan. This plan should cover all aspects of the onboarding process but most importantly, include milestones that can be used to measure how an employee is progressing through the process. 

Welcoming: Your new employee should feel despite the distance sense of belonging and it starts from the first welcome announcement. The welcome and intro to the team are a great chance to highlight reasons you are excited to have the new hire on board. 

As a bonus and improved experience, you should consider creating an online welcome pact. Ideally it should be sent out to new employees before their first onboarding session. You can combine different items such as a letter of welcome, company’s T-shirt or a book which represent your core values.

Establish collaborative learning : after the initial onboarding, the new hire will have learning tasks. Be there for them by checking in frequently and providing them a chance to ask questions. As well, Make sure that you provide remote employees with enough opportunities to learn from others in the team. 

Onboarding remote employees is not an easy task but by combining good practices with helpful HR software, everything should go smoothly.