Onboarding Remote Employees is a Good Investment

Over 40 percent of American employees report that they work remotely every now and then. And this statistic continues to grow not only in the US but the world over. It is estimated that 50 percent of the employees will telecommute in the UK by 2020. The question that arises then is - why is remote working becoming more popular with more and more organizations adopting it? Telecommuting offers a host of benefits both to employees and organizations like more productivity, higher satisfaction level, lower overheads, greater flexibility, and a real chance to maintain that fine balance between professional and personal life. However, remote working is not completely free of challenges or troubles. The good thing is that these issues can be easily tackled with a little bit of planning and foresightedness.

Challenges for remote workforce

Remote workers come with their own unique set of benefits and complexities. As far as organizations are concerned, the problem areas with remote workers that they need to tackle to derive optimal benefits are:

• Foster a cohesive company culture
• Ensure open and timely communication
• Have efficient methodologies in place to deal with leaves, benefits, salary, and other requests
• Manage schedules as different employees may have different work timings
• Manage communication priorities and the way tasks are prioritized

The challenges faced by remote workers are:

• Feeling of seclusion and aloofness
• Lack of proper communication with team members and managers
• Frequent interruptions and disruptions while working from home
• Overworking

However, it is important to note that these are not major challenges that cannot be overcome. In fact, they can be easily dealt with through some sound onboarding techniques.

Benefits of Onboarding Remote Employees

You still have doubts regarding the benefits of onboarding remote workers. May be this quote from the VP of People Operations at Google (yes, Google!), Lazlo Bock, may help matters to some extent. He says: "At Google, we front-load our people investment. This means the majority of our time and money spent on people is invested in attracting, assessing, and cultivating new hires."

Onboarding is just what Lazlo speaks of — cultivation of new hires. It is an activity that is designed to transform an employee from being a "new hire" to becoming a "part of the team". When executed impeccably, it serves as a great morale booster, boosting the motivation and subsequently the productivity of employees.

The prime benefits of onboarding remote employees are as follows:

• It helps them familiarize themselves with the management and functioning style of the organization.
• They will a get hang of their job responsibilities and duties quickly and consequently, start contributing in a short period of time.
• It will help them make a quick adjustment with the organization's corporate culture.
• It will let them get attuned to things like communication, feedback, organizational policies etc. faster.
• Lastly, they will understand quickly what the company expects from them in terms of schedule, daily logistics, communication etc.

Best Onboarding Tips for New Employees Who Work Remotely

Friendly introduction in a casual environment

The feeling of isolation and segregation can quickly deflate the morale of an employee. This can have a very adverse effect on their overall productivity as a sense of belonging will be missing. Try to eliminate this feeling of aloneness by properly introducing them to other workers in the organization on their first day of onboarding. It will be better if a remote worker is able to make it to the company's premises, but the situation is not likely to go out of hand if they fail to come. If the position is completely remote, set up a short video call between the employee's manager and their team members. This is a very important step as the remote employee, apart from knowing their team mates, could also obtain information about the nature of work, company policies, and how the work can be completed with minimum resources and wastage of time.

You can hire employees in India from a top–of-the-line remote staffing company. Top organizations offer virtual employees who show confidence in their ability to shoulder new responsibilities with just a little bit of prudent onboarding.

Article By John Tie, Outsourcing Enthusiast