Onboarding New Hires in a “Remote-First” World

“If people are failing, they look inept. If people are succeeding, they look strong and good and competent. That’s the ‘halo effect.’ Your first impression of a thing sets up your subsequent beliefs. If the company looks inept to you, you may assume everything else they do is inept.”

Daniel Kahneman from an interview in 2012

First impressions really matter. This axiom applies to both individuals and organizations. People tend to hold on to first impressions, even when evidence proves they should not.

I have had to learn that reality the hard way, again and again.

There is a lot of advice for individuals on how to make a good first impression in a job interview or on a date.

And, much less advice on how organizations can make positive first impressions.

Onboarding is a great opportunity for a company to make a positive impression on all new hires. In the remote-first world we operate in today, onboarding takes on even greater importance.

When we as business leaders don’t stretch to create a super positive first impression of our company to new hires, we miss an opportunity. A “just-ok” onboarding experience create unnecessary baggage reducing the likelihood that new hires will be energized, productive and have a long tenure.

One of my proudest career accomplishments was rebuilding the onboarding program at Smartling with a huge amount of help from Kevin Cohn and Beatriz Albini-Ruiz. After we instituted the new program, feedback revealed that new hires felt both welcomed into the company and educated about the business in a way they had not experienced at prior jobs.

Organizations hire and pay employees because they believe the value-add will far outstrip the total cost incurred to hire, train and pay the new employee. A thoughtful onboarding program that focuses on what the new employee might need is a worthwhile investment.

Sadly, many companies still view onboarding as a “necessary evil” before productive work begins. Most onboarding programs focus on the following.

(a) Ensuring compliance materials are completed (benefits, tax withholding and direct deposit forms etc.);

(b) Providing access to the various cloud software systems needed for the job;

(c) Conveying basic company knowledge, usually showing an org. chart and seating locations of different teams; and,

(d) Asking new hires to answer “icebreaker” questions for the whole company to get to know them better.

Listening to new hires talk about their recent remote onboarding experiences into internships and full time paying roles has motivated me to write on this topic.

Here are some tips from my experience that I would like to share. I hope that leadership and all hiring managers beyond will integrate some of these suggestions into their process.

Follow the “Golden Rule”. Treat new hires as you would hope to be treated were you starting a new job

(a) Remember as a long tenured employee you take a lot of organizational knowledge for granted. New hires don’t have that knowledge.

(b) Cultivate compassion for new hires. They are trying hard to make a positive first impression. Acknowledge how stressful this can be.

Model behavior that shows new hires that they are valued

(a) Ensure CxOs and VP leaders participate in the new cohort onboarding. The CEO needs to make this a stated priority. Otherwise my experience is that other business leaders will often have other more pressing commitments to attend to.

Create classes

(a) Start “groups” or “classes” of new hires together. Creating a cohort will help with social bonding. And, having classes will increase the payback from dedicating leadership time in the onboarding process.

(b) Have only one start date each month. Resist the push from hiring managers and senior executives (it will be hard) to have new hires start as soon as possible.

(c) Start in-person (whether virtual or IRL) on a Tuesday.

(d) Use Mondays for new hires to fill out paperwork remotely and for company members to finish up any pressing work that piled up over a weekend and needs an immediate response.

Create a program that educates new hires

(a) Treat new employees as you would a valued investor. After all they are investing their time (the most precious resource that anyone has) with your company.

(b) Taking two to three days, with no more than 4 to 5 hours of content a day, walk them through all the relevant information you would share with a new investor. Topics to cover include: (i) why the company exists, (ii) what problem you solve, (iii) why your solution is better than others, (iv) how you go to market, and, (v) how the company makes money plus the metrics your track.

(c) Be explicit about the company-wide goals for the year and how the business has performed to date.

(d) Lay out a vision for the future (particularly a product vision) — including what each major department hopes to achieve.

(e) Once you get good at the program you can digitize it for asynchronous viewing. Remember that your company will continue to change, so make a commitment to updating the digital program.

Provide purpose

(a) Make sure each new hire knows how their team and their role fits into the company achieving its goals. And, ensure their manager and team leader reinforces this message.

Create a safe space

(a) Encourage lots of questions. Tell people to ask about anything — most new hires will be afraid to “look foolish” and not want to speak up.

(b) Tell them about the company’s strengths and the opportunities for improvement.

(c) Empower new hires as to what is considered normal and acceptable within your company culture. For example, that their manager will hold a weekly one-on-one where the employee sets the agenda. Or, what the accepted protocol is around vacation requests and other time off.

Actively encourage connections across departments and level

(a) Remember that it is harder than ever for new hires to make connections in a business when everyone is remote or at least partially remote.

(b) Pair up new hires with a variety of long-tenured and relatively newly hired employees across departments. Encourage each party to learn more about what the other does on a weekly basis in their role.

(c) Assign an individual “buddy” (not their manager or direct reports) to them whom they can turn to when they are stuck with anything at work.

State and follow-through on a commitment to ongoing learning & development

(a) Onboarding is not done after a one week process. Done well, onboarding is part of a commitment to ongoing learning and development.

(b) Remember that during the week of official onboarding, new employees are metaphorically drinking through a firehose. Accept that only a small portion of the information will stick.

(c) Implement a series of shared check-in on the specific topics covered in on-boarding within the first 90 days after the new cohort joins. Encourage those who gained specific knowledge in a department to help answer the questions of their peers.

Company leaders often say that their people are the most valuable resource. Bring that statement to life by investing in a great onboarding program for new hires.