Onboarding Virtually: Five Tips to Set Up a Remote Team Successfully

Letting employees work from anywhere can be a huge talent advantage for companies, since it eliminates location constraints and enables companies to attract employees from all corners of the country or even the globe. However, onboarding these remote employees and setting up a remote team can bring its own set of challenges, given that managers need to help them become proficient at their jobs and connected to their teams, all from afar. Fortunately, as more and more companies—including the clients we work with at Artemis Connection—offer remote working as a benefit to employees, some virtual onboarding best practices have emerged.

Here are five tips to help you with onboarding virtually, which we’ve learned from our clients and from our own team of remote employees:

1. Screen for a good “remote” fit during hiring.

If an employee’s success in a job often begins during onboarding, then success in her onboarding often begins in hiring. Some employees are simply better “fits” with remote working environments—whether it’s because of innate personality type, personal work preference, or even previous remote working experience. Ideally, you’d be able to screen for this fit by looking for previous jobs held remotely, or even references from previous managers or direct reports in these remote jobs.

If that information isn’t available, then probe during the interview to understand what energizes them most at work and, conversely, what drains them of energy. If, for example, a candidate is motivated by owning her own project-based work or working in an autonomous environment, these are positive signs that she’ll be a good fit for virtual work. If, however, a candidate shares that she’s energized by fun office environments and needs to feel tethered to her manager at all times, these might be red flags that she needs an in-person team to be engaged and productive at work.

2. Spend time in person, and soon.

Almost all remote teams need some in-person interaction, and for new employees, this in-person time is especially critical. During a remote employee’s first 30 days, try to schedule an in-person engagement for her, whether it’s some one-on-one onboarding time with you, shadowing of a peer in another city, or ideally time with the entire team at a retreat. During this in-person time, be sure to not only focus on onboarding but also on team culture, working styles, and expectations—since clarifying these “soft” elements of onboarding also is key to new hires’ success in their jobs.

And of course, don’t forget to have a bit of non-work fun while spending time in person; a team-building event or even a nice dinner between a manager and direct report, where work topics are off-limits, can go a long way in building rapport and making new employees feel more connected to their colleagues.

3. Deliberately build community between remote colleagues.

A culture between your remote team members will happen whether you want it to or not, so you might as well shape it to resemble the values, mindsets, and behaviors that you want to see. Step one is clarifying and then communicating what those cultural assumptions and behaviors are, even if it’s as simple as “we bring our full selves to work” or “we respond to all email within 24 business hours”—two cultural tenets we’re especially fond of at Artemis Connection.

Step two is carving out time for team members, and in fact, more time than you would for an in-person team to build a community reflective of this culture. Since culture often manifests in the “in between” spaces of in-person working environments (e.g., in the break room, during lunch), you’ll need to ensure that these in between spaces also exist for your remote team. At Artemis, we’re fans of holding the first 10 minutes of weekly check-ins to chat about personal updates, and similarly, holding the first 10 minutes of team calls to do “whip-arounds” in which team members ask and answer a fun question (e.g., “What’s your dream vacation?”). Doing so helps us get to know each other more as individuals, ultimately making everyone feel more connected to their teammates and more productive in their jobs.

Finally, step three is to encourage team members to share best practices amongst themselves about “what works” in their remote working environments; doing so isn’t only a lever for building community, but it’s also a method of spreading best practices in successful work-from-home situations.

4. Ensure constant communication, leveraging the appropriate tools.

There are many communication tools available today to remote employees, so companies filled with remote workers—or even a manager who has one virtual employee—should ensure that everyone has the tools they need to do their jobs, even virtually. Sometimes these tools might just include a laptop and a MiFi or AirCard, but other times they might include more sophisticated technology, such as instant messaging or video conferencing. Equipping your team with the right communication tools will facilitate constant communication between team members—something we’ve learned is critical to making remote employees feel connected to their colleagues.

Also, make sure the computer (or tablet) has the right plug ins and the internet connection is strong enough to support the tools. At Artemis, we rely on pre-scheduled phone and video conferences but also on one-off emails, calls, and texts, which help us feel as though our colleagues are only a “cubicle” away. This type of constant communication is especially critical during an employee’s early days, when she likely needs more support—or even a virtual onboarding buddy—to become acclimated to her new job.

5. Measure how remote employees are doing.

We often advise our clients when they set up a remote team, regardless of the talent challenges they’re facing, to simply ask employees how they’re doing, and then track this information over time. Measuring engagement is even more important for new employees, when this information is especially time-sensitive, and for remote employees, when this information is especially opaque.

One simple solution is to create your own “pulse check” survey with 10 or fewer questions that you ask employees to answer anonymously on a regular cadence. Some of our favorite questions include, “Did you work too much or too little in the past month?” or, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how much would you recommend working at our firm to a friend or family member?” or even, “Please share a sentence or two on how your remote working environment is going.” Collecting this information on a regular basis not only enables you to see team-level trends over time, but it also enables you to see warning signs if an individual employee is starting to feel unengaged or unproductive.

Furthermore, these pulse checks set the tone for new employees that remote culture does matter and can be redirected if needed. This is most effective if you share the survey results in a forum where people look at the data, have a conversation, and brainstorm next steps.

Building a strong onboarding program is key for connecting your new employee with your company and for setting up a remote team for success.

Christy Johnson is the CEO of Artemis Connection, a consultancy that creates holistic talent solutions based on data and using design-based thinking. She sees her company as a learning lab for the best consultants to lead high level strategic work AND have a life. Her toddler twins, daughter, and husband hold her accountable for work-life integration.