Onboarding checklist for remote employees

How to use this onboarding checklist

Hiring a new team member makes onboarding critical. A constructive experience can confirm your employee's choice and set the relationship off on the right foot, whereas a poor one can have the opposite effect.

Onboarding remote hires requires even greater care. Without the chance to welcome someone in person or immerse them in your workplace, you must adapt and pay closer attention.

An onboarding checklist helps by providing a basic framework to deliver a consistent experience for all remote starters, and to scale the process as your organisation grows.

Drawing on Remote’s extensive experience with onboarding, here are the key tasks and processes to prioritise:

Schedule introduction callsRemote employees can feel more isolated and siloed than in-office staff. As a result, you should work harder to create belonging and team cohesion. Informal social meetings often deliver strong returns in engagement, productivity and retention. They also make the new hire feel more welcome and comfortable, and more likely to ask for support.

To-dos:

• Arrange (or ask the new hire to arrange) 1:1 video calls with teammates and cross-functional partners

• Organise informal virtual team introductions, such as coffee chats, happy hours,

  or lunch meetings

• Assign a dedicated onboarding buddy to help the new employee settle in

• Share personality or work-style assessments and review the results with the team online

• Encourage “personal shares” in which the new hire tells colleagues about their hobbies and background

Highlight key policiesDon’t simply hand a bulky policy manual to your new hire. Instead, point out the policies that matter most to remote staff, such as time off, expenses and equipment.

To-dos:

• Compile and share concise policy briefs, codes of conduct and training materials

• Schedule virtual sessions or record Loom videos that explain remote-specific policies, such as reimbursements for home office expenses

• Explain applicable cybersecurity and digital-asset policies

• Set out the rules on information protection and data privacy

• Allow for asynchronous discussion on policy interpretation for distributed teams

It is also wise to include self-service options so the new hire can complete onboarding asynchronously and at their own pace. If you do, consider creating a self-serve checklist for the employee to follow.

Explain tools and communication flowsRemote workers rely heavily on software and collaboration tools. Without the chance to ask quick, in-person questions, a new hire needs to become self-sufficient fairly quickly.To help, explain the purpose of each tool they will use. Again, self-serve materials and user guides are the preferred approach.

To-dos:

• Create step-by-step guides for accessing key systems and accounts

• Provide demos (asynchronously if needed) showing how tools integrate and interact

• Explain how the hire’s team uses project-management systems (if applicable)

Also explain how your communication channels operate, particularly if your hire has never worked remotely before.

To-dos:

• Set clear expectations about online hours and availability

• Provide guidance on email, chat and meeting etiquette

• Explain norms for response times and the use of video

• Share best practices for calendar management

Clarify roles and personnelNew hires need clarity on what they should be working on, who they will work with, and precisely what will be expected of them. Clearly distinguishing their responsibilities from colleagues’ reduces confusion.Set expectations around response times, meeting cadences and availability as well. For example, employees in the US often start their workday much later than those in Europe. If your hire will work closely with colleagues in different time zones, explain how you will manage that.To-dos:

• Outline regional versus centralised responsibilities

• Set expectations for response times and meetings, and include them in your handbook and welcome emails

• Identify key regional contacts and stakeholders

Promote your company’s cultureFor remote staff, subtle aspects of your culture — unwritten rules, inside jokes and workplace rituals — are harder to pick up. Make sure the new hire is briefed from the start.

To-dos:

• Email new hires a staff handbook explaining the company’s culture, values and work environment

• Explain any company terminology, acronyms or traditions

• Send remote workers company swag, such as shirts bearing slogans or value statements

  Look beyond the first dayRemote employees lack the environmental cues and spontaneous touchpoints of office life. That is why onboarding must be more structured and include more frequent check-ins.For example, remote workers miss out on incidental learning from overheard conversations or ad hoc peer mentoring. A structured onboarding journey compensates for that.

To-dos:

• Set 30-, 60- and 90-day milestones and performance goals that enable new hires to take ownership of their development paths

• Schedule check-ins to review progress and any obstacles new hires face

• Provide training on any skills new hires need for the role, such as product knowledge

• Pair new employees with a mentor to discuss acclimation, strengths and development areas

• Regularly run engagement and onboarding satisfaction surveys

Leverage data

Without face-to-face interaction it can be harder to read non-verbal cues and sentiments. That makes it difficult to know whether onboarding resources are resonating with remote staff. Data gives useful insights and reduces the need for guesswork.

To-dos:

• Send weekly polls about experience, challenges and needs

• Use learning management systems (LMSs) to monitor training completion rates

• Measure how long it takes new hires to reach full productivity in their roles

• Collect feedback on new hires’ preferred communication channels

Data fills the visibility gaps inherent in remote work, helping to ensure your onboarding process meets the needs of new hires you do not see face-to-face.

Why is the employee onboarding process so important?

A personalised and well-planned onboarding process can help your new employee feel a sense of belonging in multiple ways.

However, onboarding success goes beyond a welcome pack or some branded swag. An effective onboarding programme can:

• Build meaningful work relationships that boost engagement

• Nurture strong cultural affinity in new employees and help them feel more aligned with your business objectives

• Enable new employees to connect with your mission and vision and encourage them to take initiative rather than just follow orders.

Onboard remote hires with Remote

One way to secure a consistent, positive onboarding experience is to work with an established global HR partner, like Remote.

We handle the administrative aspects of onboarding, and our self-serve platform lets team members access and submit everything they need quickly and easily. This lets you focus on integrating your hire into your company’s culture and ensure they hit the ground running.To find out how we can simplify the onboarding process — and manage and pay your team — speak to one of our friendly experts today.