Welcome New Employees By Doing Remote Onboarding Right 

There’s still a lot of uncertainty about when we will return to the office. However, if your team is thriving during the pandemic, chances are you aren’t waiting for that. It is very likely you would have hired at least a few new employees over the last few months. That’s where the challenge of remote onboarding comes in.  

In-office, you can allocate meetings for new hires with their team, managers and company leadership. With remote working though, it is not as smooth or easy. If you have felt that remote onboarding is a challenge, you aren’t the only one. Talent LMS found that 15% of HR managers find it difficult to integrate remote workers into the company culture. 

Solving this challenge is critical to your team’s long-term success and wellbeing. Here are a few tips for all you HR managers to try. We hope you find that they work for your team!

A Remote Onboarding Checklist 

Clickboarding found that 69% of new hires are likely to stay with a new company for three years if they have a great onboarding experience. To maximise your new employee’s experience, you need to create a handy checklist so you don’t miss out on any critical information. Here are a few things to include: 

• IT manuals and hardware (if applicable) 
• A branded welcome kit 
• A company handbook with your mission, vision and goals 
• A guide on the tools they will use for their role 
• Communication platforms the company uses and their purpose 
• A meeting with their manager and immediate team 
• One to ones with senior management 
• A checklist of goals or targets specific for their role 
• A detailed guide to benefits including employee healthcare benefits
   

This checklist is a good start, but it is not the end. There's still plenty of work you need to do for a good remote onboarding experience. Here are just a few common mistakes and how to avoid them.
 

Make Remote Onboarding Fun 

Very often, onboarding can be a dry process. There's a lot of formalities and paperwork to be done. Then there are loads of meetings. Just because they are necessary, doesn’t mean they can’t be fun. You can send your new hire a virtual certificate or sticker for completing a task.  

Also try to schedule onboarding calls in the evening, when your team has some free time to engage in a games session. You can try introducing your new hire through dumb charades, karaoke or other fun ways. Get creative and show your company is a fun place to work.  

Avoid Isolation 

Remote working means that people are often isolated. The best remote onboarding experience is one where your new hire isn’t. Give the employee a buddy, someone they can connect with who has similar interests.  

That way, they’ll have someone to talk to. Having a buddy or companion comes with the healthcare benefits of reducing stress and depression. It also shows that you as a company, really care for your employees.  

Do Not Overwhelm 

The last thing you want to do is overwhelm your new hire with work. As an HR manager, you need to work with the new employee’s manager to create a weekly or biweekly plan of action.  

Ensure the hire has ample time to learn all the tools he/she will be using. It’s also important to give the person time to learn about the company’s structure, culture and ambitions. Small steps at first can help ease the employee in. 

Stay In Touch 

Once your new hire is comfortable with their buddy, make sure his/her team takes time out to communicate. Work-related communication will happen, what you need to do is ensure that they get to know each other personally as well. 

Personal communication helps build trust and make your team appear friendly and approachable. Remote onboarding won’t just become easier, but impactful. 

Please remember that remote onboarding is not a week-long process. It takes months of constant communication, planning and feedback to fully integrate a new hire into your team. The more effort you take, the better the results.  

An important part of the remote onboarding process is to ensure your new hire has access to their employee healthcare benefits from day one. You never know when they will have a medical emergency, so you need to assure them that as a team, you have their back.  

The best way to do that is to have access to comprehensive wellness membership plans, which provide all-around healthcare benefits to your team. For the best employee experience, your business health plans need to have preventive care, fitness and hospitalization assistance.  

If you are a startup or small business, why not check out Onsurity’s wellness membership for employees? Our comprehensive plans offer employee healthcare benefits like doctor teleconsultations, fitness tracking, discounted medicine and lab tests and group health insurance for startups and MSMEs. Click on the button below.   

Source: Onsurity

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Employee Morale Down? Here Are 5 Effective Ways To Change That 

Jobs are never easy. There are days we love what we do, and days we don’t. That’s normal. But, if the days an employee doesn’t love their job are more than the days they do, then the company and the employee have an issue. It’s vital to keep employee morale high, especially in the current climate where there is still a lot of uncertainty. 

Employee morale is a complex thing. It is made up of the motivation, attitude, job satisfaction, confidence and happiness an employee feels towards his/her job. If even one of those things is down, there is a sudden and lasting impact on the employee, and teams at large. That can be low productivity, high absenteeism, or other factors that can negatively impact teams.  

Having high employee morale and good company culture matters. The biggest advantage of this is improved productivity. The happier your team, the more effort they will be willing to put in. You will see the results, financially and otherwise. Another great advantage of high employee morale is your company’s image in the public. Employees are likely to recommend your business to others, attracting new employees.  

Now you know, the next step is to identify the factors that impact employee morale. That way, you can work on addressing them. 

What Impacts Employee Morale? 

There are a lot of factors that impact employee morale at a company. For simplicity, we have divided them into positive and negative factors.  

Positive Factors: 

• A clear view of the vision and mission of the company. Employees who are aligned with the company are more likely to be motivated to show up and do their job, knowing that they are part of something greater.  
• Goal setting allows employees to grow and aim for bigger things. There’s a fine line between ambition and impossible, but if achievable goals are set then employees are likely to approach their job with more confidence and willingness.  
• Employee morale is high at companies that have open communication channels. That’s because transparent companies are seen to valuing employees more, which in turn leads employees to value the company. 
• Having a good team and company culture is of utmost importance. If employees don’t get on well with their team, they are likely to be less motivated to do their job.  

 Negative Factors: 

• Poor employee healthcare and lack of access to healthcare benefits can force employees to worry more about their health and finances than the company. Healthy employees are the ones with the best morale, but that is a fact many employers tend to ignore. 
• Unhealthy competition in the workplace or poor professional relationships can have a huge impact on employee morale. Employers should avoid competition and understand that each employee has their own value. Comparison and competition do more harm than good.  
• Unnecessarily long working hours lead to greater burnout and poor employee morale. Today, it is very common for employees to work 10-12 hours daily, often late into the night. Employers may be achieving their goals in the short term but at the cost of their employees’ health which has severe long-term effects. 

Improving Employee Morale 

Whether you are a startup, SME or a large corporation you will see both the positive and negative factors impact your company.  While some amount of low morale is acceptable, it is vital you keep talking to your team to ensure that it is balanced out. If you find employees are stressed, burnt out or just demotivated for long periods, you need to do a reality check. 

Even if 10% of your workforce are feeling negative towards the company, it’s a warning sign. The first step to improving employee morale is to accept you have an issue. After that, here are some steps you can take to improve employee morale –  

• Work-Life Balance: Ensure your employees are logging out at a reasonable hour and have time to switch off. Do not contact them after hours unless it is an absolute emergency. A healthy work-life balance is vital to sustaining morale and motivation.  
• Communication: Ensure your HR or Chief Wellness Officer always has an open line to employees. Encourage one-to-one sessions with team leads and manager to sort out any issues at the earliest. Most importantly, ensure employees are heard and act on their feedback. 
• Team Building: Take time off from your workday to engage in team-building activities. Building a stronger team spirit will sustain employee morale and build a sense of trust. Your employees need to see their team as colleagues and friends, not just coworkers. 
• Managers Turn into Coaches: Train your managers to become coaches, guiding employees and helping them grow professionally and personally. That way, employees will feel like they are cared for, and will be more likely to approach the job with a positive attitude.  
• Access to Employee Healthcare Benefits: We’ve said it before, healthy employees are the ones with the best morale. Give your team access to comprehensive employee healthcare plans and wellness membership plans. Put their health first, and they will put the company first.  

As a startup or an SME, why not provide affordable employee healthcare with Onsurity?  Not only do you save up to 50% on your healthcare costs, but you also build a healthier and happier workforce. Onsurity’s healthcare membership is the ideal way to boost employee morale and create a company for the future.

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