Delivering a tailored onboarding program for startups embodies the organizational culture and prepares new hires for the road ahead of them.
Startups usually struggle with structured HR departments and processes. Therefore, to competitively participate in the “war for tech talents,” the internal hiring teams (often represented by just the CTO) need to be prepared for various scenarios.
Potential remote onboarding traps for startups
Most startups are natively remote-ready. However, during the recent pandemic, remote-first orientation unveiled various challenges, such as the urgent need for rapid digitization.
When looking to attract leading tech talents (prone to maintaining their work-life balance), a stand-out startup strategy might critically depend on embracing and optimizing remote work and onboarding to get the tech team to scale up progressively.
No matter how pretentious it sounds, startups might be very late in this game if they start ramping up new hires on their very first working day. Once you have acquired a new hire, it is important to start onboarding them a couple of weeks before Day 1. This will allow new hires to communicate if their equipment arrived on time or that nothing is glitching and everything is going smoothly.
Instead of waiting for the physical welcome pack to reach its destination on time, send a digital one in the form of a repository where you will be explaining all the little details about startup organization, departments, and who is who.
Why is this so important? Because written documentation is essential for effective and remote-friendly onboarding and an easy way to disseminate institutional knowledge.
Think of it as a pre-step towards an optimized remote onboarding process and a guideline to your company’s purpose statement. At last, that is what you are looking for, right?
The 4 remote onboarding steps
A rock-solid remote onboarding process is crucial for employee morale, company culture growth, and tech teams’ essential productivity.
However, never get tempted to apply all at once all sorts of information on new employees.
For example, limiting onboarding meetings duration per day (up to 5 hrs) will prevent new hires from having early burnouts and leave spare time for connecting with their colleagues.
Lastly, try to adopt these 4 remote onboarding steps that will enhance a positive experience for new hires:
In-advance setup
Good prep leads to success. Every employer should prepare for Day 1 before it happens. Try to check in with your new hires before they even show up on their first day. Make sure that all technology, resources, and tools are at your reach and ready to access.
Centralize resources and training documents
Dedicate one secure location for all employee documentation, onboarding, and training. One of the ever-impending tasks is ensuring that new people who join the company can acclimatize to working in all-remote settings as fast as possible. It will also emphasize an understanding of the company culture.
Consider leaning on the Head of Remote Work position as a supportive role in the remote onboarding process.
Patience is a virtue
Whether you are a big company or a recently established startup, being a new employee is almost always a nerve-racking thing. Don’t expect that new hires will be introducing themselves to everyone. In that sense, pre-scheduled 15-minute meetings with key team members to have a chance to share what they do with someone completely new. Or even better, set up an efficient buddy system.
Establish targets and measure them
Once new hires are finally at its desk, and the hiring manager wishes them good luck, the story doesn’t end there. Startups are usually quick-paced and busy, making it easy to forget about new colleagues. Deduct time to create various touchpoints and follow-ups to ensure that they are right on their path.
Remote onboarding makes startups more attractive
Aligning new hires with company culture is crucial for any startup or company nowadays. Sharing the same values, vision, work ethic, and knowledge of processes will efficiently align employees with their teams.
Onboarding properly can help with that aim.
When remote onboarding is done right, positioning yourself as a startup that embraces remote-first orientation brings a decisive edge when attracting leading software developers.
