How to Create a Good Online Onboarding Program

Onboarding activities can be the most important moment for new employees. Fresh graduates need an introduction to the world of work that is different from their studies. Likewise, employees who decide to move from another company need to know more about their new company.

Given a number of conditions, some companies may opt for online onboarding to welcome new faces. While there may be effective things to do, meeting online via a laptop camera can feel inadequate.

For this reason, there needs to be proper preparation to make this process interesting even though it is done online. Find out more about how to make online onboarding feel closer and more connected.

How to Create a Good Online Onboarding Program

Good can be interpreted as not being boring and attracting new employees to take part in every event. Following are the steps that can be taken in online onboarding.

1. Create a mentoring system

New employees may immediately have a lot of tasks when they are active in the new company. This busyness sometimes makes them ignore the small things. Without anyone to remind them, new employees will feel isolated in their new environment.

For that reason, you can use a mentoring system by selecting colleagues to help guide new employees. This system can be done randomly or allow new employees to choose their own mentors.

Change mentors once a week to make them more familiar with more people. This method also gives new employees the opportunity to get to know other divisions in the company structure. So, they can know the importance of each element in the company.

2. Explain the organizational structure

It's even better if you provide access to the background of all employees. This information is related to the job description and skills they have, including when they joined the company. That way, new employees can see their opportunities to learn from the right colleagues.

However, this information is not to be memorized. The benefit that new employees can get is that they can go to the right person for a need. This could be related to matters of completing work, providing goods and work tools, and other employee matters.

This step also gives new employees an idea of the career path they can get at the company. New employees can also find out about the developments they can get with their colleagues.

3. Describe the company's vision, mission and cultural values

This section is also still important to convey in onboarding, both face-to-face and online meetings. Everyone probably knows that there is a distance between managers and staff. However, it could be that this is not really felt in your company.

Convey everything that is permissible, perhaps not a problem, even actions that are prohibited while in the office environment. Likewise with the consequences that employees can receive if they violate predetermined norms. Telling these values also gives new employees an idea of the company's situation.

It would be better if these values were conveyed by those who are already at a fairly high level in the company. If bosses are open enough to feedback, new—and old—employees need to know about it.

4. Give an overview of the office plan

Like someone who comes to a foreign place, new employees may be confused. Even though there will be an office tour on the first day, it is difficult for them to memorize everything in a short time. Moreover, if your office is quite spacious with lots of hallways and rooms in it.

Therefore, provide them with a map of the office during onboarding. It doesn't need to be explained in detail, but you need to make it comprehensive and easy to read. The office map needs to contain entrances and exits, emergency stairs, departments, and each person's desk.

Even better, you need to provide more than just a name for each table. You can mention interesting facts about the employee, such as his favorite food or his hobbies. This can help new employees when communicating with them for the first time.

5. Create an open forum

Onboarding may be full of activities in it. New employees will definitely receive training about their new job as well as a moment to introduce themselves. However, make sure they also get the opportunity to get to know their colleagues and ask questions.

After all official activities are completed, make sure you create a forum to ensure everything runs smoothly. You can create a group in a messaging application or use Google Space.

This forum allows new employees to ask questions and express opinions in a smaller scope. There's no harm in regularly creating offline forums between work. This step allows new employees to adapt more quickly to the new office.

These are a number of steps that can be taken to welcome new employees to the company. With a warm welcome, it is hoped that new employees can work with more enthusiasm and feel at home in continuing their career at your company.