Inductions and meet and greet is an important part of welcoming new staff member to a team. Usually the first week or so is busy setting up meetings and training, time with team members and knowing the ins and outs of your office environment.

But, in the current climate, what happens when you’ve got a new starter who must start as remote worker? How do you make them feel part of the team and get them up and running without any of that important face to face contact?

We’ve seen the market pick up over the last few months, businesses starting to embrace new ways of working out of necessity, so we thought it might be useful to share our top tips:

1.Set expectations clearly

As we are currently in unusual circumstances, most new starters will be happy to have a role to start so that positivity is key. Be transparent about hours of work, what your daily expectations are for the role, how often you expect them to check in and set objectives or a task list to help focus on what they need to get through to help them get up to speed with their new role.

2. Have a checklist

Before their first day, you should take some time to create a checklist. There’s a good chance you have something like this already. Some points will remain the same, others won’t be relevant, and some new ones will have to be created especially for a remote worker. Think about the technology situation - who needs to set your employee up on what platforms? Being clear about this from the start means your employee will be quickly ready to work.

3. Send a welcome pack

While some things, like your company induction pack, offer letter and contract, can be sent digitally, some things need a little bit of advanced planning. This is a great opportunity to also send a welcome package in the mail. This can include necessary equipment, training schedules, and style guides, but also some fun things to get them excited about being part of the team. For example, we have team magnets for our internal target competitions which are characterised superhero style and lots of merchandise to send.

4. Introduce the team

Helping your employee meet their colleagues is easy when they’re in the office. They might forget some names for the first few days, but nothing beats a friendly, in-person introduction. Though it’s a little harder with remote working, with current technology it’s easy to put people in touch face to face. Getting to know colleagues and putting “faces to names” early on will help alleviate feelings of isolation, nervousness about reaching out to people so make sure you set up video calls with the team.

5. Keep regular online meetings

Keep to a weekly schedule of calls and group calls. This is important for the whole team as well as the new employee to feel part of the group. An online team meeting with Zoom or Teams is valuable for everyone and keeps the team connected as well as in a positive routine which is what we all need when we’re in the office so try and apply similar working remotely.

Obviously in current times, the most important factor is that you all stay safe and well. So if you are working from home and supporting a team, we hope these tips help! Feel free to get in touch with us if you have any more to add to our list 😊

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