One hundred thirteen days ago was my very first day working at Globalia Digital. Before this date I had never worked a full day remotely. However, I was in luck, because Globalia had created and planned a masterful remote employee onboarding program for new hires. My first few weeks are a bit of a blur, but as I reflect on my onboarding experience there are some things that really stand out to me. One thing that stands out to me is that all my colleagues were eager to meet me, they were very kind, and often offered to answer any questions I might have. Secondly, I got to see how much my colleagues truly cared about the customers we serve and the success of our customers’ businesses.
It all starts with the job interview
While in the interview process I, of course, researched Globalia as a company. Through my research, I found out that Globalia is an Elite HubSpot Partner. That means Globalia is ranked in the highest tier amongst Hubspot partners that have a proven track record of helping companies deploy and grow with the HubSpot platform. After just a few short weeks I realized that I made such a great choice when seeking a position at Globalia. Our team works so hard to be helpful and human in their approach to serving our customers.
Before I get into the tips that will help you onboard your new remote employee like a pro, I want to talk about how incredibly crucial the onboarding period is for your new hire. In my opinion, the interview is your first impression of your new hire, but the first few days, for that new employee, is their first impression of the company. HubSpot says that the onboarding period is when 20% of turnover can occur. Why is this important for a company to realize? Well, according to Glassdoor, it costs a company over $4,000 and approximately 24 days to hire a new employee. In other words, it costs a lot of time and money to get a new hire to their first day on the job. That’s why your onboarding process should be well crafted, executed as flawlessly as possible, and tweaked when needed. Now, let’s have a look at some tips that will help you do just that.
Tip #1: Give clear and attainable goals
“All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do.” – Norman Vincent Peale
As a person who likes to check things off of my to do list, I have such an appreciation for goals. In fact, I would be so bold as to say that you can’t succeed without them. Within my first week working remotely for Globalia I had a scheduled onboarding meeting where our Planning Manager walked us through what was expected of us. I say “us” because I was onboarded remotely with another new hire. The planning manager had a prepared slide deck and after the presentation she sent over the slides along with our onboarding folder. This folder included an onboarding checklist, our first week’s schedule, and our goals. I was given 5 clear and attainable goals. How did this make me feel? I felt excited, confident, and ready to work on these objectives. Clarity, in my opinion, is empowerment. In this Cognitis Consulting article, the author Dave Martin, goes further to say that in order to empower someone you need three C’s:
- Clarity
- Competence
- Care
I couldn't agree more! And I think we can all agree that empowered employees work more efficiently and definitely feel more appreciated.
Tip #2: Help your new hire meet and integrate into their new team
Introducing your new remote hire to their team is vital. This is a no-brainer, but I’m going to say it anyway - a remote hire works alone all day. Yes, they may have meetings and they may spend some part of the day virtually working with a team member, but ultimately they are physically alone. How can you help them feel less alone in their work? Introduce them to their team and help them integrate into it intentionally.
Personally, I was lucky.
My team was so incredibly welcoming. Everyone at Globalia is committed to helping others - our customers and each other. But I didn’t meet them by chance. In my first few weeks, I had lots of 15-minutes meetings scheduled specifically to meet with a few members of each team within our company. We have three teams within our company and together we tackle the tasks of helping businesses implement sales, marketing and service strategies within Hubspot, develop user friendly and income producing eCommerce websites, and handle many custom “out of the box” projects. Globalia also encourages team building by scheduling a weekly 15-minutes meeting. We call it Speed Teaming. When we speed team, we can talk about anything except work. I’ve gotten to know so much about my colleagues in these short, but effective meetings.
Tip #3: Pair your new hire with a mentor/success coach
“My mentor said, ‘Let’s go do it,’ not ‘You go do it.’ How powerful when someone says, ‘Let’s!’” — Jim Rohn
This tip is by far my favourite. Mainly because I credit what I know - about working for Globalia, working within Hubspot, navigating our mandates, and serving others through hard work and curiosity - to my mentor, Sam. In the beginning of our first calls together, I shadowed him and I quietly observed. He was patient, kind, and so helpful - with me and our customers. He then gave me the confidence to help customers on our calls. I learned so much from his great questions, his meticulous notes, and his love of Miro boards. Without a mentor, I would have felt like I was “thrown to the wolves”. Apparently, 77% of the companies, that helped their employees have a mentor and/or mentor others, reported increased retention. And in these wild times, we’re living in, retaining a great employee saves an enormous amount of time, money, and mental energy.
To close, I want to say that you will reap the benefits of a well-thought-out onboarding process for years to come.
Don’t know where to start?
Start with opening up a new miro board (no, this isn’t sponsored, Miro is just an incredible visualization tool), and start thinking about the kind of first impression you are making on your new remote hire. Do you want them to feel lost and alone or do you want them to feel empowered, part of something bigger than themselves, and like they can accomplish some clear and attainable goals right away? Now get to brainstorming, and if you come up with other amazing ideas on how to onboard your new remote hire like a pro I’d love to hear about them! Message me on LinkedIn.
And one last thing, can I ask a favor of you? If you found this helpful in any way, share this on your linkedin and tag me. See you later!
