Are you a new remote employer? Or perhaps a supervisor that needs to learn the tricks of how to train somebody remotely?
With Covid around, many companies have been forced to work, recruit and train new employees from home. This might very well become the new norm. We at Globedesk are very excited about this as this is something we do on a daily basis.
It is a critical step for supervisors to train well for the overall success of the company.
If you are a remote supervisor – look no further.
We have the best advice for you to become a better remote boss!
1 - First day - material reading
Perhaps this is obvious, most superiors should send you basic company information and manuals on how to maneuver your way through the company internal process. Our recommendation is to send this in advance to your employee.
A week if possible or once contracts have been signed. The new employee will have time to study the material calmly and come up with questions.
Most companies also have values and specific cultures that could be useful to send in advance.
2 - IT training
Sometimes, companies wish to perform their own IT security training. As such, one of the first virtual meetings for many companies is with the IT department.
This is a crucial step to ensure that the employee will understand the system and any potential security policies the company might have.
This training can be particularly fruitful if your employee is handed a company computer with a VPN, intranet, forums etc.
It’s not easy to grasp it all if the employee have never seen or used it before.
As a supervisor, you must be patient and understanding on this point.
It’s easy to forget that systems and forums take time to learn and use.
3 - Meetings with relevant colleagues
After all the IT and administrative confusions are over for an employee, it’s all about getting to know the team and what everyone is responsible for.
We recommend companies to schedule individual meetings and larger team meetings. Usually employees really enjoy both as this provides a sense of belonging.
We also highly recommend to businesses to utilise video conferencing. With the video ON. Some companies and cultures don’t apply this rule and from the perspective of a remote employee, this can become very lonely.
Globedesk really believes this aspect is crucial. You tend to feel part of the team once faces can be seen behind the email.
4 - Weekly question-time
We hear from many employees that after a 1 or 2 weeks, supervisors tend to “forget” about you.
Now, what do we mean by that?
It means that many supervisors believe thats all the onboarding that is required for an employee to get going and move on with work. This is not always accurate.
The amount of time you need to get into your job perhaps depends on the size of your company and level of tasks.
Let’s suggest you are a medium sized company. It would take at least 3 weeks with daily training to make your employee comfortable enough to start manueving on their own. Most superiors don’t consider this for a remote employee.
Globedesk recommends that companies and supervisors should apply a weekly “question time” for remote staff.
The experiences are highly positive on both ends. Supervisors feel that they are more in control of their team, and employees get their voice heard.
5 - Collective spirit through an online work-relation
The overall reflections by remote employees are expressed in the above points. However, most of all, it’s about team spirit. It’s not as easy as it sounds.
Especially between two computer screens and maybe even in different time zones.
How can one increase a positive flow amongst teammates?
Globedesk likes fun themes for the weekly meetings! As an example, our last team meeting all of us wore a hat on our meeting. An attempt to liven up a meeting and feel some sort of personal connection between us all. Hopefully also a good laugh. These small considerations to brighten up one’s day (that can be rather lonely if you sit remotely!) makes a big difference.
Please consider what you can do to make your team happy!
At Globedesk we have solid knowledge on how to do remote onboarding. When you hire a consultant through us or use our recruitment services, we will help you to make a successful onboarding of your new employee.