The Square’s best practices for remote onboarding
When the lockdown was imposed in Portugal, The Square did not hesitate to send the team to work remotely and make their home offices their base until further notice. For us, luckily, our daily tasks could be easily implemented and completed remotely. With the help of numerous video-calls for team-wide meetings and our usual brainstorming sessions, our square continued to perform and deliver to our clients seamlessly.
While our Square stayed intact in most areas, there was one area in which we had a couple of extra hurdles, hiring and bringing new members to our team while remote. The main three challenges faced when bringing in new team members are loss of information and processes, difficulty to build an emotional connection with the team, and isolation.
This motivated us to research for best practices to bringing new hires to the team from our own squares at home; and although interviewing was a challenge in and of itself, we will focus on the onboarding process.
First things first: what exactly is onboarding? The series of events happening over an extended period of time, that is usually tailored for a specific role and/or person, to integrate a new employee in the company culture and projects.
In short, one of the most influential factors when it comes to employee experience. Companies with effective onboarding processes achieve 2.5 times more revenue growth and 1.9 times the profit margin compared to organizations with poor onboarding strategies.
The first tip is to communicate. Communicate company values, dynamics at work, what is in the DNA of the company and who everyone in the team is. This is a crucial step because this is how we will introduce the new hire to the company since they will not be able to see it coming into the office or while doing small talk with co-workers.
The second tip is to document processes. Since new team members will not have a co-worker sitting next to them while working and encountering some challenges with their tasks, it is important to have a document with clear instructions of the processes at work. With this, new team members will not waste time trying to figure out best-practices and will have this handy to help with any doubts they may encounter while remote during the first couple of weeks at their role.
The third tip is to assign a small list of tasks. Giving new team members responsibilities from day one is key for their motivation and sense of achievement. It is safe to note that this list should be short and realistic to complete in the set deadlines, having in mind everything may take a few extra minutes to accomplish.
The fourth tip is to manage expectations. By communicating clearly and agreeing on deadlines for the previously mentioned tasks, all parties involved will know what to expect and when to expect it, being able to organize their own agendas, complete projects and respond to clients on time.
The fifth tip is to schedule a moment to introduce the new team member to the team. This is paramount! Scheduling a quick 10–20minutes team-wide video-call so everyone has a chance to not only introduce themselves to the new team member, but also for the new hire to get a chance to introduce themselves to the rest of the team. This will break the ice and start building relationships.
The sixth tip is to promote “Water-cooler Effect” moments. Remember when co-workers gather around the coffee machine or in the restroom corridor and catch up for about 3–5minutes? Whether they talk about the weather, their latest Netflix binge, or their kids, these few minutes build and fortify the bond between coworkers, and also unplugs our brains from work for a bit, helping with our productivity once we get back to our computers. Since this will not happen while remote, creating these moments by scheduling e-coffees or happy hours at the end of the week, employee engagement is promoted, which is essential to a company’s growth and continued success. Engaged employees are highly motivated and more productive.
The seventh and last tip is to promote feedback. This tip is crucial and goes hand in hand with our first tip, communication. People working directly with the new team member need to keep constant communication with them, to make sure everything is going ok, in case they are stuck or need more instructions to move forward. Once tasks are completed, it is also important to highlight what was done well and what could use improvement for next time. By providing and asking for feedback team members will feel motivated and constantly improve their work.
At The Square, we went a step beyond and created a handbook with all the information of value for our new team members, and we will share it with every new hire, whether we are at home or in the office. This will aid in having a smooth welcome to our new team members regardless of when or where that happens.
The Square is slowly coming back to the office and we divided the team into groups to follow safety measures. However, remote working will continue for a lot of us, and these tips are great to keep handy for whenever needed.
