Reimagining Onboarding: Virtual Training Programs for the Modern Workforce 

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Company leaders will find remaining onboarding to be a simple process that benefits everyone with virtual training programs for the modern workforce. 

Many companies now offer a hybrid working environment, which has significantly altered company processes. Hiring Managers now have to come up with new and innovative ways to ensure effective virtual training and onboarding of employees.  As a Hiring Manager, you want to stay ahead of the curve and consistently provide effective and hassle-free remote worker onboarding.  Here is a short guide to help you create a highly effective, agile, seamless virtual onboarding program.  

1. Difference between In-Person and Virtual Onboarding 

There are some key differences when it comes to in-person and virtual onboarding. In-person onboarding is the traditional form of onboarding that has for years been an effective form of acclimating a new hire to their new work environment and getting them up to speed with the work culture. But with the changing working landscape, virtual onboarding is quickly becoming the go-to form for remote worker onboarding as many companies post-pandemic have introduced hybrid or remote work as a permanent mode of employment.  

Virtual training and onboarding offer companies and employees alike convenience as it is not as in-person centered thus giving an employee the freedom to undergo onboarding at their own pace, and giving the hiring manager the time and freedom to focus on other projects or tasks during the onboarding process whilst also ensuring that they remain available at the touch of a button should the new hire have a question or require any assistance during the onboarding process. In-person onboarding, unlike online training, is highly inflexible, expensive, and highly time-consuming.  

2. Key Elements of Virtual Training and Onboarding 

One of the most important elements of virtual training and onboarding is to have clear goals and objectives for the onboarding process. It is also important to map out a clear onboarding process and to ensure that each onboarding task is matched with a goal to be achieved when completed. Having tangible goals ensures that the onboarding process does not become superficial, and ensures that the process is effective and successful, that the new hire is clear on the company culture, their roles, and responsibilities per the job description, and that they are fully knowledgeable on company policies, protocols and procedures.   

             A company’s virtual onboarding program can also incorporate training on new digital marketing strategies for new employees. For example, digital marketing has become the go-to for many companies looking to grow their client base and ensure visibility online. Virtual onboarding offers hiring managers a golden opportunity to incorporate training on new digital marketing strategies to equip virtual staff with the necessary skills to help boost a company’s online presence.  

A Virtual Onboarding Program needs to ensure to have the following:  

• New hires are clear about their roles and responsibilities – When new hires are up to speed and are clear of the expectations of their role, they can quickly acclimate to the working environment and become highly productive. 

• Assist them in establishing effective collaboration with key team members who are vital to their role and function within the company. As the Hiring Manager when onboarding virtually, it is important that you lay the groundwork for effective collaboration between the new hire and the team that they will be joining. A key challenge with a virtual workforce is fostering integration.  It is challenging to establish a connection between colleagues who have never met physically and who probably never will.  As the hiring manager, it is a must to have an arsenal of effective tools that will help the new employee integrate successfully into the new team. Making sure that effective collaboration and the fulfillment of role expectations are guaranteed.  

• Give new hires a clear explanation of the company culture and an understanding of the leadership structure –  One thing that new hires look for when onboarding is to get a sense of the company culture. This can be achieved through facilitating engagement with the leadership structure of a company.  New hires love to know what kind of company culture they are onboarding into and to see the leaders that they will be reporting to. Hearing about the company culture and meeting the leaders within a company is highly motivating for new employees. It is morale-boosting and makes new employees feel welcome.  

• Offer a deeply immersive training program combined with engaging with key team members to get a sense of the company culture and working environment – Virtual Onboarding unlike in-person training can be a highly impersonal experience. To avoid this, hiring managers need to put in place mechanisms to ensure this is not the case.  

For virtual onboarding, it is important to provide avenues for new employees to connect with their new colleagues as much as possible. You can do this by having key team members be available throughout the onboarding process to offer guidance about the department the new hire is integrating into and key insights that will assist them in adjusting quickly to their new role and environment. This also helps foster a sense of community and helps the new hire feel less intimidated by their new environment, making them feel like they are part of a work community that is happy to have them joining the team.  

For example, you could give them an exercise to measure their progress by having them practice the digital marketing tools discussed in your onboarding program through a quick exercise. You could have the new hire create a short SEO-optimized social media post, where they highlight their onboarding experience with your company. Social media is a great tool for digital marketing and offers businesses the potential opportunity to interact with 4.9 billion users globally. The demand for digital marketing skills is high, as many industries rely on visibility on various online platforms to facilitate growth. This is a great way to kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, you can measure the effectiveness of the training, and on the other you can establish and increase your company’s visibility, making it attractive to potential new hires.  

• Make it a priority that a new hire is equipped with all the necessary training tools to ensure that their onboarding is seamless and not overwhelming for them – It is essential to ensure that a new hire has all the tools necessary to ensure the training process goes smoothly and that new hires are onboarded effectively ensuring that even in a remote setting where there will not be on hands supervision and monitoring that new employees adjust well to their new role and hit the ground running. 

• Depending on the duration of the training, organize check-in sessions at the end of the day- These check-ins have the benefit of allowing hiring managers the opportunity to assess whether the virtual training program and onboarding are having the desired effect. Furthermore, such check-ins can assist hiring managers to address any concerns or issues that may crop up. Offering regular check-ins also ensures that the new hire will thrive within the company’s culture. Finally, regular check-in offers the chance to assist the new hire wherever they may need assistance and to offer guidance.    

3. How to ensure that your Virtual Training is Effective  

• Create a unique and in-depth training program specific to the new hire’s role and function while also incorporating the organization’s culture, mission, and vision. This can be achieved through creating a unique training program with role and skills-specific training modules. The great thing about this is that it gives hiring managers the room to offer personalized training that is highly effective, and immersive, and offers guidance to ensure that the new hire is well prepared for their new role.  

• Your online training program must be packed with all the necessary information to ensure that the new hire will be clear on their duties and responsibilities. With virtual onboarding, it must be highly structured. This includes incorporating elements such as the company’s vision and mission, detailed descriptions of training modules and their learning outcomes, and a time frame in which the training needs to be completed to mention a few.  

• Avoid overwhelming your new hire with complicated company jargon, and ensure your language is clear and concise. Using complex language will intimidate your new employee and may negatively impact their integration into the company if they spend most of their time trying to understand what you or your team are saying. This is also the case when it comes to the training material provided. Using complicated language may put off your employees as chances are they will battle to get through the training which will cause them to struggle to integrate into the company.  

• Your onboarding training program must be a combination of materials (video modules, written and audio content) to ensure that the new hire is stimulated and attentive throughout the training. The awesome thing about virtual training is that it allows room for creativity. As a hiring manager, you can leverage technology and create a highly immersive and effective program. You could do this by ensuring the training program has a mixture of audio, visual, and written content to ensure that a new hire maintains focus throughout. You can also incorporate fun training games and quizzes to ensure that they are paying attention and that they are getting the most out of their training.  

4. Challenges Hiring Managers Face with Virtual Onboarding and Training. 

• Each new hire is different and unique therefore it can be difficult to create a training program that will fully immerse them within the company culture and make them feel like they are a part of the team. 

• Ensuring that new hires are fully immersed in the training process and not skimming through the training program and rushing to complete it.  

• There is a high risk of low engagement from the new hire during onboarding 

• Communication breakdown, it is easy for things to get lost in translation over virtual settings. 

• Technological setbacks, despite your best efforts as a hiring manager, sometimes technical issues can hinder the training process. 

5. Tools to incorporate in your Virtual Training Program  

• Utilizing technology and various technological tools and software can add value and ensure the success of your training program. It will contribute to a speedy, and effective virtual onboarding program that is not superficial. It is important to ensure that the tools you choose to use offer interactive elements, ensure clear communication, and that they are easy to use. Finally, the tools you incorporate into your virtual training program should encourage engagement, ensure training personalization, and offer the ability to monitor progress, just to name a few.  

• Some examples of Onboarding tools and Apps to use:  

1. ConnectTeam – All-one-Employee onboarding App 

2. eduMe- AI content creation app, you could use this tool to create personalized training modules.  

3. BambooHr – Helps new hires complete all stages of onboarding directly on the app, great for keeping new hires engaged and tracking their progress. 

4. Rippling – Great if you are onboarding hires in different locations, it allows you to customize onboarding materials based on role and department to mention a few.  

Now more than ever, it is important for organizations to constantly re-evaluate their virtual onboarding processes. We live in a highly technological age where there are new trends and innovations every other day, which provide a great opportunity for reimagining onboarding and he the entire hiring process. As a hiring manager, it is important to keep up with current onboarding trends to ensure effective onboarding and to ensure high employee retention.