Remote Training and On-Boarding: 6 Steps for Hiring Managers
Publié le 17 August 2020
Even during periods of economic uncertainty, fortunate businesses continue to grow and hire qualified candidates. The responsibility for training new employees often falls on the hiring manager, who now finds themselves adapting to a new type of work and collaboration. As many companies transition to a semi-permanent work-from-home model, the training process needs to be rethought in order to match the new type of work. There are few important steps that hiring managers should follow to have a successful remote training and on-boarding process.
6 Important Steps for Hiring Managers during Remote Training and On-Boarding
- Revamp Your Training Documents
- Don’t Forget To Delegate
- Check with IT
- Practice Screen Share
- Make A Schedule (With Breaks)
- Take A Moment to Connect
Revamp Your Training Documents
Successful companies are always growing to meet client demand, adding qualified job candidates along the way. A hiring manager very likely has documents and even programs that have been used to train new employees, and the effectiveness of these materials can have a direct impact on employee performance. However, it would be a mistake to simply use these documents during remote training and on-boarding with no adjustments whatsoever. Long-term remote work does have different demands and requirements than working in traditional offices, and training documents and programs must be updated and adapted by hiring managers to reflect the current work reality.
These include addressing any new work and file sharing programs, tech requirements for video calls, an updated workflow to keep the virtual team organized, and troubleshooting options for situations involving tech problems or simply being unable to get in touch with team members. New hires will want to see that hiring managers and the company itself understand the unique reality of remote work and have put in the effort to make the situation as efficient and effective as possible. Revamped remote training and on-boarding documents will help do just that.
Don’t Forget To Delegate
Training a new employee is often the main responsibility of the hiring manager, but it’s also a good idea to get the whole team involved. This gives a new employee a chance to see what their job will look like on a daily basis, get helpful tips from those who have done the job, and build personal relationships with new coworkers. More than half of employees turn to their colleagues for help learning new skills before asking a supervisor, so these supportive relationships need to be encouraged by hiring managers even from the training stage. While working from home certainly makes this a little more difficult, this type of collaboration should be utilized during the remote training and on-boarding process.
Bringing other employees into the remote training session via video call is as simple as sending a link. Most video call programs even offer the capability to break off certain participants into their own private chat, giving a new employee one-on-one time to learn from a colleague just as they would in the office. Hiring managers do need to put in the extra work to schedule remote training sessions that work for all participants and organize them in such a way that a new employee is not overwhelmed. The positive outcomes for a new employee and the office makes this type of collaboration during the remote training and on-boarding process completely worth it.
Check with IT
Remote training and on-boarding does have certain technical requirements, particularly internet connectivity and speed. Hiring managers should always make sure that new employees have laptops or desktops that meet the minimum technical requirements to get started with remote training and on-boarding.
Many jobs require access to a central server or file sharing programs in order to collaborate and work with colleagues. It is vital that new employees have access to this right away, so hiring managers must work with IT departments to create whatever network connections, establish VPNs and furnish new employees with equipment they need to effectively work with their colleagues as soon as possible.
Practice Screen Share
One of the best ways to teach a new skill to a recent hire, is sitting next to them at their desk and working through the tasks together. As that is not possible as businesses continue to practice work-from-home, one of the best options to replace this in-person training is through screen share while remote training and on-boarding. This is using a video conferencing program to allow a new employee to view the screen of the hiring manager’s computer, allowing them to follow along and see the manager’s actions. While simple in theory, it is a teaching skill that requires a bit of effort to master.
Hiring managers and experienced employees will naturally work at a fairly fast speed, and it will be necessary to slow down and give a new hire time to properly observe what is happening. If a new hire already has the program they will be using to do their work, an additional option is for them to share their screen with the hiring managers, allowing the manager to follow through as the new employee completes a task to ensure that they are doing it correctly. Remember to remove any personal information from a desktop before screen sharing, all the better to remain professional during remote training.
Make A Schedule (With Breaks)
Training for a new job is a lot of work, and it’s normal for hiring managers and new employees to feel fatigued after teaching and learning such a large amount of information. Instead of just presenting it as an information dump, hiring managers should spend the time to make a schedule for the remote training and on-boarding process.
Being physically in the office makes it easier to make a schedule, as the work day has its own rhythm and pace, and it is definitely easier to lose track of time while working from home. Creating a remote training schedule that includes breaks will give hiring managers and new employees the time to rest, review what has been done and plan for the rest of the day. Not to mentioning helping to avoiding feelings of being overwhelmed and the dreaded “Zoom Fatigue”. Planning out the training provides milestones and goals, making it simple to judge progress and the effectiveness of the learning process.
Take A Moment to Connect
There has always been pressure to be productive in all aspects of a job. Even this article is about ways to be efficient and effective during the remote training and on-boarding process, but this can’t be the only factor that makes a training session a success. It’s important to remember that a hiring manager and a new employee are both just people trying to make the best of a strange situation. The pressure to be productive has intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, often at the expense of well-being and personal relationships.
Communicating exclusively through emails, text chat and video calls can even have dehumanizing effects, making people feel isolated. Employees who feel like they belong in a workplace community are happy, complete better work and experienced improved well-being. During remote training, there should be a sincere effort to create a personal connection not only between a new employee and the hiring manager, but everyone in the (now virtual) office.
Ensuring that new employees are trained correctly is incredibly important for the continued success of a business. As the nature of work for many offices and workspaces have changed, hiring managers need to do their part to revise the remote training and on-boarding process to fit this new reality. Although the nature of work has changed, the fundamental remains the same. Hiring managers can still train new employees, foster bonds between work team members and ensure that an atmosphere of support and collaboration continues to exist, even as employees work remotely.
