Onboarding in times of home office: astronaut surfs towards the sun - netzwerk managementberatung | coaching
Photo | Sergey Nivens on Shutterstock
9 min.

Leadership | Virtual Teams | Onboarding New Employees

Onboarding in times of home office

From Sabine Walter, Head of netzwerk managementberatung | coaching

While some companies are laying off or putting employees on reduced hours during the pandemic, other companies are hiring and have to answer the question for themselves: "How do we integrate new colleagues when everyone is working from home?" The answer to this question involves various aspects: Getting to know each other, creating trust, communicating culture and values, familiarisation - all with or despite a digital proximity.

In this article, we give recommendations on how to get off to a good start even in times of home office.

The onboarding before the onboarding

Whether as part of the selection process or before the first day of work - you as an employer should be clear about the extent to which new employees have the spatial possibility to work undisturbed and productively from home. This also includes the question of internet connection - unfortunately still an issue in Germany. Only when you have a common understanding of what working from home means and both sides agree to it, can you create the framework conditions in terms of labour law, safety and technology.

Trust, trust, trust: The core of new employee onboarding

Trust is not something that happens at the push of a button. Trust takes time to grow. What does this mean for the onboarding process in general? And what are the special features in times of home office?

Getting to know each other as a team

The onboarding process must make it possible, that all team members get to know each other well. Who are they? What expertise, strengths and competences do they have? What do the new and existing team members need to trust each other? What do the new colleagues need to bring their head and heart into the team and to be committed to achieving the common goals? What do they need to burn for the success of the team and its goals? This also requires time and space outside of day-to-day business.

But how does this getting to know each other succeed if colleagues only meet via Microsoft Teams or Zoom? Here are some tips for managers:

  • Welcome new colleagues in an (online) team jour fixe. Allow enough time for new colleagues to introduce themselves.
  • Provide new colleagues with a mentor or godfather who will ensure that they settle in well during the first few weeks and who will be the contact person for questions.
  • Initiate that new colleagues have a (virtual) 1-on-1 with each team member in the first two weeks to get to know each other in a bilateral setting.
  • Conduct a weekly jour fixe with new colleagues at the beginning and a fortnightly jour fixe after 2-3 months in order to have enough time for communicative exchange on the various issues.

Getting to know the relevant stakeholders and colleagues outside the team

For new colleagues to work productively, you need to get to know not only the immediate team members but also colleagues and stakeholders outside the team. These contacts and encounters also need to be planned. However, in order to be able to process the amount of information, it is important that you prioritise these contacts and extend the getting to know each other over a longer period of time.

Target clarity

Goal clarity is always crucialregardless of where the employees work. If work is mainly done from the home office, target clarity is even more urgent. New employees must from the first day the Goals of the company and the team Understand clearly. They will only become a full team member if they commit to them and recognise what their concrete contribution is to achieving this goal. 

Roles and responsibilities

With every new addition - just as with every departure - roles and responsibilities in teams change. Therefore, it is a must to clearly define roles and responsibilities even in the first days of onboarding in the team. The framework for this is one of the first team jours fixes in the new team line-up. It is important that everyone accepts their role and responsibility one hundred per cent and the team defines together what shows that the respective role is lived. The opportunity to cast both roles and responsibilities in perceptible behaviour is missed by many teams. This increases the risk that team members have a different understanding of how the roles are to be filled. These misunderstandings can lead to conflict. Conflicts carry the risk of damaging trust.

Ideally Team members get the roles and responsibilities that match their strengths and competencies. Only then is it ensured that staff enjoy the role, perform at their best and are fully committed.

Communication in the team: rules for an open and proactive exchange of information and experience

A good Team is characterised by an open and proactive exchange of information and experience. As each team member is responsible for 100% to ensure that this exchange is also lived, it is Minimum target of the onboarding process, Communicate the rules and key points of this exchange to the new colleagues. In the best case, however, the team in this new constellation defines how it wants to live this open and proactive exchange. 

  • Which information is mandatory for whom? When? In what form?
  • What documentation systems are there? Where is central information stored?
  • What communication platforms, analogue or digital, are there?
  • What is the best way to address when you have the feeling that open exchange is not being lived?
  • How is communication done when the team is not in the same location or mobile working is the norm?
  • On which days does everyone need to be in the office to facilitate a jour fixe where everyone sits across from each other?

Lessons learned: Sufficient time and space for honest feedback

The onboarding process is a discovery phase. In the rarest of cases, everything runs perfectly straight away and without queries. Therefore, I recommend planning sufficient time and space for honest and constructive feedback, at best daily, but at least weekly.

One instrument for this is the evening or Friday team wrap-up. In order to make progress visible in each feedback round, it is advisable to visualise it using a scale of 0-10. Below are a few Sample questions:

On a scale of 0-10, ...

  • ... how well have you arrived in the team? What do you need to feel comfortable at 100%?
  • ... how clear are the team goals for you? What do you need to make them even clearer?
  • ... how much do we trust each other? What does it take for this trust to continue to grow?
  • ... how clear are the roles and responsibilities in the team? What does it take to make them even clearer?
  • ... how well informed does everyone feel? What does it take ....

Onboarding of new employees in the home office

Functioning infrastructure

I see it time and again that new employees start and are not able to work for several days because the IT does not work or does not work reliably or fully. That is an indictment. Test the infrastructure that the new employees need to be able to work productively before they join. And carry out the test together with the new employees on their first day of work.

Onboarding of new employees in the home office

Induction of new employees

Induction via online communication platforms is challenging. Therefore, consider whether parts of the induction can or even must take place in the office. Create a Familiarisation plan.

Binding familiarisation plan for fast productivity

This is for both the new staff and the staff doing the induction, Binding and has priority. Employees whose induction is repeatedly postponed because of supposedly urgent day-to-day business issues are not productive. Therefore, it should also be in your interest as a manager that the induction takes place directly after the entry. This means that the employees who train new colleagues are also given time and space for this and do not have to do it on top of the daily business.

We recommend that our clients draw up the induction plan together with the new employees before their first day at work. Because, even many of them know what they need to be able to do their job well.

As with any good plan, the induction plan should also define the results to be achieved, i.e. what should be available in concrete terms, when and in what form, or which questions should be answered at the end of certain stages.

Meaningful documentation

Especially when colleagues work in a home office and new colleagues cannot quickly ask a question across the desk, meaningful documentation on goals, contact persons, roles and responsibilities, processes and systems is crucial. Make sure that it is up to date and stored in a way that is easy to find.

New staff members are valuable feedback providers for the quality of the documentation. What of it is clear and understandable? What is not easy to understand? How should it be changed so that new colleagues can understand it immediately? Use this resource by actively asking for feedback on documentation and implementing suggestions for improvement.

Checklist onboarding new employees

Onboarding in times of home office requires more preparation, structure and management attention

The opportunities that arise for teams when new colleagues join are manifold. New colleagues often look at procedures and processes with a fresh, unused view. In addition to their personality and skills, they often bring experience from other organisations. Teams that approach these new colleagues with an open attitude and take up questions, hints and ideas sympathetically and, if possible, integrate them into their way of working, continuously develop and are more likely to achieve their goals faster with better quality and less effort.

This also works if colleagues do not share the same office space, but requires significantly more preparation, structure and management attention.

To make it work, I recommend:

  • Before the first day of work, clarify whether working in a home office is generally possible in a productive way.
  • Test the required infrastructure before the new employees start and on the first day together with the new employees.
  • Plan time for onboarding, even away from day-to-day business.
  • Provide new colleagues with a sponsor or mentor who is the first point of contact for questions.
  • At the beginning of onboarding, focus on getting to know each other personally and communicating the target image.
  • Prioritise the further information and getting to know important contacts so that everything can be consciously absorbed and processed.
  • Ask yourself the following questions: What do I need as a new colleague to be able to trust the team members, integrate easily and make a good contribution to the team's success?

You can also find additional information on the topic in our article "Leading virtual teams„.

Did you find this article helpful?

Contact Newsletter Whiteboard

Whiteboard selection

To the whiteboard
Call now