“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
— Warren Buffett
Talking about onboarding, we often think of how the first week will be, but it’s not about the welcome emails, calls or documentation. The onboarding begins the moment the candidate hears the magic words, “You are hired”. Every message, call, and tone post that shapes the image of us as a company creates a sense of belongingness. It shapes the candidate experience and sets the tone for how they perceive your organisation.
For a remote company, it becomes even tougher, where the new hire has no desk to walk up to, no hallway conversations, and no casual guidance. They are stepping into a new world without physical touchpoints, relying entirely on the digital experience we provide. So, HR must go the extra mile to ensure that the remote onboarding process is warm, welcoming, and trustworthy, even if it’s via digital interaction.
Challenges of Remote Onboarding
When we started building a fully remote company, it was still an emerging concept for many. Specifically, there were few playbooks, no proven best practices, and plenty of confusion. Over time, we discovered these challenges that occur during a remote onboarding process:
- Tracking Engagement: In the absence of face-to-face communication, there was a risk involved with a smaller team size and remote functioning that the new hire may have felt isolated and disconnected from not just the team but also the company culture. Identifying early signs of withdrawal or confusion becomes harder in a virtual onboarding environment.
- Information Overload: In the case of minimal person guidance, there is also a big possibility that the employee receives too much information too quickly in emails, documents, and calls, making it hard to absorb, process and retain.
- Communication Gap: Setting up systems, tools, and accounts remotely can cause uncertainty since you are doing it all by yourself, which can make one have doubts, and often that may lead to misunderstandings and delay in response.
- Maintaining Accountability and Consistency: In a remote environment, you can’t easily gauge how well a new hire is adjusting, learning, or connecting emotionally. Moreover, involving too many stakeholders without a clear line of involvement can derail the process of employee onboarding, leading to disorder and adding to more confusion.
Onboarding Isn’t a Process, It’s an Experience
What we realised in these years of onboarding is that it’s not a process, it’s a people experience. We had four major touchpoints to hold on to this experience, and we swear by this ethos.
Robust pre-onboarding set up
The journey begins even before Day 1. A strong pre-onboarding checklist ensures new hires feel supported from the start. This includes:
- Welcome email with clear instructions
- Smooth IT support and system setup
- Early access to internal platforms
- A structured 30-60-90 day onboarding plan
- Regular manager check-ins
- An assigned team buddy
- Periodic performance reviews
This foundation ensures the new hire begins their role with clarity, direction, and confidence.
Breaking down the complete onboarding flow
We created checklists and templates to ensure a consistent remote employee experience for all and align the expectations with not just the candidate, but all stakeholders involved, with specific timelines for the processes. These processes are designed not just to do their job, but to feel at home and get aligned culturally, professionally, and warmly, where they can nurture relationships and coordinate with their teams that are present across geographies and represent different cultures.
Structure is what makes remote onboarding predictable, dependable, and comforting.
Building trust every day
Trust is the backbone of a strong candidate experience, especially in a remote setup. Winning the candidate’s trust and confidence that they are looked after in every communication and informed of every stage/progress/updates. Communication with them throughout the process is the key to building trust and gaining confidence that makes the connection interactive and not static or mechanical. Candidates are comforted with genuine conversations, which are further cemented by setting unblemished expectations so that they are aware of every milestone in their onboarding journey and wherever required, they can realign and reconnect.
Creating a people-first culture
It’s the value we live by. We take notes of the candidate experience and ensure the experience comes as a comfortable first day experience and not a day to invest thoroughly on documentation. They immerse themselves in the experience of knowing everyone from the team and across they will be involved with primarily. So, the complete process is structured keeping the Candidate experience as the central force.
It’s the value we live by. A new hire’s first day shouldn’t be drowned in documentation.
It should feel like an invitation, to meet the team, learn the rhythms of the organisation, and feel the culture.
Every step in our remote onboarding process revolves around:
- Comfort
- Connection
- Community
Conclusion
With around 160 onboardings done from the first day of inception since 2019 till date, the essence of onboarding is embraced by us as caring for the people, especially more because we are not around in person, but the will to care for their sense of belonging here at Coreteam. Even without offices, we are proud that the employees get a sense of the organisation’s heartbeat.
If you’re looking for support with talent or recruitment, we’d love to help you build that same people-first experience.
