Virtual onboarding

Covid-19 changed our corporate practices, almost without notice. I was thinking recently about how many things suddenly had to change during the pandemic, and how nimble our organisations had to become in developing new ways to get things done, including what happens when we need new staff. Everything from recruitment, to interviewing, to how we onboard our staff had to change. Working from home, WFH, changed our working lives.

There has been some interesting research into virtual onboarding, ranging from library work to the public service to corporates (Alexander, 2021; Martyniuk et al., 2021; Petrilli et al., 2022; Yarbrough & Ramos Salazar, 2023). Sound onboarding practices generally mean that employees will stay longer with the organisation (Yarbrough & Ramos Salazar, 2023), but that the real non-negotiable is communication (Alexander, 2021). 

We can define onboarding as a "process that allows both the candidate and the company to get to know each other, understanding fit and expectations" (Petrilli et al., 2022, p. 1), filling a socialisation need for both parties. Socialisation is more fragile when we try to do it virtually (Petrilli et al., 2022). Making one on one connections, and having a go-to person for IT help makes a difference - coming into "a new work team is a nerve-wracking process under almost any circumstances but doing it virtually while trying to master new software on the fly can be absolutely terrifying" (Alexander, 2021, p. 209).

New employees not only need a digital and hardware pack to facilitated their work, they need a guide to help their organisational "introduction to technology" which "can help a new employee feel less self-conscious about asking questions" (Alexander, 2021, p. 209). We need an IT buddy, a work process buddy, a resources buddy, and a company culture buddy: "one on one meetings are an enormous help in facilitating a [new employee's] comfort level" (Alexander, 2021, p. 209) to "establish belonging" (Martyniuk et al., 2021, p. 6), and having a team who can "engag[e via] mini-tutorials and conduct[...] regular one-on-one check-ins" (Yarbrough & Ramos Salazar, 2023, p. 709).

New staff may feel "apprehensive about the precarious work environment", feeling that the pandemic and the strangeness of the new adds to reduced cohesion and lack of certainty. Staff may well feel "nervous, apprehensive, and [potentially be] experiencing imposter syndrome" (Martyniuk et al., 2021, p. 4), so delivering clear feedback (Petrilli et al., 2022), showing how new employees add value, and meeting the social aspects of work (Petrilli et al., 2022) become even more important in virtual environments. 

Research seemed to show that companies were either good at all their staff welfare processes including virtual onboarding, or they were poor across the board. More planning needed to go into delivering good processes, due to the complexity and "unanticipated levels of coordination" (Martyniuk et al., 2021, p. 6). Accidental networking and collaboration reduced due to a "lack of social interaction and water-cooler conversation"; an unexpected by-product of WFH (Martyniuk et al., 2021, p. 6).

Overall, developing a communicative, supporting and non-judgemental community of practice (Martyniuk et al., 2021) is a key element in bringing new members into the team (Alexander, 2021; Martyniuk et al., 2021; Petrilli et al., 2022; Yarbrough & Ramos Salazar, 2023), regardless of virtual or face to face environments. However, it becomes more essential in virtual onboarding; as does allowing mistakes to be made, and providing clear, regular and timely feedback.

Not rocket science. 

Sam

References:

Alexander, A. (2021). Virtual onboarding: Lessons from the pandemic. Public Services Quarterly, 17(3), 208-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2021.1915913

Free Icons Library. (2023). Helping Hand Icon #309445 [image]. https://icon-library.com/icon/helping-hand-icon-8.html

Martyniuk, J., Moffatt, C., & Oswald, K. (2021). Into the unknown: Onboarding early career professionals in a remote work environment. Partnership, 16(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v16i1.6451

Petrilli, S., Galuppo, L., & Ripamonti, S. C. (2022). Digital onboarding: facilitators and barriers to improve worker experience. Sustainability, 14(9), 5684, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095684

Yarbrough, J. W., & Ramos Salazar, L. (2023). Virtual onboarding and socialization, an exploration of employee discussions and experiences. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 28(5), 707-723. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-12-2022-0158