6 companies doing an outstanding job with remote onboarding

Welcome to our new series where we explore the most important industries, trends, and topics related to your career from every angle. This month we are exploring remote onboarding in 2021.

Remote onboarding is much more challenging than previous in-person employee orientations before the pandemic.

Several companies have transitioned to an entirely online remote onboarding process with ease, while others have failed miserably.

The Onboarding process is one of the first steps needed to ensure employee success.

This is the foundation on which an employee’s base knowledge and job fundamentals are built and require clear and effective communication and expectations. 

Some of the most basic yet important aspects of remote onboarding

Here is a list of the essential items needed in a successful remote onboarding:

• Ongoing, continuous training
• Ensuring the proper technology is provided and set up
• Encouraging engagement and helping new hires establish employee connections
• Remote onboarding should extend longer than a week and require periodic check-in and training – focused on employee feedback
• Collaboration with other departments and a 360 evaluation process
• Remote onboarding should be flexible and tailored to each new hire
• Checklists should be used to ensure the necessary onboarding elements are covered

Here are 6 companies doing an outstanding job with remote onboarding

With the basics out of the way, we will focus on six of the top companies that have mastered the art of remote onboarding.

To be fair, several of these companies were initially built on a remote onboarding model so they have an unfair advantage over companies who were forced to restructure during the pandemic.

However, even though many of these companies started organizations.

1. Netflix

Poorna Udupi, an engineer at Netflix and the founder of bitplanet.com, described his onboarding process at Netflix:

He explained he was given his job offer letter after his second interview and the amount of time he waited for the offer was minimal. After accepting the proposal, he was immediately contacted by the IT department and asked what type of laptop and configuration he wanted. Rather than being told what he was going to work with, they left the choice up to him!

A dedicated trainer was assigned to Udupi to maintain constant communication with him.

During his first week, he was thrust into issues, including a production outage in his first week of employment. Even with this difficulty, his trainer worked with him throughout the process to ensure his success.

Udupi was a software developer and was introduced to his coworkers as well as the Netflix technology stack. These connections and knowledge of the inner workings of Netflix gave him the resources he needed to find answers to his questions.

As his training progressed, he had a meeting with the Chief Product Officer, Chief Finance Officer, and Chief Executive Officer within the first quarter. They stressed the importance of the company’s direction and ethos.

Within his first four months at the company, he met in a small group with the CEO, Mr. Reed Hastings. CEO Hastings encourages new hires to jump in with both feet and pushes them to impact the company from day one.

2. Twitter

The social media giant, Twitter, has mastered the art of remote onboarding – out of necessity. The company employs 5,000 people worldwide and utilizes an onboarding process called “Yes to Desk.” 

The onboarding team at Twitter ensures you have the email address you want, a t-shirt and bottle of wine delivered to you, and colorful PDFs sent to you to explain precisely what you are going to learn and when.

The recruiters get new hires working as soon as possible, and every Friday, there is a 30-minute presentation provided by different sections of the company. These short training presentations are delivered by the International Team, Web Team, Support, Communication, etc.

During the process, the onboarding team continually checks in with the new employee to ensure they have open access and communicate any issues or questions they have. 

3. DigitalOcean

Digital Ocean takes remote onboarding seriously. They believe the onboarding process starts before the employee is even hired and signed on. With dedicated onboarding coordinators, they contact all new hires before their first day to answer any questions and explain upcoming benefits.

Due to the importance of technology, DigitalOcean ensures each new hire has a fully configured workstation and computer that has their software and account information preinstalled and ready to go.

Rather than spending days getting the technical aspects worked out, DigitalOcean strives to have everything done and prepared for the employee on day one of employment.

During the onboarding process, 30,60, and 90-day reviews are scheduled to discuss employee progress and goals to be met.

4. Google

Google’s onboarding process is quite different than the traditional company transition programs. Laszlo Bock, the former Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google, wrote a book titled “Work Rules! Insights From Inside Google” about his experiences and how the Google onboarding process works.

Google looks for a specific type of employee to rely on to come up with new ideas and hit the ground running. By spending most of their time and efforts on hiring the best of the best, Google expects new employees to be self-sufficient and motivated.

Laszlo provides insight into the onboarding culture of Google. The book outlines how the company aims to ensure the work employees are tasked with has meaning.

By giving new employees a general sense of direction to what is expected, Google rewards those who come up with great ideas and disproportionately compensates those who create more value. 

Experimentation is encouraged, and stringent guidelines are rarely developed. By allowing employees to think outside of the box, Laszlo explains Google hires and onboards the smartest people and then lets the “inmates run the asylum.”

5. Buffer

Buffer is made up exclusively of a small team of remote workers. With less than 100 employees, Buffer had to successfully onboard remote workers because their company model depends on it. 

Buffer came up with a unique buddy system to ensure the success of new employees. Their three buddy system is made up of:

• A leader buddy
• A role buddy
• A culture buddy

The leader buddy is an experienced team member who knows the ins and outs of the company. This senior employee assigned helps new employees create relationships and meet other employees.

The role buddy is someone who understands the new job the employee is taking on. Usually, the role buddy previously or currently performs the same job function as the new employee, so they have a direct mentor to make them successful.

Finally, the culture buddy is someone who lives and breaths the culture of Buffer. This is someone whose focus is to help the new employee feel welcome at the company and understand how culture and moral impacts the workgroup.

6. Epsilon

Epsilon is a digital media, ad, and marketing tech company based in Chicago, Illinois, with over 8,000 employees worldwide. Stephen Popp, the Senior Director of Sales, Learning, and Development, helped facilitate and design a remote onboarding program to express that it is both an opportunity and a challenge. 

By moving to a remote onboarding system, Popp found they could streamline processes and cut costs while still bringing their team together.

However, it has not come without struggles. Popp stated, “The biggest challenge to onboarding new employees remotely is providing global, regional, and local new hires meaningful engagements. Without meaningful engagements, associates may feel lost, disengaged, or frustrated.”

To overcome these challenges, the Epsilon team has broken down the onboarding process into three stages: pre-hire communication, new hire onboarding, and associate development.

By separating the onboarding process into three distinct and intentional sections, employee engagement can be achieved by having meaningful interactions with specific partnerships.