What are the essential tools and platforms that you need to onboard remote workers?

Develop a clear, step-by-step onboarding schedule that outlines tasks, expectations, and milestones. Share this with new hires to provide a roadmap. Schedule frequent one-on-one meetings during the first few weeks. This allows new employees to ask questions, share concerns, and receive feedback. Utilize various platforms (video calls, instant messaging, emails) to cater to different preferences. This helps ensure that important information is easily accessible. Provide a digital welcome kit that includes resources, team introductions, and FAQs.

For onboarding remote workers, you need to first make sure that they are in your company's various systems and that they have access to relevant information. Making sure they have the proper tools to work is important and that includes computer setup and Microsoft Office Suite or Google Suite.

Onboarding remote workers needs to equipped with various tools and platforms for effective communication, collaboration, training and integration into the company culture, such as: 1) For Virtual meetings, interaction and trainings - Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet 2) Communication Tools - Slack, Microsoft teams 3) Documents - G Suite, MS Office or Microsoft 365 4) Training, Assessments - Moodle, TalentLMS, Adobe Captivate Prime. 5) HRIS - Workday, BambooHR, KeKa to check employee records, leave balance, Approval, Policy, compliance 6) VPN's or password manager - security and privacy tools 7) Donut, icebreaker - games, coffee chat, talk show or for team building activities

As we’ve observed at Aptien, communication is crucial not only between employers and new employees but also among various departments, particularly HR, IT, and facilities. This collaborative approach ensures a smooth onboarding process.

Seamless communication is critical for remote onboarding. Platforms like: Slack or Microsoft Teams for instant messaging and team discussions. Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams for video conferencing and face-to-face meetings. Email tools like Gmail or Outlook for formal communications.

Facilitate meetings between new hires and various teams to provide insights into different roles and functions. Utilize project management and communication tools (like Slack, Trello, or Asana) to encourage teamwork. Assign new hires to small, collaborative projects with existing team members. Organize workshops that focus on the company’s goals and values. Involve new hires in discussions about how their roles fit into these objectives. Encourage knowledge sharing through presentations or informal sessions where team members can share expertise and insights.

Collaboration is key to getting things done be it with remote teams or on location. Using tools that encourage discussions, progress, setting of deadlines, dependencies and feedback sets the teams up for success. There are many collaboration tools in the market. Pick tools that works with your budget and has the ability to integrate nicely into other tools in your tech stack. This can help in gathering metrics and perform analysis of what's working and what's not with collaborations. I've used Slack and Trello boards with my teams and we've had great success. The visual aspect makes it easier for people to understand what's going on with the project but also keeps them accountable.

Amongst the team, commit to consistent shared ways of working within these tools. Onboarding to tools that are inconsistently used is a frequent source of confusion for new hires. If your team hasn't gotten to a stable state of tooling, be honest about where you are!

Develop structured training programs that cover essential skills, company policies, and tools. Tailor onboarding experiences based on the new hire’s role and prior experience. This ensures that they receive relevant training that meets their specific needs. Provide a centralized hub for all learning materials, including manuals, FAQs, and video tutorials. This allows new hires to easily find information when needed. Incorporate practical exercises and simulations that mimic real work scenarios. This experiential learning helps reinforce concepts and build confidence.

Ensuring every team member has the skills and experience needed to perform at his/her best is a must if teams are to success in reaching their goals. Having 1-1 conversations with each team member to understand areas of help needed and then coming up with a plan to get them the help is critical. Keep in mind that people learn in different ways so allow them to sign up for free or paid training, promote interactive learning via webinars and podcasts and supplement with having quick quizzes and tests to ensure they are indeed grasping the concepts. Celebrating their accomplishment goes a long way in encouraging them to stay engaged.

There are various tools and platforms that can be used to onboarding remote employees. Before chossing the right tool or platform we need to: * discover the company onboarding needs * identify the dedicated time for onboarding for the majority of the employees/departaments * clarify the way should be delivered and promoted the onboarding (VLT, ILT, Self-Paced ) Tools: 1. LMSs: Docebo, Moodle, Canvas LMS, TalentLMS - integrate your onboarding courses in one single platform 2. LMSs: LearnWorlds, LearnDash, Thinkfic - develop entire onboarding learning programs, learning centers, onboarding academies with site, course development, reports and promotions 3. SharePoint site with an authoring tool 4. LMS: EdApp for mobile onboarding

In a world that offers so many shiny, new apps and platforms, sometimes, leveraging your existing tools is just as effective or more so when delivering learning opportunities. > Learning Management System (LMS) - This is obviously great for delivering online training. But some platforms also offer social learning communities, great for knowledge-sharing and fostering a sense of community. > Knowledge Base - Offer on-demand access to information and resources when employees need it, leveraging tools like SharePoint or Microsoft Teams to serve as learning hubs.

From our experience; having tools that support remote onboardees are a must! However, it is important not to overwhelm your new hires. Especially during the preboarding. So what we generally advice is: Use (only) a dedicated onboarding tool during the preboarding. This will centralize their experience. Week 1: Introduce your remote onboardees to you core tools for onboarding (eg Communication & Collaboration). Think Outlook/Google, Slack, Teams, Miro, Notion. Week 2: Tools they will use on a day to day for their role. Week 3-4: Additional tools (Benefits, Learning, Feedback, HR, Time Management) Introduce your onboardees to your tools but do so slowly!

HR Platforms: Tools like BambooHR, Workday, or Gusto for managing HR processes such as benefits, payroll, and compliance. Onboarding Platforms: Dedicated tools like Rippling or Sapling streamline onboarding, automating tasks such as paperwork and introductions. Engagement Tools: Culture Amp or 15Five for continuous feedback and employee engagement, which is vital for keeping remote workers connected to the company culture. Security Tools: 1Password or LastPass for managing secure access to systems and tools.

Communication and collaboration tools like Teams or Slack typically are at the center of (remote) work. So instead of looking at communication, collaboration and training as three different activities that require three different tools, an integrated approach keeps things simple. For example, Slack and Teams allow to add Apps that extend their core functionality and - for example - turn Teams into a platform for training and knowledge management too.

Since remote workers generally connect to the organization’s network remotely, to access their job responsibilities, it is beneficial to have a designated team/individual within IT to assist with assigning company assets. This direct of support can provide user logins, access and registrations, and program activations. Although the onboarding team may be knowledgeable of “what” is needed, an IT professional knows “how”. Be patient with your IT support and instead, give yourself peace of mind knowing that the correct security permissions and measures will be in place.

I would conser also "Planning Tools" such as: * developing an employee onboarding checklist * or using other specific tools like Planner, Monday.com, Trello that can help they track their first onboarding learning experience as well as organize all these activities for them and receiving reminders making sure everything is done.