Everyone has first-time jitters. First day of school, first date, the first day of work! And, it is customary to be nervous. But what happens when the first day of your new job is in your home office? 😬
Starting a new job remotely can be challenging for both the employee and the employer. Both parties are eager to form a good connection with each other and the other team members. However, when you’re both working from home, the way you usually conduct first-day orientation must change.
Take a look at our tips for both employees starting a new job remotely and employers hiring remote employees.
🤷♀️A Different Type of On-Boarding📄
Chances are, the traditional office tour will be put on hold or cancelled entirely. The mountain of paperwork you must complete, like your contact information, health insurance, and tax forms, will still need to be filled out. However, it will all be done virtually, and you’ll need to use applications like DocuSign or scan to a PDF to send them.
Generally, in an office setting, the IT department would sit with the new hire and walk them through setting up their email, UC application, and laptop. At home, employees do not have that luxury. If you provide your new remote employee with their equipment, give them the computer with everything loaded already on it. After your new employee receives the equipment, have someone from IT contact them to provide a tutorial.
If your remote employee insists on using their equipment, ensure your UC solutions are BYOD friendly. The new hire will still require IT to contact them with a tutorial, but they will be more comfortable using equipment they are familiar with.
💻Equipment📱
Speaking of equipment, your remote employee must have everything they need to do their job correctly. Employers must provide their employees with appropriate unified communication applications that allow them to connect from anywhere.
Ensure your desktop UC solution is also available as a mobile application. As an employer, you will not be able to walk into their office to ask questions. You must ensure you can reach them, and ultimately they can contact you!
Working remotely provides more flexibility; therefore, so should your phone options. Dragging around a desk phone isn’t ideal. Therefore the employer should provide you with a proper headset to be used as a softphone. A softphone and a mobile application will ensure your employee is also connected no matter where they work.
🗣Communication Standards 💬
In the beginning, both employers and employees should utilize video conferencing as much as possible! Use the virtual meeting features like screen share and chat to help explain yourself better. Combining everything will make the meeting just as personable as if you were sitting in the same office.
Most of the time, remote workers will be communicating non verbally, via chat. It is essential for remote employees and employers chatting with remote workers to use clear and neutral tones. Do not overuse emojis, exclamation marks, or ellipsis and be wary of sounding dry or rude.
It will take time to adjust to how people chat. For instance, maybe they use slang or shortcuts when typing. It is best to hold off on doing any of that until you know for sure. Unfortunately, working remotely doesn’t give you the luxury of bumping into some of these co-workers in the lunchroom. So, you are unable to pick up on tone of voice, facial expressions, or mannerisms.
It will help remote workers understand how their team members prefer to communicate and share their preferred method. Whether that be through chat, email, calling, or video conferencing, it is important to respect different communication styles. For both employees and employers, figure out what they prefer and understand the best way to reach them in case of an emergency. Find the proper balance and remember how everyone communicates the same.
To wrap everything up, it will be a learning curve.
The common factor both parties need to learn is patience. Employers have patience for your new remote employees. Employees, have patience with everything! Eventually, you will get the hang of it. There are many benefits to hiring remote employees, and you may not have a choice now as the world heads into a more flexible work environment.
Are your customers set up to hire remote employees? Or are you interested in selling work from home solutions? Take a look at our unified communication solutions that offer desktop and mobile applications for the ‘on-the-go’ workers!
Contact our sales team to learn more:
📞 +1 (647) 313 1515
📧 sales@bicomsystems.com
💻 www.bicomsystems.com/contact-us
