Future of Work | Onboarding in a COVID-19 world

Uncertainty is rife in the workplace right now. With the onset of the social isolation policy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has become the norm in many sectors.

So how do you repurpose your onboarding strategy to engage, prepare and train your new starters under these unique conditions? How do you create that all important sense of community, when many new employees might not meet a single new work colleague face-to-face for many months?

Review your processes

Pinpoint onboarding processes that currently rely on face-to-face interactions, from welcome drinks and induction days, to systems training. Then plan how you can best achieve them remotely, through everything from online training videos to webinars. Alongside this, ensure you’re gathering the right data on your new starters, from what tech they have at home, to an individual’s particular vulnerabilities in relation to COVID-19. This can also help you plan a staggered ‘return to work’ process when social isolation measures become less stringent.