Summary: Onboarding remote and hybrid employees requires extra care. These seven small but powerful habits will help new hires feel confident, connected, and set up for success from day one.

Why remote and hybrid onboarding matters

Onboarding is one of the most critical make-or-break moments for employee experience. Research shows that companies with mature onboarding programs are up to 103% more likely to improve critical outcomes such as new hire retention and employee engagement. And with 79% of employees now working remotely or in a hybrid environment, getting this process right is no longer optional.

At LifeLabs Learning, we study what the best managers do differently when it comes to in-person and remote or hybrid management. While truly great managers can navigate all environments confidently, creating a comfortable and connected onboarding experience for remote and hybrid employees presents some unique challenges.

Here are seven small habits we’ve seen make a significant difference when it comes to onboarding new remote hires:

7 best practices for onboarding remote and hybrid employees

1. Build empathy before day one

The best managers take a moment to step into their new employee’s shoes and get a feel for where their head’s at. We suggest doing this strategically by conducting a 10-minute empathy prep session. It’s natural for a new employee to feel nervous and want to make a good impression. As a manager, your ability to empathize with your new employees can help them feel confident and assured in their new role. 

Your turn: Create a list of all things you’d be nervous about if you were starting a new job, and then follow it up with a few mitigations that would replace some of that nervousness with confidence.

2. Create checklists and progress bars

The human brain can handle almost unlimited amounts of information, so long as it feels safe that the information is systematized and progress is being made. An easy way to help your employee’s brain is to create checklists, where they can physically check off tasks upon completion. 

Your turn: Create clear deliverables with clear-cut completions, so that new folks can embrace a win.

3. Reinforce culture from the start

Each new employee on your team presents an opportunity to refine and solidify your culture. Our training at LifeLabs Learning helps managers identify the norms they want to reinforce for their teams. Onboarding then becomes a chance to initiate that message in a meaningful way. For example, if a manager wants their team to be more change-agile and resilient, onboarding is a great time to convey what your team’s priorities are upfront using language like, “it’s normal for us to …” or “we respond to change by…”. 

Your turn: Take 15 minutes to think through changes you’d like to see. Then, fill out a STOP, START, CONTINUE grid.

4. Create or optimize your team playbook

Ensuring all of your team’s most important information is in one centralized location makes it easy for your new hire to know exactly where to look for reference.

Your turn: Think through the pieces of information that feel most crucial for all employees to know, including implicit and explicit norms. This can include standard turnaround times, like how fast one is expected to return an email or complete an assignment, and preferred communication channels (e.g., use Slack for this, use email for that). 

Utilize this communication norms worksheet as a way to audit your team’s communication and get a complete overview of how often you’re interacting, what methods of communication you’re using, and the average length of your conversations. 

For more resources on managing distributed teams, check out our Remote & Hybrid Work Playbook and our Managing Distributed Employees workshop.

5. Help new hires feel seen

Most companies make the mistake of using the first week to info-dump tons of information on the new hire without allowing the employee to share who they truly are with the rest of the team. Research on ‘optimal distinctiveness’ shows that while we want to feel like we belong to the group, we also want to feel like people are getting to know our authentic selves. So, create balance by asking your new employee to share unique information with the group, like their favorite hobbies, where they come from, what unique perspectives they bring to the table, and what most excites them. 

Your turn: Encourage new employees to set up some “get to know you” meetings with other teammates. You can even make it a part of their onboarding checklist, so they’ll know to prioritize it just as much as their other tasks. 

6. Name an onboarding buddy

Pick an informal person your new employee can go to for all questions. This person mustn’t be a new hire to ensure the employee feels comfortable asking any question with full transparency. This is even more important for remote hires since the new person won’t have colleagues around to ask questions as they come up spontaneously.  

Your turn: Determine who your new hire’s onboarding buddy will be and make at least three additional cross-team connections for your new employee. Let them know you’ll be setting up a 15-minute informational interview with each of these team members so your new hire can gain a better feel for how to work with other teams. Then, offer to co-create a list of questions your new hire can ask them — the goal here is to help the employee directly increase their knowledge of the overall company while also assisting them in feeling embedded in a network. 

7. Create early wins with feedback

Small wins matter more than we might realize, especially within the first couple of weeks. Think of an easy project your direct report can get to work on right away and easily make progress. This allows your new teammate to practice collaboration and report-backs in action, while you use this time as an experimental framework to establish regular feedback sessions. 

Your turn: Normalize that feedback is a part of your team’s culture and is necessary by setting up regular feedback checkpoints. For example, you should schedule check-ins for your employee after day 7, day 14, month 1, and month 3. These check-ins shouldn’t be about the tasks themselves, but instead be focused on how the overall process is working for them.

Ask questions like:

• Who are you turning to for support?
• How clear do expectations feel, on a scale of 1-10? 
• What would help move that score up 1 point? 
• What is something I could do 10% better to support you in your role? 
• What questions do you wish I would ask more often?  

Want to dive deeper? Download our Hybrid + Remote Work Playbook to get your team hybrid-ready and help new hires become nimble collaborators.

The Hybrid & Remote Work Playbook

Frequently Asked Questions