Remote Onboarding Best Practices
We recommend three things for a remote hire: a buddy chosen by overlapping working hours, every login tested before the start date, and a first task that touches every system the person will use. A remote hire has nobody at the next desk, so each gap in access or answers costs a day instead of a minute. The stages below show where each one fits.
Before you make an offer
Set the right expectations
Onboarding starts with recruitment, especially for candidates who are new to remote work. Say clearly what the role covers, which hours the person must be online (for example, whether they need to overlap with teammates in other time zones, or join team meetings outside their normal hours) and how performance will be evaluated.
Help candidates understand your culture
Remote candidates cannot visit the office, so they judge your culture from what they see online and in the interviews. Show what the day-to-day looks like on your careers page, and give shortlisted candidates more calls with teammates so both sides can judge whether it fits.
Before the first day
Tell the new hire what to expect, and finish the admin that would otherwise eat the first days.
Check their equipment and working environment
An on-site hire gets a desk and a login within minutes. A remote hire has their own setup, so ask whether they have a dedicated workspace at home or need a desk at a co-working space, whether they use the same operating system as the team or need a work laptop, and whether a second monitor would help. Order what they need when the offer is signed, because delivery to another city or country can take time.
Test every login before the start date
A remote hire has nobody at the next desk to fix a locked account, so a missing permission costs a day instead of a minute. Use a test account with the new hire’s role to check that email, chat, the knowledge base and the role-specific tools all open, and tell whoever grants access the start date.
Send some company swag
Without the clock-in, the coffee table and the lunch run-ins, a remote hire can feel far from the team. A parcel helps: a card signed by the CEO and the new coworkers, plus some company swag such as a T-shirt, a hat or stickers, shows they were expected.
Give them early access to the onboarding pages in your knowledge base
Most knowledge base software lets you set user permissions, so you can open particular areas to new hires before they start, such as your culture and vision, common FAQs like who to contact, and company policy and benefits.
The first day
Set up a welcome call
If you cannot bring the new hire to HQ in the first week, hold a welcome video call to orient them to what matters about working at your company.
- Walk them through the team structure, the culture and the important policies.
- Share access to your knowledge base and onboarding reading list.
- Explain what to expect in the first week, and how to reach coworkers and other important staff.
- Confirm that email, the messaging tool and the role-specific systems open for them.
- Set goals and expectations, and give them the big picture of how things work on their new team.
Introduce the new hire to the team
Share your team lookbook and ask the new hire to add their own entry. Encourage teammates to add something personal beyond their role, so conversations start more easily. Set up a team call so everyone can say hello face-to-face. For the key people the new hire will work closely with, schedule individual calls, which give them room to listen and ask deeper questions where a group meet and greet can easily leave them flustered.
Assign a buddy
A buddy helps the new hire adapt to the new working environment and bond with other teammates. Remote teammates in the new hire’s local area are a bonus.
Pick the buddy by schedule overlap, not seniority: someone whose working hours actually cross the new hire’s, ideally in the same time zone. A buddy who’s only awake for one overlapping hour a week can’t answer a quick question when it matters, so the new hire ends up guessing or waiting. If nobody shares a time zone, split the role: one person for real-time chat, another for culture and process questions that can wait for a written answer.
The first weeks
Set up calls with key department representatives
Besides calls with teammates in the same department, set up calls with key people from other departments, so the new hire sees how the departments work together toward company goals.
Give a small real task in week one
Choose a task that touches every system the new hire will use, such as answering a real question in the team channel, editing a page and opening a ticket. A welcome call cannot tell you whether the new hire can actually work, and a small task can. Whatever fails, whether a missing permission, an unclear owner or an outdated page, gets fixed while someone is still watching for it.
Hold a weekly check-in call
Onboarding goes both ways, so ask for feedback on the process as well as giving information. Set up a weekly check-in call to discuss progress, challenges and what help your team can offer.
