With economies fighting an unfamiliar battle with a global pandemic and businesses having to take drastic measures to stay afloat, 2020 was not a good year for almost everyone. From many businesses shuttering to others having to let go of much of their workforce, the world has yet to wake up from this nightmare.

And whether conventional (as we have known it) wisdom will still be relevant on the other side of this or not is a whole other discussion, for much unlearning and even more innovation awaits us.

With such uncertainty looming, where are the concepts that are fundamental to modern businesses—such as employee onboarding—headed? Will they be reimagined to suit the “new normal”? Or will they mostly remain the same, given the innate human element involved? How should businesses approach the employee onboarding process in the “new normal”?

Getting the Basics Right

Employee onboarding isn’t a buzzword right now. But we must acknowledge the fact that several organizations, including my own (Apty), have been successfully remotely hiring, onboarding, and training new employees during the pandemic. This might not be the trend globally, but new hires need a well-thought-out onboarding process now more than ever.

Hiring new employees while scores of others are being laid off is an interesting problem to have. Your new hires might be paranoid, and unusually so, about how secure their job will be. It is natural for them to want to be assured that the company is doing well and that their career is in safe hands. This is where a slightly upgraded version of the conventional employee onboarding process comes into play.

You want to make sure you go beyond the usual scope of the onboarding process, which includes informing new hires about their joining dates, making sure the equipment they will need is in place, ensuring all the HR formalities are completed, getting them up to speed on company policies/vision/mission, introducing them to their team members, etc. These are times when you will need to address some valid doubts or insecurities they might have, including:

• Am I going to be laid off without an explanation?
• Is the company doing well or will there be a mass layoff?
• Will I be made to accept a pay cut?

It is crucial to be as transparent as possible with new hires and assure them that they have nothing to worry about. One way to build confidence in new hires during the onboarding process is to include a personalized message from the founder or senior leadership. This message could convey a warm welcome to them and also include a few lines about how they are now part of the family. A small gesture of solidarity could go a long way in making new hires—who have yet to meet their new colleagues in person—feel more engaged and confident about their decision.

Catering to the Future, Proactively

It is wise to think about revisiting our traditional approaches, standard processes, and conventional intelligence during these challenging times. Here are some key aspects we probably should consider, now that “remote workforce” seems like it will be the norm:

• How to make remote onboarding effective despite all the variables involved?
• How to measure the success of remote onboarding efforts?
• How to “personalize” remote onboardings?
• How to identify the stages for remote onboarding?
• How much is too much and how do you know where to draw the line?

These are some basic pointers that will guide you toward creating an onboarding plan that is in line with the future of workplaces. How your organization responds to these and other questions that will come up along the way will define the success of your employee onboarding process.

Immediate Roadblocks to Overcome

The biggest hurdle for all organizations right now is getting leadership’s buy-in to the employee onboarding process. With so many expenses being cut, there is a big possibility that management will be tempted to cut onboarding-related expenses for now. This, however, might only further jeopardize the company as it makes new employees vulnerable and potentially less productive. Some challenges to think about:

Knowing what to forego and what to retain: A good start would be to do away with the unnecessary or ostentatious aspects of the onboarding process. Aim to make the onboarding more about the people and their sensitivities rather than about fancy expensive welcome kits or goodies. If you must, get rid of these extra elements for now rather than scrap the whole onboarding process. Now is a great time to relook at what really makes new hires happy and then do a thorough, sincere job with that.

Keeping the human side alive: Don’t get carried away with the logistics of the laptop, the sequential e-mails you need to send out to keep engagement going, the assignment of a buddy who will guide a new hire, etc. Understand that onboarding is so much more than all of that. The processes are not that different across most modern businesses, but what really steals the show is how well you connect with new hires on a human level. Think of every new employee as a close acquaintance, and not as someone who needs to be onboarded. A lot of company culture comes into play right from the onboarding process—what better time to initiate someone into your culture than their first day?

Shifting gears from onboarding to training: Often companies do a fabulous job onboarding new hires but have no training processes in place. This could be disastrous as inadequate training can lead to poor performance, lower productivity, disgruntlement, and eventually burnout. The only way to keep your employees happy and performing consistently well is to provide trainings at regular intervals and in a format that is efficient. Traditional trainings are almost impossible now with the remote workforce, and virtual learning has the same issue classroom trainings do—poor retention levels. A solid way to overcome this pressing issue is to invest in a digital adoption platform that will not only help you provide your employees with contextual, on-demand training but also can streamline your onboarding process to a great extent.

With remote onboarding and training becoming the need of the hour, it is paramount that companies invest in the right technology at the right time. When people don’t have to perform the same tasks over and over, it frees them in a way that is empowering. And empowered employees will they give you their best.

Make remote work more enjoyable and less stressful for your employees by investing in technologies that will make their life easier.

Mohd Azam is the senior Marketing manager at Apty. When he is not busy ideating, you’ll find him playing chess, pool, or the guitar. An ardent start-up and tech geek, Azam is a big fan of all things relating to marketing.