{"id":7562,"date":"2021-01-26T13:37:58","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T18:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=7562"},"modified":"2026-02-12T04:53:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T09:53:39","slug":"virtually-onboard-new-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/virtually-onboard-new-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"How to virtually onboard new employees"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHow to virtually onboard new employees\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Jim\t\t\t\tJim Boomer<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Boomer Consulting, Inc. has been an entirely virtual company for quite a while now, so working and collaborating remotely hasn\u2019t been a challenge during the pandemic. What IS new to our team in the past few months is virtually onboarding new team members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past, we would fly new hires to Kansas City for a few days of in-person onboarding and training at our Accounting Innovation Center. That wasn\u2019t feasible \u2013 or advisable \u2013 when our newest employee started in May of last year. Fortunately, we were able to take what we\u2019d learned from years of working with coworkers, clients, and vendors across the country and apply it to the onboarding process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some of the best practices we\u2019ve learned that can help the process go smoothly for your firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ship technology in advance of the start date<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When we hired our newest Solutions Advisor in May, we had a pretty quick turnaround from when he accepted the offer until his start date, but we wanted to ensure that he had everything he needed to hit the ground running on day one. We rushed to order and ship his laptop and other equipment so it would arrive a couple of days before his first official day on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On day one of onboarding, our new team member met virtually with our Technology Business Analyst to ensure he had all of the equipment he needed and could connect to the cloud resources. Some firms we work with schedule 30 minutes or so a few days ahead of the new employee\u2019s start date for the same purpose. Either way, this ensures your new team member isn\u2019t sitting there on day one, waiting for equipment to be delivered or struggling to connect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video conferencing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Boomer Consulting team has encouraged firms to leverage video conferencing tools for years, and the ones who did were much more prepared for working in 2020 than those who still relied heavily on traditional conference calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You simply cannot successfully onboard a new employee without video conferencing. The first few days and weeks at a new job are a critical time for establishing personal connections for new hires. Video conferencing is the best way to meet with someone virtually and still get that \u201cface to face\u201d feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During our new team members\u2019 first days, we scheduled all of his meetings on Zoom. We also planned in break times but had someone available via Zoom even during his breaks, so if he wanted to ask a question, someone was there. It was also extra time to get to know him and allow him to know us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schedule the first week<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When everyone works from the same physical space, the schedule for a new employee\u2019s first week on the job can be a bit fluid. However, we recommend scheduling times for all aspects of the onboarding and training process in their first week when you\u2019re onboarding someone virtually. This ensures the people they need to meet with are available, and your new team member isn\u2019t left waiting and wondering what they\u2019re supposed to be doing for long periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schedule a meeting with HR to review paperwork and get them enrolled in benefits. We learned that this aspect of onboarding takes longer than we originally thought. We\u2019d initially scheduled only 30 minutes but really needed an hour and a half!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schedule time with their supervisor and training with other team members they\u2019ll be working with. It\u2019s a good idea to bring in several people, so they\u2019re not seeing and talking to the same person day in and day out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schedule time with someone higher up \u2013 the Managing Partner, President, or CEO. This helps establish an \u201copen door policy\u201d and shows your new team member that nobody in the firm is off-limits to talk to if they have a question or need help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onboard for success<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of our favorite onboarding sessions that we use both in-person and virtually is \u201cOnboarding for Success.\u201d This is an extended meeting \u2013 up to three or four hours \u2013 where our new employee meets with a cross-functional team of shareholders, sales team members, project managers, technology and marketing team members. During this session, our team talks about what success looks like in our company from different perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is our CEO\u2019s view of success? How about the sales team and project managers? Based on these conversations, we work with our new employees to develop their goals for the first 90 days on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assign a buddy and a mentor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At Boomer Consulting, everyone has regular one-on-ones with their managers, but we also assign buddies and mentors for every team member. A buddy is someone who is not in your department. They help the new employee learn about company culture and support them in figuring out how we do things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mentor is in your department, but not your supervisor. This is a peer the new employee can bounce ideas off of and someone who will help them grow into their position. The employee has regular meetings with their buddy and mentor. That might seem like a lot of meetings, but it helps our remote team establish relationships across departments and provides a foundation of colleagues they can call on throughout their time with the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtual onboarding can be a challenge the first time. For your new team member, the barrage of information coming at them in the early days can feel like drinking through a firehose, so it\u2019s important to take a \u201cpulse check\u201d after they\u2019ve been on the job for a few weeks. This gives them time to ask questions that have come up since or clarify something they might have missed the first time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can also help your team get better at virtual onboarding by learning what your new team members might need more of. Don\u2019t worry if your first virtual onboarding experience is a little rough. You\u2019ll learn something new every time,<\/p>\n\n\n

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Get our latest business advice delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Working\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boomer Consulting, Inc. has been an entirely virtual company for quite a while now, so working and collaborating remotely hasn\u2019t been a challenge during the pandemic. What IS new to our team in the past few months is virtually onboarding new team members. In the past, we would fly new hires to Kansas City for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":618,"featured_media":4579,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"sage_hide_published_date":false,"sage_hide_read_time":false,"sage_hide_share_buttons":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158,47],"tags":[2,257,284],"business_type":[312],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[57,411],"persona":[150,99],"imagine_tag":[215,413],"coauthors":[612],"class_list":["post-7562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accountants","category-people-leadership","tag-accountants","tag-boomer-consulting","tag-hiring","business_type-accountants","industry-financial-services","industry-human-resources"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-us","author_name":"Jim Boomer","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/06\/1675w-x-1275h_0013_Layer-9.jpg","imagine_tags":{"215":"HR and Payroll","413":"Human Resources"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice US","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/618"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/4579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}