Quick tips for virtual onboarding

Onboarding or employee socialization is the process of facilitating employees’ gaining the necessary competencies and organizational familiarity in order to be effective organizational members and insiders. Traditionally, onboarding methodologies have consisted of classroom or video lectures, formal meetings, and/or printed materials. However, there is an increasing trend of companies incorporating virtual onboarding strategies.

Talent Management Magazine recently highlighted the case of Telus Communications Inc., which is a large Canadian telecommunications firm. This offered a few key tips:

• Internally create and leverage company-branded versions of popular social media mediums, including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

• Implement a virtual “badging” system that takes new hires through their first 30, 60, and 90 days with the company.

• Badges should be earned upon completion of an action. This system is to help them learn important information, acclimate them to the company, and track their overall onboarding progress.

• The online system, by its very nature, should encourage mingling with other employees and informal collaboration, similar to mediums like Facebook.

The obvious benefits of such a system are a highly streamlined and consistent onboarding process. Also, by shifting the load to a virtual environment, a burden is lifted from trainers whose tasks are to execute comprehensive onboarding processes.

Learn more about Telus Communications’ onboarding process at Talent Management Magazine.