{"id":726250,"date":"2021-03-11T15:12:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T23:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-blog-post&p=726250"},"modified":"2021-03-16T15:48:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T22:48:04","slug":"advice-for-remote-onboarding-of-new-hires","status":"publish","type":"msr-blog-post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/articles\/advice-for-remote-onboarding-of-new-hires\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice for remote onboarding of new hires"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Paige Rodeghero, Thomas Zimmermann<\/a>, Brian Houck, Denae Ford<\/a>, and Sonia Jaffe<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Here are some suggestions for remote onboarding of new hires based on a survey and interviews of Microsoft employees (details are in the research paper<\/a>). Page numbers refer to where the findings are discussed in the synthesis report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Promote communication and asking for\u00a0help<\/h3>\n

Remote work often makes asking questions harder. Without being able to \u2018drop by\u2019, communication may feel less casual\u2014and emails and IMs generate a record, which can make people hesitant to ask potentially \u2018stupid\u2019 questions (page 25<\/a>). Everyone should\u00a0share their communication preferences<\/a> with their colleagues, but it is particularly important that new hires be encouraged to ask questions, and managers need to communicate what medium is preferred for what types of communication.<\/p>\n

Help new hires connect with the team<\/h3>\n

Encourage teams to turn on cameras while onboarding new hires<\/strong><\/p>\n

People like being able to put a face to a name, so, if possible, use a camera when in meetings.\u00a0 Managers that turn their cameras on can act as role models for team members.<\/p>\n

Schedule 1:1 meetings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of new hires surveyed, 40% said they did not have at least one 1:1 communication from someone on their team daily. For employees in general,\u00a0manager 1:1 time is associated with less of an increase in work hours during WFH<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Provide information about the organization early on<\/strong><\/p>\n

In large organizations, working remotely can make it particularly hard for new hires to understand how their individual role and their team\u2019s role fit in the broader context.<\/p>\n

Emphasize team building activities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Social and collaborative isolation is a major challenge for remote work (page 9<\/a>). New hires need extra help connecting with their teammates. Team connection is essential for productivity and job satisfaction. Managers should host virtual events and encourage all team members to join in. These events can vary from a coffee hour to a team game night.<\/p>\n

Assign an onboarding buddy<\/strong><\/p>\n

An onboarding buddy, often from a different team in the organization, helps a new hire find the resources they need, connects them with others within the company, and helps make the new hire feel welcome. By making the mentor role explicit, managers can alleviate the anxiety around sending multiple and frequent questions.<\/p>\n

For developers \/ programmers\u2014help new hires get started on work<\/h3>\n

Assign a technical mentor<\/strong><\/p>\n

A technical mentor\u2014someone on the same team and who has worked with the code\u2014helps a new hire with the technical details (e.g., code questions) of their work, that the onboarding buddy may not be able to help with.<\/p>\n

Assign a simple first task<\/strong><\/p>\n

In one Microsoft group, 24% of new hires that started during WFH did not complete any pull requests in their first 90 days (page 31<\/a>). Until new hires have gone through the process of creating their first pull request, they may not understand the workflow and be lost during some of the discussions in meetings. Having new hires complete a simple task during their first week\u2014such as fixing a spelling error\u2014gives them the opportunity to quickly go through the process of making changes, creating a pull request, submitting it, and having it reviewed.<\/p>\n

Provide up-to-date documentation<\/strong><\/p>\n

New hires that had ample documentation reported that they had a smooth onboarding process. Up-to-date documentation can be particularly valuable during remote work when it is harder to ask colleagues for help. However, new hires also need context to understand where they fit into the project in relation to the documentation. In addition to technical guidance, providing documentation on workflow information, can also be helpful in giving new hires a guide to the team\u2019s day-to-day language.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Much of the research motivating this guidance is in Please Turn Your Cameras On: Remote Onboarding of Software Developers during a Pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Specific suggestions to promote communication and asking for\u00a0help, and help new hires connect with the team and get started on work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37664,"featured_media":734326,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"msr-content-parent":717493,"footnotes":""},"research-area":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"class_list":["post-726250","msr-blog-post","type-msr-blog-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_assoc_parent":{"id":717493,"type":"project"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/726250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-blog-post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37664"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/726250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732607,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/726250\/revisions\/732607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=726250"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=726250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}