Before smartphones and widely available global positioning systems (GPSs), the prospect of a road trip required quite a bit of planning before packing the car to set out on the great unknown. Although the more adventurous types may enjoy the spontaneity of hitting the wide-open road with a general destination in mind, this comes with a cost. Specifically, the cost of gas, time and unplanned pit stops.
And while travel has this mysterious ability to conjure feelings of novelty and excitement, anyone who has ever been lost — like, truly lost — can tell you how this excitement quickly transforms into fear, frustration and helplessness. Without the guidance of a local or a detailed map, the traveler’s only hope of regaining their sense of direction is a lucky guess or stumbling upon a familiar landmark. But no matter how the traveler gets out of this bind, the lesson learned is always the same — next time, they’ll be more prepared.
Roadmaps in Onboarding
When we invite someone to join our organization, we are, in a sense, inviting them to embark on a road trip where the destination is finding purpose, belonging and confidence in their new role. As many organizations transition to a remote/hybrid workforce, the need for intentional preparation for successful onboarding is more important than ever before — especially if we don’t want our new hires to get lost along the way.
So how can we, as training professionals, cultivate an onboarding experience that will equip our remote employees with the tools and guidance they need to safely reach their destination? Creating a map may be an obvious first step to go along with this road trip analogy, but what isn’t so obvious is the planning and attention to detail that goes into designing a map that guides our employees through a successful remote onboarding experience.
When an employee is joining the organization from a remote location, the effort to establish connection and communication throughout this journey needs to be more intentional than if we were in person, riding shotgun alongside our new hire.
1. Assess the starting point. Each employee is unique in their skill sets and level of familiarity with their role and the organization. To create flexibility around the entry points and pacing of your onboarding program, try assigning self-evaluations and pre-assessments to create a more effective (and efficient) learning experience. By providing new employees with scaffolds or shortcuts in their training journey, the organization is already demonstrating trust in the individual’s ability to assess their own needs and take ownership of their learning experience.
Potholes to avoid. Requiring employees to take trainings that are irrelevant to their role or that invalidate their prior experience and expertise.
2. Solidify the destination. The organization has carved out a job description for this role, and now, has chosen to fill this role with your new employee. But how will you know they’re successful? What quantifiable information will tell you that they’ve officially arrived at this destination of finding purpose, belonging and confidence in their role? The answer to this question needs to be fleshed out and documented before any onboarding program can begin to take shape. Without a clear destination, there is no sense of progress or achievement.
Potholes to avoid. Unclear or unquantifiable expectations for the role and a lack of key performance indicators (KPIs).
3. Plan for the journey ahead. With a keen awareness of their starting point and a clear vision of their destination, the employee is ready to forge ahead on their onboarding journey. But the difference between an engaging onboarding experience and a frustrating one is the guidance, companionship and resources provided along the way. For the remote employee, far too often, organizations send them out on a solo road trip with little guidance, perhaps a few required training videos to power through and a schedule of mandatory meetings. However, it’s easy to imagine how a road trip with friends — who have prepared snacks, curated playlists and planned meaningful stops along way — would make for a more enjoyable experience than that of the solo traveler expected to reach his destination with little support (or fun).
So how do we set our remote employees up for an enjoyable ride? First, plan out an anticipated timeline with checkpoints. Create a cadence of intentional one-on-one communication to evaluate how they’re progressing in their role and establish benchmarks of performance and independence that actively lead them toward their destination. Both the employee and learning leader should have a documented — and preferably, shared and interactive — road map of the onboarding program that includes a timeline of checkpoints, synchronous and asynchronous training requirements, a list of quantifiable expectations for each performance benchmark and a vivid description of their destination. In addition to this roadmap, the employee should be provided with a curated treasure trove of relevant, updated resources that fuel their progress throughout the onboarding experience.
Potholes to avoid. Passive communication with new employees that only takes place when they have questions, lack of performance benchmarks throughout the onboarding experience, providing the new employee with an avalanche of information and resources requiring discernment and analysis to parse out content that is relevant to their role.
Looking Ahead
There is an element of the unknown that we must expect when we set out to reach a new destination. In fact, much of our growth happens within these spaces of struggle and ambiguity. But if we want our remote employees to experience resilience and growth instead of frustration and burn out when they step into their new roles, we need to create an onboarding experience that provides consistent connection, shared communication on their progress and a celebration when they finally arrive at their destination.
