We created the Remote onboard survey to help you understand new hire experience when onboarding remotely including experience so far, belonging, and perceptions of role.

The impact of a good onboarding experience can have long-term impacts on your organization (i.e., in some cases years). We have found that a good onboarding experience can help increase productivity and retention, which has both financial and engagement benefits for your organization.

As remote working becomes a new normal for many organizations, we recognize that the way we onboard these employees must be adjusted to address the difference in onboarding experience. Employees who are onboarded remotely often miss face-to-face connections with teammates, have fewer opportunities to connect with colleagues casually, and have less time to observe company culture and norms. These employees also have a difference in physical workspaces, that may impact productivity and ramp up time.

We've updated our current single point onboard template to reflect the different onboarding experience for remote employees. While many of the questions remain consistent, we’ve amended and added a few questions to make the template more relevant to remote onboarding.

We have included one additional factor - wellbeing. It’s necessary to check in on new hires’ sense of wellbeing because of some of the challenges that onboarding and working remotely brings. This factor measures things such as an employee’s personal workspace, expectations of working hours, and connecting with their manager.

We’ve included additional questions throughout the survey measuring aspects of the recruitment experience, connecting with colleagues, and enablement. For example, the item “I understand what is expected of me in terms of work hours and availability” will help you understand whether remote employees are adjusting to working norms without having the ability to observe these behaviors that they otherwise would if in the office.

The wording of some questions has been adapted to more appropriately reflect the remote onboarding experience. Selection options in multi-select items have been updated to suit remote working. For example, we have added the option of “ability to work remotely” under reasons why one has joined the organization. This will give your talent acquisition team a more nuanced understanding of what draws top talent to your organization.

Many organizations that are currently running an onboarding survey(s), can launch onboarding for remote employees simultaneously (e.g., you can have this survey for employees who are remote and a different survey for employees who are onboarded in the office).

For more information on the logistics of launching onboarding surveys, please see Guide to workflows for Onboard and Exit surveys.