Human resource managers have some of the hardest jobs at most companies. They have a long list of responsibilities that they need to take care of on a regular basis.

If you would like to make life a little easier for the HR managers at your company, you should strongly consider putting virtual onboarding practices into place. Your HR managers will be able to save so much time and reduce the amount of effort that they have to put in when you make remote onboarding a possibility.

There is virtual onboarding software available today that will put your HR manager in a position to begin using remote onboarding options ASAP. It won’t take you long to see why virtual onboarding methods have become so popular at so many companies.

Check out 11 other benefits of virtual onboarding for your business below.

1. Makes It Simple for New Employees to Fill Out Forms

When your company hires a new employee, there are a million and one forms that they’ll need to fill out and read. If you’re going to have them fill out these forms in person, it’s not going to be very convenient for them.

New employees might not devote enough time to actually reading through the forms they’re filling out when they have to do it in person. They also might not 100% understand everything that they’re reading even if they do.

Virtual onboarding will make it more convenient for them to work their way through these forms. They can read through them at their own leisure and get a good understanding of them prior to signing them electronically.

Using something like this remote I-9 verification software can work wonders for your business when you put it to good use.

2. Allows Your HR Department to Keep Paperwork More Organized

Your new employees won’t be the only ones who will be drowning in forms if you decide to do in-person onboarding with them. Your HR department is also going to have to try to keep everything straight once forms are returned to them.

This can cause a whole lot of chaos in your HR department! There will be forms flying around all over the place. As a result, some of them might get lost or, at the very least, filed in the wrong place.

You can make this part of onboarding less problematic for your HR department by doing remote onboarding. With the right virtual onboarding software, your HR managers won’t have any trouble keeping the forms that your new employees fill out straight.

3. Enables Your New Employees to Ask More Questions

Your new employees are inevitably going to have questions about the onboarding process regardless of whether you do it remotely or in person. But virtual onboarding is going to make it so much easier for them to ask any and all questions they might have.

When your new employees are filling out forms in front of one of your HR managers, they might not necessarily want to bother them every few minutes with a question. But when they’re doing it remotely, they can let a few questions pile up and then send them in the direction of your HR department for clarification.

The entire onboarding process will go so much smoother when you give both your new employees and your HR managers the space they need to breathe.

4. Provides New Employees With a Chance to Learn About Your Company Culture

Your HR managers are going to spend a large chunk of time getting to know your new employees during the virtual onboarding process. But they’re also going to use the process to teach your new employees more about your business.

During virtual onboarding, your HR managers can provide your new employees with videos about your company culture. These videos will shine a light on what your company is all about and let them know what they can expect while working for your business.

You could technically show these same videos to your new employees in person. But they won’t be able to digest them as easily when there are so many other things going on.

5. Sets Clear Expectations for Your New Employees

Before new employees begin working for your company, they should have a clear idea of what you’ll be expecting from them. Otherwise, they might not be able to live up to your lofty demands.

You can lay out your expectations for your new employees through virtual onboarding. You can have a section that is devoted to letting your new employees know what you’ll be looking for from them from the moment they start working for your business.

It’s good to provide new employees with expectations like this because it sets the bar for them and shows them what they’ll need to do to succeed. This is another thing that you could do in person if you want. But you’ll be able to get your point across better by putting it down on paper and showing them your expectations digitally.

6. Makes It Possible for New Employees to Get the Proper Training

Letting your new employees know what you expect out of them is important. But it’s not going to do much good if they don’t know how to reach the goals that you set for them.

With this in mind, you’ll want to provide your new employees with the proper training as soon as you can. This training should equip them with the tools that they’ll need to do their jobs and get the best possible results.

There will be some training that you’ll have to do with your new employees in person. But you should also be able to allow them to get a jumpstart on things by training them virtually to some degree.

You can train new employees through the use of videos. You can also do it by arranging for them to “meet” with your current employees in a virtual sense.

7. Familiarizes New Employees With Your Current Employees

One of the things that people struggle with the most when they start a new job is remembering the names of all their new coworkers. It can be a daunting experience trying to memorize the names of everyone who works at a company.

Time and repetition will allow your new employees to become more familiar with their new coworkers. But you can also help them out in this regard through virtual onboarding.

You can introduce your new employees to many of the people that they’ll be working side-by-side with through remote onboarding. They’ll be able to learn a lot of their names and find out more about the roles that they play within your company.

8. Eliminates a Lot of Unnecessary Stress for Your New Employees

Most people who are starting a new job have at least a little bit of anxiety. “New job anxiety” is actually a condition that many people have to deal with for some length of time.

There isn’t going to be any getting around this anxiety completely. But you can help your new employees get rid of some of it by going through the virtual onboarding process.

Your new employees won’t look and feel as lost on their first days after they’ve taken part in remote onboarding. They’ll know some of their new coworkers, and you can also make it possible for them to find their way around their new office space.

All of this will make your new employees feel more confident overall. They’ll be ready to come in and get to work as opposed to feeling like they don’t belong for their first few days.

9. Puts Your New Employees in a Position to Get Right Down to Business

You’re obviously going to be hiring your new employees to come in and do a job for you. No matter how big or small your company might be, they’re going to play an important role in its success.

So you want your new employees to be able to hit the ground running. You don’t want them to have to spend days or, worse, even weeks trying to get their feet wet before they’re able to do their jobs.

The training that your new employees will receive during virtual onboarding will enable them to do this. As soon as they come into your office for their first days, they’ll be as prepared as they can be to do the jobs you’ve hired them to do.

You won’t have to worry about your new employees wasting time—and, by extension, money—learning the lay of the land. They’ll have everything that they will need to make an immediate contribution to your company.

10. Cuts Many of Your Traditional Onboarding Costs

After hearing about all the other benefits of virtual onboarding that we’ve listed here, you might be wondering, “Why wouldn’t I use it for my business?” It’s so beneficial that it seems like it should be common sense for all companies to use it.

But one of the things that scares some companies away from using virtual onboarding is that there is an expense associated with it. You’ll need to invest in remote onboarding software and keep it updated to take full advantage of it.

But here’s the thing: Not using virtual onboarding can also cost you money! It might just be a little harder for you to realize it.

If your HR managers are spending hours on end every month onboarding new employees, it’s going to cost you money. They could be doing other more important things if you were to go with virtual onboarding.

This should be enough to get you to bite the bullet and invest in the software that you’ll need to do virtual onboarding. Once you do it, you’ll see how much sense it makes financially.

11. Gives Your HR Department Time to Focus on Other Things

As we just alluded to, your HR department needs to be able to do more than just onboarding new employees for your company. They also need to spend a large portion of their time dealing with issues involving your current employees.

You can help your HR managers to reclaim at least some of their time by giving them more onboarding options. This should include the ability to utilize virtual onboarding.

With virtual onboarding, your HR managers will be able to onboard new employees while tending to their other responsibilities. They can send out the proper forms to your new employees and give them the time and space they need to fill them out while tending to other things.

It could revolutionize your HR department as a whole in a very real way. They’ll be able to spend a lot less time wading through mountains of paperwork and a lot more time focused on making your company an even better place to work at than it already is.

Try Virtual Onboarding to See How Well It Can Work for Your Business

Does it feel like your company’s HR department could be onboarding new employees more effectively? If so, you should give virtual onboarding a try to see how well it might work for your business.

You should be able to reap the rewards of remote onboarding as soon as you put it to the test. Your HR department will have a much easier time hiring new employees and getting them acclimated to their positions.

Would you like to get some more information on the other products and services that could benefit your business? Browse through the rest of our blog articles to get it.