Blending Virtual & In-Person Onboarding to Welcome, Engage & Retain New Hires in 2025

How badly do you want to retain your new hires??? 
It takes HR and Hiring Managers a lot of time and money sifting through resumes, conducting interviews, finding the person with the right skills who will also be a good cultural fit to narrow it down to one person. But you finally found the right person, made an offer, and it was accepted!  
After all that time-consuming and expensive effort, you have your new hire ready to begin -  excited and nervous on their first day of work. What you may not realize at this point is that your job is far from over. You now need to direct your efforts to “recruiting” your new hire through his or her critical first few months on the job.  And today, this is never more important as employers hire greater numbers of remote employees.   
Onboarding occurs in the period between offer acceptance and full integration into your organization. Your job is to have an effective virtual onboarding program in place to assist your new remote employees in acquiring the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective members of the organization. In addition to dotting all the compliance i’s and crossing all the paperwork t’s, virtual onboarding should also help new remote employees feel like a valuable member of the team. A warm welcome from teammates and a smooth introduction to the expectations of the new role can promote engagement and retention right from the start. 
Traditional orientation programs usually consist of a data dump of information (policies and procedures, benefits information, safety information, etc.) on the new hire’s first or second day on the job. This one-stop, one-time approach results in an information overload problem for your new employee. Utilizing a phased-approach enables new employees to build relationships with co-workers and with those who will have a part in managing, coaching, mentoring and supporting them while working remotely. 
 

• “Onboarding” vs. “Orientation” 
• Onsite onboarding vs. Virtual onboarding 
• Onboarding new hires in virtual locations 
• Why effective onboarding is so critical 
• Benefits of an effective onboarding program 
• Obtaining senior leadership buy-in when revising a current program or developing a new program 
• Step-by-step approach to creating effective onboarding programs 
• Developing and utilizing onboarding checklists 
• Preparation work you MUST do before your new hires’ first day 
• HR, Managers, IT and others’ responsibilities throughout the process 
• Developing a “Buddy” program 
• Asking for feedback from new employees 
• Evaluating your new program 

• Senior Leadership 
• Recruiting professionals
• Operations Professionals 
• HR professionals 
• Managers and Supervisors

Diane L. Dee, President of Advantage HR Consulting, has over 25 years of experience in the Human Resources arena. Diane’s background includes experience in HR consulting and administration in corporate, government, consulting, and pro bono environments. Diane founded Advantage HR Consulting in early 2016. Under Diane’s leadership, Advantage HR provides comprehensive, cost-effective Human Resources solutions for small to mid-sized firms in the greater Chicagoland area. Additionally, Diane conducts webinars on a wide variety of HR topics for various training firms across the country. Diane holds a Master's Certificate in Human Resources from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and has attained SPHR, SHRM-SCP, sHRBP, and HRPM® certifications. Diane is a member of the National Association of Women Business Owners and the Society for Human Resource Management. Additionally, Diane performs pro bono work through the Taproot Foundation assisting non-profit clients by integrating their Human Resources goals with their corporate strategies.