Leading at a Distance

CHAPTER 8Surviving Day One: A Toolkit for Remote Onboarding

In the tribal nations, of which there are more than 500 in the United States, it is customary for a new leader to shake the hand of every single person in a meeting, sometimes upward of 40 handshakes. The handshake symbolizes respect and the importance of community to the way they do business. Although the virtual world does not allow for physical handshakes, there is great value to creating a substitute ritual and maximizing the effect of the virtual greeting. This is especially important when introducing and onboarding new leaders. Appreciating this kind of symbolism and finding ways to re-create that moment virtually separate good virtual organizations from the great.

Most of the leaders we interviewed acknowledged that onboarding virtually is just plain hard. In our Virtual Experience survey, employee onboarding was cited as the single factor most negatively impacted by virtual work. In some ways, that is not that surprising. Some companies share a recording of their traditional, in-person onboarding program, or have executives duplicate the same sessions over live video. However, our research shows that this onboarding format will negatively impact an employee's experience. As Amgen CHRO, Lori Johnson, said in late 2020, “We saw a dip in satisfaction in our onboarding over the last nine months, so we've shifted ...