100% remote onboarding

In this episode of The New Office podcast, Thomas, aka Panda, People Partner at Boond Manager, shares the practices and challenges of successful onboarding in a fully telecommuting company. Founded in 2009, Boond Manager is an ERP company that evolved in full remote mode long before telecommuting became the norm. Today, with over 85 employees, Boond Manager makes a point of integrating new employees with well-structured, immersive onboarding processes. Here are the keys to their success.

Onboarding structured in several phases

Thomas stresses the importance of dividing onboarding into three distinct phases: preboarding, onboarding and postboarding. This approach enables us to support new employees gradually, ensuring that they have all the information they need from their first day and throughout their integration.

1. Pre-boarding

The pre-boarding phase is essential for Boond Manager. As soon as a contract is signed, a pre-integration process begins. This includes a comprehensive welcome booklet presenting the company's culture, internal rituals and benefits, as well as initial contact with the team via an introductory audio message broadcast on Boond Radio, a weekly internal podcast. This podcast helps future employees to familiarize themselves with their colleagues and encourages them to establish bonds even before they arrive.

2. Technical and cultural onboarding

Boond Manager is not just about technical onboarding. Each new employee receives both technical support (training in internal tools, immersion in the use of the software via the Boond Game) and human support, with a mentor assigned from the outset. This mentor does not belong to the same department as the recruit, thus promoting cross-functional integration within the company.

The Boond Game, for example, is a role-playing game that lets you immerse yourself in the problems encountered by customers and better understand the tool developed by Boond Manager. This gamified process makes it easier to get to grips with the ERP in a fun and engaging way.

3. Post-boarding and personalized follow-up

Once the initial integration phase has been completed, Boond Manager does not let up in its monitoring. The newcomer is asked to provide a feedback report to gather his or her impressions and identify any difficulties. In addition, regular follow-up is carried out with the manager to ensure that the objectives set during the probationary period are being met.

Creating a strong corporate culture in remote

One of the biggest challenges for a 100% remote company is to maintain a strong corporate culture despite the absence of a physical office. At Boond Manager, this aspect is paramount. The bond between employees is nurtured by a number of regular rituals: online sports sessions, virtual snacks, meditation, and of course, face-to-face seminars organized three times a year. These seminars are an opportunity to strengthen the bonds between employees and further anchor the corporate culture.

IT management optimized with rzilient

Boond Manager recently automated its IT onboarding process using the rzilient platform. This solution enables the configuration and delivery of ready-to-use computers for each new employee, wherever they may be, while guaranteeing optimum IT security. This partnership has enabled Boond Manager to save time and optimize the management of its teleworking equipment, while meeting ISO 27001 requirements.

Best practices for successful onboarding

1. Anticipation and preparation: Inform future employees before they arrive with tools such as welcome booklets and internal podcasts.
2. Mentoring and human support: assign a mentor to each new employee to help them integrate into the corporate culture.
3. Automating IT processes: Ensuring that every employee receives his or her equipment on time and ready for use thanks to optimized IT management.
4. Corporate culture and moments of exchange: Setting up rituals that reinforce team cohesion despite distance.
5. Post-integration follow-up: Ask for regular feedback to adjust processes and improve the employee experience.

Onboarding is more than just a formality at Boond Manager. By combining gamification, internal rituals and IT process automation, the company shows that full remote can coexist with a strong corporate culture. For any 100% telecommuting company, taking inspiration from these best practices can not only improve the employee experience, but also reduce turnover and optimize long-term performance.

Would you like to find out more about automated IT management and rzilient solutions? Request a demo here.