Vol. 1 No. 1 (2022): Emirati Journal of Business, Economics, & Social Studies
Articles

Understanding Virtual Employee Onboarding (VEO): The New Normal and beyond

PDF
  • Deepanjana Varshney

Published 2022-04-12

Keywords

  • Virtual Employee Onboarding,
  • VEO,
  • Covid-19,
  • programs,
  • experience

How to Cite

Understanding Virtual Employee Onboarding (VEO): The New Normal and beyond. (2022). Emirati Journal of Business, Economics, & Social Studies, 1(1), 55-72. https://doi.org/10.54878/jhhm2y12

Abstract

The article analyzes the intricacies of Virtual Employee Onboarding programs (VEO) from the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak and beyond. The paper aims to understand the strategic significance of the Virtual Onboarding process with recent corporate illustrations of onboarding programs. Besides, the literature discusses the ideal Virtual Onboarding process with examples of the commonly used tools. An effective VEO program is highlighted with the necessary conditions and the program components that should be incorporated to make an inclusive and enriching virtual onboarding experience. There are managerial implications drawn from the research: sophisticated, technology imbued virtual Onboarding can be designed, and the tools and company practices can be applied in the business context of Onboarding. Lastly, the challenges and emerging trends can be insightful to VEO practices for creating an amazing new employee onboarding experience. 

PDF

References

  1. Ahuja, M. K., & Galvin, J. E. (2003). Socialization in virtual groups. Journal of Management, 29(2), 161-185.
  2. Anderson, B. (2020, Apr. 2). 7 Steps to Creating a Virtual Employee Onboarding Program. Linkedin. Retrieved from https://business.linkedin.com/talent solutions/blog/onboarding/2020/steps-tocreating-virtual-onboarding-program
  3. Armonk, N.Y.(2020, May 1). PRNewswire/ -- Findings from an IBM (NYSE: IBM) Institute for Business Value (IBV) survey of U.S. consumers reveals shifting personal behavior and preferences resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. IBM Newsroom. https://newsroom.ibm.com/2020-05- 01-IBM-Study-COVID-19-Is-SignificantlyAltering-U-S-Consumer-Behaviorand-Plans-Post-Crisis
  4. Baker., M. ( 2020, April 30). Gartner HR Survey Shows 86% of Organizations Are Conducting Virtual Interviews to Hire Candidates During Coronavirus Pandemic. Gartner Inc..Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/pre ss- releases/2020-04-30-gartner-hrsurvey-shows-86--of-organizations-are-cond
  5. Baker, M. (2020, November 16). Gartner Survey Reveals HR Leaders’ Number One Priority in 2021: Building Critical Skills and Competencies. Gartner Inc. Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/en/newsro om/press-releases/2020-11-16-gartnersurvey-reveals-hr-leaders-number-onepriority-in-2021
  6. Bauer, T. N. (2010). Onboarding new employees: Maximizing success. SHRM Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines Series. https://www.shrm.org/foundation/o urwork/initiatives/resources-from-pastinitiatives/documents/onboarding%2 0new%20employees.pdf
  7. Bell, B. S., & Kozlowski, S.W. J. (2002). A Typology of Virtual Teams: Implications for Effective Leadership. Faculty Publications - Human Resource Studies, Paper 8. http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu /hrpubs/8
  8. Bos, N., Olson, J. S, Nan, N., Shami, N. S., Hoch, S., & Johnston, E. (2006).Collocation Blindness” in Partially Distributed Groups: Is There a Downside to Being Collocated. Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada, April 22-27, 2006. DOI:10.1145/1124772.1124969 Brynjolfsson, E., Horton, J. J., Ozimek, A., Rock, D., Sharma, G., & TuYe, H. Y. (2020). Covid-19 and remote work: An early look at us data (No. w27344). National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from https://www.nber.org/system/files/w orking_papers/w27344/w27344.pdf
  9. Cascio, W. F. (2000). Managing a virtual workplace. Academy of Management Perspectives, 14(3), 81-90.
  10. Coovert, M. D., & Thompson, L. F. (2013). The Psychology of Workplace Technology. New York, NY: Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/book s/edit/10.4324/9780203735565/psychologyworkplace-technology-michaelcoovert-lori-foster-thompson
  11. Curtis, B., Krasner, H., & Iscoe, N. (1988). A field study of the software design process for large systems. Communications of the ACM, 31(11), 1268–1287. doi:http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/50087 .50089
  12. Darwinbox(n.d.). Retrieved from https://darwinbox.com/products/employeeonboarding
  13. Eklöf, H. & Hallén, N. (2018). Innovativ rekrytering: strategier som förenklar, effektiviserar och inspirerar. Stockholm: Liber. https://www-adlibriscom.translate.goog/se/bok/innovativ -rekrytering-strategier-som-forenklareffektiviserar-ochinspir9789127822764?_x_tr_sl=sv&_x_t r_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc
  14. Elset, J. I. (2018). Organizational socialization in remote-working companies: enhancing company onboarding through gamification (Doctoral dissertation).University Institute of Lisbon. Retrieved from https://repositorio.iscteiul.pt/bitstre am/10071/18803/1/master_john_iver_elset.pdf
  15. Evans, Z. (2021). Can You All See My Screen? An analysis of virtual Onboarding due to the COVID-19 pandemic on Summer Interns and Recently Graduated New Hires. Business, Stephen M. Ross School of - Senior Thesis Written Reports. https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/167745
  16. Griffith, T. L., & Neale, M. A. (2001). Information Processing in Tradition, Hybrid, and Virtual Teams: From Nascent Knowledge to Transactive Memory. In B. M. Staw & R. I. Sutton (Eds.), Research in Organizational Behavior, Elsevier, Vol. 23, pp. 379- 421.
  17. Harpelund, C., Højberg, M. & Nielsen, K. U. (2019). Onboarding: Getting New Hires Off to a Flying Start, United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing Limited.
  18. Heinrichs, K. (2021). Being Invisible While Being Visible, A case Study of How the perception of Virtual Onbording Relates to Networking in a Consultancy Firm (Master’s thesis). School of Economics and Management, Lund University. https://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?f unc=downloadFile&recordOId=9049924&file OI d=9049926
  19. Hemphill, L. & Begel, A. (2011). Not Seen and Not Heard: Onboarding Challenges in Newly Virtual Teams. Microsoft Research. Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com/enus/research/wpcontent/uploads/2016/02/Not20Seen20and2 0Not20Heard20MSR-TR-2011-136.pdf
  20. Hickman, A. & Robison, J. (2020, Jan. 24). Is Working Remotely Effective? Gallup Research Says Yes. Gallup. Retrieved from https://www.gallup.com/workplace/283985/working-remotely-effective-gallup research-says-yes.aspx
  21. Hinds, P., & Bailey, M. (2003). Out of Sight, Out of Sync: Understanding Conflict in Distributed Teams. Organization Science, 14(6), 615-632
  22. Hinds, P., & Mortensen, M. (2005). Understanding Conflict in Geographically Distributed Teams: The Moderating Effects of Shared Identity, Shared Context, and Spontaneous Communication. Organization Science, 16(3), 290-307.
  23. Armonk, N.Y.(2020, May 1). PRNewswire/ -- Findings from an IBM (NYSE: IBM) Institute for Business Value (IBV) survey of U.S. consumers reveals shifting personal behavior and preferences resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. IBM Newsroom. https://newsroom.ibm.com/2020-05-01-IBM-Study-COVID-19-Is-SignificantlyAltering-U-S-Consumer-Behaviorand-Plans-Post-Crisis
  24. Ismaili,V. (2020, January 29). 10 Mindblowing Employee Onboarding Statistics. Typelane. https://typelane.com/10- mind-blowing-employee-onboardingstatistics/ Kiesler, S., & Cummings, J. N. (2002). What do we know about proximity and distance in work groups? A legacy of research. In P. Hinds & S. Kiesler (Eds.), Distributed work (pp. 57–80). Boston Review.
  25. Lurey, J. S., & Raisinghani, M. S. (2001). An empirical study of best practices in virtual teams. Information & Management, 38(8), 523–544.
  26. Martins, L. L., Gilson, L. L., & Maynard, M. T. (2004). Virtual teams: What do we know and where do we go from here? Journal of Management, 30(6), 805–835. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jm.2004.05.002
  27. Mets, S. (2021). Long-term Remote Onboarding: The feeling of connection to the team while working remotely due to a pandemic( Master’s thesis). Linnaeus University, School of Business and Economics, Department of Organisation and Entrepreneurship. http://lnu.divaportal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1 562864&dswid=-4167
  28. Moreland, R. L., & Levine, J. M. (2002). Socialization and Trust in Work Groups. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 5(3), 185–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430202005003001
  29. Niu, D. (2021, January 28). New hires suffering in silence: Two key ingredients missing from remote onboarding programs. TINYpulse. Retrieved from https://www.tinypulse.com/blog/new-hires-suffering-in-silence-wfh-remoteonboarding
  30. Scott, C.R., & C. E. Timmerman,C.E.(1999). Communication technology use and multiple workplace identifications among organizational teleworkers with varied degrees of virtuality. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication,42(4), 240-260, Doi: 10.1109/47.807961.
  31. Staples, D. S., & Webster, J. (2007). Exploring Traditional and Virtual Team Members? "Best Practices": A Social Cognitive Theory Perspective. Small Group Research, 38(1), 60–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496406296961
  32. Trevor, G. ( 2021, July 17). Case Studies of Companies that have Implemented Successful Virtual Onboarding/Training Experiences for New Hire Employees. ROI Advisers . Retrieved from https://www.roiadvisers.com/case-studiesof-companies-that-have-implementedsuccessful-virtual-onboarding-trainingexperiences-for-new-hire- employees-2/Typelane(n.d.). Retrieved from https://typelane.com/
  33. Wiederhold, B. K. (2020). Connecting Through Technology During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: Avoiding “Zoom Fatigue.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 23(7), 437–438. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2020.29188.bk w Zenefits(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.zenefits.com/hr/onboarding/

Similar Articles

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.