Onboarding workers always comes with some challenges, and bringing on international employees can present additional complications. A well-developed global employment package helps address some of the common challenges of onboarding employees from around the world.
What does a global employment package entail? Much like a standard employment package, it contains the essential policies, agreements, and training materials for your new employee-employer relationship. What makes global employment packages unique is that they must be adaptable so they can apply to employees in many countries, not just the one where your company is based.
Your global employment package will make onboarding new employees much simpler, since starting with a checklist ensures you don’t skip or forget any steps. Here’s how to put one together.
Creating a global employment onboarding checklist
Compile all relevant HR forms
Your new employee will likely need to complete multiple HR forms for compliance purposes, depending on where they’re based. Make sure you have the tax forms they need to fill out ready to go, plus any payment forms, non-disclosure and non-compete agreements, or other agreements you want to have in place.
Construct a benefits package
Providing benefits on a global scale can be quite challenging. You will have to keep country-specific benefit requirements in mind and decide between standardized and localized benefits. If you get stuck while constructing a global benefits package, you can always turn to a global employment platform for help.
Create a welcome kit
The welcome kit you provide your new employee will give them more information about the company including contact names, phone numbers, and emails. It should also include an overview of the company structure and a mission statement.
Give your kit a personalized touch so your new hire feels truly delighted to receive it. Adding branded items, like a T-shirt or coffee mug, notebook and pen set, and logo stickers, makes the kit feel more like a gift and showcases your company’s personality.
Welcome notes from recruiting and the new employee’s manager are also thoughtful touches and helpful reminders of who they’re going to be interacting with on their first day.
Set up digital access
As a remote worker, your new global employee is going to rely completely on technology to do their work and interact with other employees. It’s essential to make sure they have all the computer, software, and account access they’ll need to do so. Pass along the proper login credentials, add them to any email or other communication groups, and put them into your scheduling software so they’re always up to date.
Put together training materials
Beyond a welcome kit, your new hire will also need some additional resources to help them do their job and reach their objectives. Offering training materials in various forms—like video, written instructions, and illustrated guides—can help make them accessible to all your employees.
Develop an orientation process
Orientation is when your new employee will start to feel more comfortable in their role at your company. This process is especially important for global and remote employees since they likely won’t get to interact with the company and their coworkers in person. Plan to schedule video meetings between the new employee and their superiors to walk them through rules, objectives, and responsibilities.
Assign a mentor
Harvard Business Review reports that an onboarding “buddy” helps significantly increase a new hire’s productivity over the first 90 days in their new position. Even after those 90 days pass, having a mentor is a great way for your new hire to learn vital skills from a senior employee at your organization. It will also deepen the connection between your global employee and your company, a key objective when working with cross-border workers.
Make a plan to check back in
Most people think onboarding ends after the first few days or weeks in a new position. While this is mostly true, it’s also a good idea to check in throughout a new hire’s first year to make sure they’re settling in and meeting their developmental benchmarks. A 3/6/9 check-in schedule in which someone checks in every 3 months during the employee’s first year is a good guideline.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of what should be on your global employment onboarding checklist, but it should be enough to get you started.
Global employment solutions
If bringing on international talent still sounds overly complicated, even with the help of a global employment onboarding checklist, don’t worry. There are several different global employment solutions for your business to choose from.
One of those solutions is using a global employment platform. This cloud-based software helps with onboarding global employees, offering them benefits, and managing payroll and tax compliance. In other words, your global employment platform will offer an additional layer of support to ensure your company can seamlessly work with employees from across the globe.
Don't just settle for any platform, though. Your company should look for the best global employment platform for your needs. It must cover compliance, be reliable and fast, and have complete global access. Oyster’s global employment platform ticks all those boxes and more.
Try Oyster today to discover the difference we can make in reaching your company’s global employment goals.
About Oyster
Oyster is a global employment platform designed to enable visionary HR leaders to find, engage, pay, manage, develop, and take care of a thriving distributed workforce. Oyster lets growing companies give valued international team members the experience they deserve, without the usual headaches and expense.
Oyster enables hiring anywhere in the world—with reliable, compliant payroll, and great local benefits and perks.
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