Considering the prediction that, by 2020, 40% of the US’s workforce will be contingent workers, there’s a high chance that most companies will be employing remote workers in the near future, if they aren’t already. This isn’t a bad thing; remote workers have shown to be more productive and work longer hours than their office counterparts.

However, the pitfalls associated with remote work are easy to fall prey to; especially if your next remote hire is new to working outside an office. So, what can you do to help them succeed?

In my first year working remotely, I’ve tackled issues such as how to improve my productivity and how to ensure our later hires have the ideal resources to do the same. Seeing the resistance to remote work and apprehensions of some companies with the reliability of remote workers, I thought that it’s about time to dispel these reservations by highlighting the best methods to ensure that your next remote hires succeed in their position and give you top-quality results whilst saving on your in-office costs.

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Onboard Them With Culture

The best way that I’ve found to adjust your new employee onboarding process to accommodate a remote hire is to emphasise your company’s culture. It can be incredibly difficult for your hire to engage with the existing culture when all they have to go on is a list of names in their Slack channel.

Hence, the best way to incorporate a new member is to introduce them to the rest of team, then encourage your existing hires to reach out of their own accord. Don’t force the communication, but if they strike up their own conversations and find some common ground, the new hire will feel better motivated to live up to everyone’s expectations.

A fantastic way to do this is to host friendly competitions among your team. We actually run a couple for good measure; a Hearthstone tournament (we’re all a little geeky) and we take turns to recommend the best worst film that we know every week. The casual conversations and competitions result in a sense of familiarity, meaning that the new hire is comfortable reaching out to their colleagues to collaborate or ask for help.

Document Your Processes

As you may have gathered by now, the Process Street team is mad about documenting our regular processes, but it’s a perfect way to set the stage for a new remote hire’s success.

For example, let’s say that your hire’s first task is to debug a section of code. Depending on their previous experience, you could probably leave them to their own devices and the code would be checked with varying success. If, however, the debugging process is written out as a standard process, the new hire will have no question in their mind as to what they need to do and how they should do it.

This way, no time is wasted on wondering where to start, or what method to use – the entire process is written out for them to run through and achieve quickly, whilst maintaining the standard your company expects.

Be Flexible

You can’t treat a remote worker in the same manner as an office employee and expect to get the same results. Remote work allows for workers to perform their tasks at their most productive time of day, and in the location that helps them focus the most, and so you need to be flexible in this manner.

So encourage your new remote hires to work during the most productive time of their day. It may seem odd, but if John Smith excels at working in the early hours of the morning, accommodate that time frame. You still get the expected number of working hours, but their productivity will take a huge boost, as they are not sitting at their desk with a brain full of mush.

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