Learn more about how NetPerform can help you get the most out of your company’s remote team performance management.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

Work, as we know it, is changing forever. The truth of the matter is that it was already evolving slowly in recent years, the recent pandemic has only accelerated the process. Businesses, especially their Human Resource departments, are adopting new technologies to make HR processes easier, more efficient, and cost-effective—as well as improve the overall employee experience. One of the best, easiest, and most timely HR technologies to implement is the onboarding process. With virtual onboarding, you can get new employees onboarded quickly and effectively whether in the office or remote.

The thing to remember above all is that onboarding is a crucial component of any business. Almost 20% of employee turnover happens within the first 45 days, but organizations with a strong onboarding process can improve new hire retention rates by up to 82%. Shifting the onboarding process virtually does not change that at all. In fact, a virtual onboarding process enables a more personalized and beneficial experience for your new employees, thus creating a better introduction to your company, more engaged employees, and higher retention rates.

Here’s how to successfully transition to a virtual onboarding experience and ensure the process is successfully adopted throughout your company.

Get started as early possible

Start onboarding new employees as soon as possible—ideally, as soon as they sign the offer letter and even if they give 2-3 weeks notice at their previous job. To start, send welcome emails and commence paperwork. Typical onboarding tasks can be completed digitally, including company handbook and procedures acknowledgment, signing privacy and non-disclosure agreements, and completing tax and other new employee forms.

Introduce the team and company culture virtually

In a digital workplace, you can make introductions quicker and easier. Introduce the team via the company’s intranet and via messaging apps or video conferencing. Appoint a mentor to help guide them through the virtual onboarding process and all the intros. Making new team members feel a part of the group is the first step in preventing workplace loneliness.

Equip them with hardware, software, and everything they need

Compile a list of all the necessary hardware, software, and office supplies that are needed for your new employee’s everyday job, including computer, printer, and phone, which IT can help set up. Add new employees to project boards like Slack or Asana, file-sharing applications, and access to accounts and software they will be using to get up-to-speed. Take it a step further by sending them some company swag to make them a part of the team even before they start. 

Establish team meetings, daily check-ins, 1-on-1s, and reviews

A major factor of a seamless onboarding is getting on the same page with team members and managers. This can be accomplished with regularly scheduled team meetings and daily stand-ups. For new team members, managers must take the extra time for daily check-ins to discuss how they acclimating, expectations, and any obstacles they are experiencing. While it is certainly too soon to conduct a performance review, establishing the schedule, process, and employee development plan early on will ensure the most success when review time does come. 

Invest in onboarding software

As outlined above, onboarding is a comprehensive, multi-step process that requires input from multiple people, interdepartmental cooperation, tons of paperwork, and more. Implementing an onboarding solution makes the process more efficient and easier to manage. By streamlining the process, you can reduce the risk of missing crucial steps, but still allow for customization for different job levels and needs. 

With employee onboarding software—like NetGuide from Netchex—you can create a streamlined, completely paperless onboarding process. Newly hired employees are introduced to your company with a personalized experience, including welcome emails and a dashboard overview where they can meet the team, learn company policies, immerse themselves in company culture, and start training. On the company side, NetGuide helps ensure compliance, complete tax information, and collect e-signatures on vital documents. Virtual onboarding tasks are set up in easy to-do lists on employee profiles with built-in alerts for new or overdue tasks to ensure everything is completed correctly and on time.

With states and businesses beginning to reopen, the fear of a second outbreak looms heavy over the proceedings. As businesses develop return to work plans, one of the biggest components is anticipating and addressing employees’ return to work concerns, including many lingering health and safety concerns. One way officials and experts are hoping to combat the continued mass spread of COVID-19 is through contact tracing.

What is contact tracing?

Contact tracing is a standard strategy for disease control used by public health professionals to help stop the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Like a detective trying to crack a case, the contact tracing process is centered on interviewing those who have tested positive for the virus and determining others who have been in close contact with that person. According to the CDC, a close contact is someone “who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from 48 hours before illness onset until the time the patient is isolated.”

By connecting the dots of contact points, officials can gather further information and provide guidance to help everyone stay safe while working to limit the spread of the disease. A thorough and successful contact tracing process helps slow the transmission of the disease within a community or business. To conduct contact tracing in the workplace, employers will need to take advantage of apps, proximity-based technologies, and digital monitoring through ID badges, phones, or computers. 

Key concepts of contact tracing

According to the CDC, these are the key elements of contact tracing:

• Trace and monitor contacts of infected people. Notify them, including employers and fellow employees, of their exposure. 
• Support the quarantine of contacts. Help ensure the safe, sustainable, and effective quarantine of contacts to prevent additional transmission.
• Expand staffing resources. Contact tracing in the U.S. requires that states, tribes, localities, and territories establish large cadres of contact tracers. 
• Use digital tools. Adoptions and evaluation of digital tools may expand the reach and efficacy of contact tracers. 

Utilizing contact tracing in the workplace

When an employee tests positive for coronavirus or is showing signs that they may have it, businesses must have a plan in place for dealing with the situation quickly, thoroughly, and as privately as possible. 

• Identify who the infected people may have been in contact with while at work—co-workers, management, clients/customers, etc.  
• Alert those who were exposed without revealing the identity of the infected individual. Privacy must be a top concern in regards to communication, workplace data, and health information.
• Provide those contacted with information and support to about why they at- risk, isolation recommendations, monitor themselves for illness, and express to them the real possibility that they could spread the infection to others even if they are not showing symptoms.
• Work closely with and under the advisement of state and local health departments, as well as any other official entity overseeing contact tracing in your area.
• Always be aware of and take into consideration the legal guidelines around discrimination, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Netchex’s Contact Tracing Report

With Netchex, our Time and Attendance solution can help you participate in contact tracing by identifying potential contacts who were working at an identified location at the same time as an employee afflicted with (or suspected to have) COVID-19. 

Within Netchex’s COVID-19 Response Portal, you can create a simple, yet effective report that compiles a list of at-risk employees that may have been exposed after working at the same time and location as an afflicted employee. If an employee contacts their HR rep and informs them they have tested positive for COVID -19, the rep can then run this report and see who all worked during the same shift.

To run the report:

• Input your company code
• Enter the name(s) of afflicted employee(s)
• Define look back period parameters (suggested 14 days, as recommended by the CDC)
• Customize your search by department, terminal group, or payroll group, as well as physical hardware clock (if being used)

This report enables the company to stay ahead of any potential infection before it spreads beyond control. This report will also help inform employers which office and communal spaces need more thorough cleaning and disinfection.

The Contact Tracing Report is now available in Netchex’s COVID-19 Response Portal.

Click here to Download our informational Contact Tracing flyer

**UPDATED 7/6/2020**

In a somewhat surprising move from the Senate late last week, the Paycheck Protection Program has been extended again for an additional five weeks. This latest extension of the popular relief program gives small businesses through August 8 to apply for the loan. The legislation passed quickly through the House and was signed into law by the President on Saturday, July 4.

Designed to help small businesses struggling during the pandemic, the Paycheck Protection Program was originally passed as part of the CARES Act back in March. The program’s funds were depleted after just 13 days forcing Congress to replenish the funds in mid-April. So far, the program has allocated $520 billion in loans to nearly five million businesses nationwide. 

As the program was scheduled to expire last week, the Senate preemptively approved to extend the application period, and the House quickly followed suit. More than $130 billion in loan money remains unspent, which prompted the extension—which required and received agreement from all 100 senators—as one last chance for small businesses to take advantage of this relief program. The extension passed through the House unanimously as well. 

Administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA), Paycheck Protection Programs loans are available through approved lenders, fully guaranteed, and eligible for 100% forgiveness, if a company meets certain criteria. Just as with the PPP loan application process, Netchex has created a PPP Loan Forgiveness Report that makes the process easier. Based on the exact information required on the loan forgiveness application, we have created a detailed, custom report that provides everything you need to fill out the application—including employee names, employee IDs, compensation, employer-paid cost benefits, and employer-paid taxes. 

With much of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package set to expire in July and widespread spikes forcing many states to slow or scale back re-opening efforts, lawmakers are beginning to debate the details of a new coronavirus relief package. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senator Rick Scott of Florida have mentioned the possibility of repurposing funds or creating new legislation that would send additional aid only to businesses that have experienced a significant loss of revenue during the pandemic. 

Company culture is an X-factor that can either erode morale and employee engagement or multiply productivity and positively grow your business. A key component of company culture is performance management. You can monitor individual outputs and set goals, but even conservative efforts to improve productivity can cause a backlash when the culture behind it isn’t addressed as a priority. In addition to finding the right performance management technology, there are several ways to implement a performance management culture at your company.

Naturally, company culture can be difficult to address by small changes like adding policies to the employee handbook. Business casual attire is easy to define and enforce, but how do you manage positive attitudes and interdepartmental collaboration? Behavior change and culture adjustments will require multi-level planning and persistence. The good news is that most employees will recognize the benefits of being part of a positive, energizing workplace. Once there’s a visible change in company culture, many of your motivated and hard-working employees will feel personally invested to help maintain that momentum. 

Here are several factors to consider when developing a performance management culture at your company.

Rally around a common goal

If you’re going to motivate employees to maintain a higher level of performance, you’ll need meaningful motivation. Financial incentives aren’t always sustainable, especially if the goal is continuous improvement year over year, but many of your employees already care greatly about the quality of work they perform. Whatever your industry, all departments and individual employees should see the relevance of their role and the final impact on the success of the company.

Employees have their individual deadlines and tasks, but it can be helpful to periodically remind everyone of the big picture: products and services provided by the company. When meetings and performance reviews relay positive feedback from clients and celebrate company milestones, individual employees can see how they contribute to a process much larger than themselves. Whether you want to improve granular results or the overall efficiency of in-house procedures, let the whole company participate in the problem-solving process, and they’ll be more motivated to succeed together.

Inspire innovation

Get employees involved in the assessment and improvement of existing procedures, and make sure they feel like their suggestions are being heard. With a better grasp of the overall system than their subordinates, your managers and team leaders may provide a sounding board for new ideas. Many of the initial suggestions will be impractical, but instead answering with a flat rejection, team leaders should look for opportunities to redirect the spirit behind the idea. When employees feel like they’re a valued part of the process, they’re more likely to cooperate with other changes for improving performance.

Develop employee talent

Especially with younger employees, you’ve probably noticed a drive to continue improving and learning new skills. From the outside, the enthusiasm for professional growth can sometimes resemble a lack of commitment to a single job or company. When there aren’t opportunities for advancement in-house, restless and ambitious employees will naturally look for jobs elsewhere. Does your company provide new challenges and opportunities for employees who remain with the company for several years? Rather than measuring success exclusively in terms of company deliverables and client satisfaction, think about how you’re developing the professional skill sets and abilities of your human resources. Employees who continue to learn and grow professionally are more motivated and satisfied in their jobs, even if their newly acquired skills don’t translate into raises or promotions.

Make sustainable changes

When trying to overhaul something as pervasive as the performance management culture of your company, try not to get too ambitious with the initial changes. Especially when you’re trying to address morale and productivity, a small sustainable change is better than a big program that flounders after a few weeks. How much time are you willing to invest in achieving the desired changes?

In order to redirect the whole culture of the company, the new attitude and priorities will need to be reflected in meetings and employee assessments for months into the future. Whether you’re rolling out a new set of company values or taking a public stand on social issues, employees will appreciate the persistence and commitment required to follow through with substantive changes.

After you’ve identified the ways in which your company can improve its culture, employee performance reviews provide opportunities to check in with employees and quantify change. Rather than focusing exclusively on conventional metrics for productivity, your review process can encompass collaboration, communication skills, and other data points that affect the whole workplace. When you’ve made performance management culture a priority, there should be a noticeable improvement in proactive attitudes across the workforce.

Learn more about how NetPerform can help you get the most out of your company’s remote team performance management.

While the past couple of months can be described as anything but normal, consistency from year-to-year has always played a major role in the development and growth of Netchex. That high-level consistency and success were recently reaffirmed as Netchex was once again named a New Orleans-area Top Workplace for 2020 by The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate.

Culled from the private, public, nonprofit, and government sectors, Netchex is one of 70 honorees on the list this year. The Top Workplaces list is based solely on feedback about a company’s workplace filled out by the employees. The full rankings of the companies will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held later this year.

“It goes without saying that this year has gone a little differently than planned, but the team at Netchex has risen to the occasion in every department,” explained Will Boudreaux, founder and CEO of Netchex. “As we continue to grow, we’ve emphasized things like employee retention and engagement and diversity and inclusion that have helped us become a better all-around company.”

Employee feedback is gathered through a third-party survey administered by Energage—a leading provider of technology-based employee engagement tools. An anonymous survey is sent to all employees of a nominated company that measures several aspects of workplace culture, including alignment, execution, engagement, and more.

To be eligible for the Top Workplaces list, businesses must have at least 35 employees and be based in one of the seven parishes in the New Orleans metro area: Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, or St. Tammany. 

“During this challenging time, we are excited to highlight standout job providers,” said Sara Barnard, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “This will be the sixth year New Orleans has observed elite companies in our community that have been named a Top Workplace and we are honored to join in the celebration.”

If you are interested in joining the team at Netchex and being a part of one of the Top Workplaces in the New Orleans area, please visit our Careers page to learn more about Netchex and our current job openings.

In a landmark ruling handed down earlier this week, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that employers may not discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment. In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that federal workplace laws prohibit employers from firing gay, lesbian, and transgender workers. This decision to protect LGBTQ rights in the workplace applies to all employers with 15 or more employees.

What the decision means

The decision was a response to three separate cases, all of which concerned employment discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There has been significant debate for decades about the definition of “sex” under Title VII. Originally, many assumed that it meant only that men and women could not be treated differently, but over the years the Supreme Court has interpreted the definition to include certain characteristics or expectations related to gender. Previous decisions, however, had not yet provided a definitive answer as to whether sexual orientation and gender identity were protected—until now, and that answer is an unequivocal “yes” to protect LGBTQ rights in the workplace.

Several circuit courts of appeal had already ruled that sex included sexual orientation, gender identity, or both, and many states have their own civil rights laws to protect these characteristics in the context of employment (often at a lower employee count). Additionally, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces Title VII, has for years held the position that sex includes sexual orientation and gender identity, and has sued employers for discrimination based on that interpretation.

How companies must react to the decision 

Because of the rulings, laws, and interpretations already in play, most employers have been operating under the assumption that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is or could be found illegal. As a result, today’s rulings should not require most employers to change their policies. But even for companies with an inclusive culture, the ruling should prompt a review of policies and benefits to ensure compliance.

For other companies though, this will mean a significant (and long overdue) rewrite of company policies. A company must treat sexual orientation and gender identity the as gender, race, and national origin, all of which are now required to receive equal treatment under federal law. You cannot fire someone for being gay or transitioning from one gender to another, not can refuse to hire someone because they are gay or transgender. In addition to policy updates and training to comply with the ruling, companies will also need to consider changes to employee benefit plans, including overall benefit offerings, medical plan design, disability plans, and mental health to ensure all are covered under the new ruling protecting LGBTQ rights in the workplace.