Make your remote appraisals, onboarding and offboarding a success

Storyblok is a new and rapidly growing company that provides CMS products to brands such as Adidas and Pizza Hut. It is also wholly remote: its 100-odd staff work from 29 different countries. From a talent-sourcing perspective, this approach has been a huge benefit. They literally have an entire world of candidates available to them, while being able to keep overheads low. But it does mean that more thought has to be given to how its people are managed, appraised and developed.

These are issues that many organisations and managers have suddenly found themselves dealing with since the beginning of the pandemic. Having been forced into a remote-only environment, they have had to figure out a workable approach to onboarding, appraisals and exit interviews.

Results have been mixed: remote offboarding can lead to a lack of closure, while missing cues and technology mishaps may prevent employees from feeling comfortable to share issues they are experiencing with their manager in an appraisal.

Storyblok has put a great deal of careful planning and consideration into their processes, and a clear process that takes into account the virtual environment is crucial, says Storyblok’s VP of operations, Lydia Kothmeier. Communication in particular requires a lot of thought: “You need to give context when you communicate. How can you connect in front of a camera? If you keep in mind that the person who is on screen is a real person, and you take an active interest in them as a human being, it's possible to get the connection.”