Send new hires IT hardware and manuals. Order computers and other hardware remote workers need well ahead of their start date. Confirm they have received all necessary equipment for their work and ask your IT department to assist them with setup, if necessary.
Be creative here. Send them a gift or branded goods, a welcome video that is personally created by the team or something that will give them that WOW factor and be excited to join your company. A “get to know the team” video that covers the likes and interests of the team will hugely help them settle into the team. Also ask them to do a video so the team get to know the new recruit.
You should also create an introduction document for their role. This should include a list of handy tools that your company uses, where they should be downloading apps and any logins/passwords they may need ready for their first day. Let them know the best form of contact for the rest of the team and any current regular meetings you have in place.
Set out and send them a schedule for their first day so they know what to expect.
This is also a great time to include all legal and formal documents (tax, payroll etc). Consider using an e-signature tool, like HelloSign or DocuSign, so that employees can add their signatures digitally and share contracts with you in a secure environment.