Remote Onboarding: A Personal Experience
This year the coronavirus pandemic has changed the world as we know it. For a while, everything stood still. For me, it was the moment when I graduated from university and entered the full-time professional world. But how do you successfully start a new job while staying at home? Here is an insight into my first weeks.
Just graduated… now what?
In 2020, I was in the same situation and state of uncertainty as many other students who had just graduated from university. Luckily, I received a job offer that was just right for me — at Wayfair. But the next uncertainty followed hot on its heels: What would a fully remote onboarding look like? Would it be possible to get to know my colleagues if everyone had to stay at home? And would I be able to get the support I needed in a work-from-home situation?
These are questions many other new employees are also dealing with. Some questions can only really be answered as time goes by. Others are more dependent on the individual company’s adaptability. Many tech companies already have the infrastructure they need for remote work, and most employees have their own laptops, but that doesn’t mean that every organisation loves the idea behind home office. It’s not just a matter of tech and infrastructure, but developing new strategies in this exceptional situation to make not just remote work successful, but also virtual onboarding.
First day at work — time to stay at home!
Starting a new job is usually overwhelming, regardless of whether you begin in the office or at home. As a new employee, you hope to feel part of the company, its culture, and your team as quickly as possible and most importantly, to develop the necessary skills to work independently and productively. Excited and curious about the process that awaited me, I started my position as DE Copywriter in the Creative Team at Wayfair.
I was able to pick up my equipment from the office before my first week, so I was ready to go. The beginning was as predicted: overwhelming. Everything seemed incredibly complicated and with lots to digest — even more so as I was at home by myself and not surrounded by new colleagues.
In a normal onboarding situation, of course, it also takes time to learn which person is responsible for what and how to best communicate with them. Remotely, I assumed this would take longer. Yet with every virtual meeting and every task one of my many question marks slowly disappeared. Numerous online presentations and shared files and documents provided me with a clearer overall picture. Very soon it became apparent how closely people work together on projects and how important it is to stay in constant communication — especially while working from home.
Tools support, coffee connects
Online functions such as screen sharing in virtual meetings and shared drive folders with documents accessed and updated in real-time made the onboarding process much easier. I could immediately follow where other people were working when they were working. This sped up the work process, but also provided a great introduction for a new team member like me. I could understand how work was being done and where to find relevant documents a lot faster.
So-called “Coffee Dates”, i.e. video calls with team members and other stakeholders who work closely together with our team, proved to be extremely helpful as well. The moments where I would casually run into someone in the kitchen preparing a cup of coffee were missing and with them the chance to get to know my colleagues personally as well as professionally. As simple as it might seem, virtual chats were an important part of my onboarding process, giving me the chance to get an impression of all the different personalities that make up Wayfair’s diverse teams.
How teams grow together virtually
Over the summer months, it was possible for our team to meet outside or in cafés from time to time, either to work together or to strengthen the team spirit during our “pod-outings”. This was a piece of luck that allowed me to actually meet in real life the faces off screens that had already become so familiar to me. What was it like? It was comparable to knowing a celebrity from TV and then suddenly see them walking down the street — a strange but funny feeling.
When we didn’t have the chance to meet up in person, our team events had to get creative. Luckily, in response to the pandemic, there’s an increasing amount of entirely remote (and often funny) team event ideas and possibilities online. Some examples that we’ve already tested or are excited to try out include:
- Gnocchi cooking course
- Online Trivia Quiz
- Taco evening
- Virtual Escape Room
- A guide to making Pastéis de Nata
- Origami lessons
- Coffee Masterclass
- A virtual tour of Pompeii
- Sign language classes
Whatever brings a team together and improves our teamwork is definitely worth trying out.
See you in the office next year?
It’s likely that the state of the world — and as a result, our current working life — will remain unchanged for some time to come. In the interim, it will be interesting to see how companies and their teams can adapt and successfully train new team members.
The period of working from home seems like it will never end. But it’s the small things and fun initiatives that create enthusiasm and optimism even in a less ideal situation. Onboarding and complete integration in a new working environment might take longer than usual when it happens remotely, but ultimately it depends on how hard you and everyone involved try to make it a success.
Whether you are looking for a job yourself or need to strengthen your own team, with the right approach, remote onboarding can be just as successful as a traditional in-person experience. Only three months after I started at Wayfair, I already feel warmly welcomed as part of the team and my confidence in my own tasks is growing stronger every day. Plus, when it rains cats and dogs, staying at home is not so bad after all. ;)
