Welcome To The Team - Now Go Home: Tips for Onboarding During a Pandemic
The weekend before my first day I was dotting all my i’s and crossing my t’s. I made sure my mom was all set with her new schedule, helping my husband and I watch our one and a half year old son. I had already run through what the day would look like in my head. My husband and I discovered that we lived close enough to my new office that I could even walk to work on what were to be beautiful spring days, just to switch things up! I was looking forward to going to a workplace, having a desk outside of my home office, putting on clothes that wouldn’t be considered yoga mom attire, and of course meeting the TSM team. But, it seems the universe had others plans. Not just for me, but for the entire country. My first two days in the office turned out to be among to my last few days in the office for quite some time.
When starting a new a company there are some things you kind of expect during the onboarding process. For instance, getting familiar with the office, learning where things are and who’s roles are what, discovering what my daily responsibilities look like, and learning all the software programs used for day to day work. However, no one saw a worldwide pandemic, Covid-19, being a part of my onboarding process.
On day one, along with learning the day-to-day of the office and routines, the entire team was forced into a conversation about what work looks like in a Covid-19 world, and how do they bring on a new employee? So here is what I learned and advice we can pass on to onboarding new employees in the middle of a pandemic.
Speed Up to Slow down - 6 Tips to Onboard New Employees Virtually
Create an onboarding virtual board - At TSM we use Asana and my board had employment information, a list of key files and how they were organized, videos on all of our tools and how to use them, passwords, etc. Each card had a person responsible that I could go to for answers, an estimated time it would take me to go through it, and a prioritization.
Virtual Get-to-know-yous - I got the quick overview of all the important daily, weekly, monthly processes and then we all immediately went virtual. The team members each scheduled time with me one on one to catch up share their job duties and how my position could interact. It was helpful to have the one-on-one time.
Icebreakers - I know we all grown a bit tired of these but spending more time to do ice breakers and get to know you activities is vital with new team members.
Lunch Breaks - TSM gathers for lunch-only events every two weeks - these are no work talk allowed completely social check-ins. This has helped me be part of the team and get to know everyone. We heard of another client who opened a break room zoom call that anyone can dive into at any point in the day!
Regular Check-ins - Since casual check-ins about work and performance and duties don’t happen as easy virtually, Sarah and I have a formal check-in each week where we review my work load and prioritization and chat about gaps in onboarding.
Slack - This tool is as new as I am to the TSM team but being able to catch up and chat online, send funny thoughts, and the encouragement to send pictures of your kids being crazy in the #random channel has helped me feel more part of the team and getting to know everyone’s humor through their use of giphy has been an added bonus.
Recap
This time working from home is forcing me to really dive in to my role and better prepare me for the day we are back in the office, socializing and back to business as (the new) usual. TSM’s mission is to help companies and people adapt to change. This is one thing I knew they were great at before I ever even applied. So, I knew that although this was going to be touch-and-go for a little while, I would be fine. I had a team that teaches change management and helps others navigate the unexpected. I was it good hands. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but it wasn’t going to be hard.