How many of you have joined a new company and onboarded while remote? How was it for you?
So many people I have coached in the last 2 years that have newly joined a company and have not yet met their teammates nor their manager live yet.
It all seems great – work from home. Get laundry done. Don’t have to fight traffic. Work for a company whose headquarters is on the other side of the country. Don’t need to move. Work in your pajamas.
It’s the life, right?
But many I’ve coached have had trouble onboarding. If you’ve onboarded in a remote setting, have you:
Felt the difficulty of getting to know teammates.
Had trouble prioritizing and getting work done.
Had a manager who seemed to micromanage them, needing to know daily progress in detail.
Had trouble finding help, not knowing who to go to with a question.
And yet others who are on the team don’t seem to have this problem.
What gives?
It turns out that they have something you don’t. RELATIONSHIP. Prior to the pandemic, they worked together for years, and often in a traditional office. Going remote for them wasn’t a big deal.
For you, the new person, it’s a 1000x HARDER while remote only.
How do you get to know team members when they are just video boxes on the screen?
How do you do the equivalent of “walking down the aisle of cubicles to ask a question” while you’re at home?
How do you assure your team lead and manager that you are working and that you’re not watching Netflix all day long?
And so on…
Remote working has some great benefits. However, work must also change especially for those who are joining a company for the first time in a remote work way.
Companies can do a lot more to help make the onboarding experience to a remote job much better.
Some of the solutions my clients have found:
Being proactive in asking for opportunities to connect along with specific introductions.
Leveraging Zoom coffee breaks and lunches.
Asking to be assigned officially mentors and work partners.
Putting in extra effort to communicate, and with non-text channels.
Requesting budget and time for travel to meet up with remote teammates regularly.
And many more.
If you’re a remote worker newly onboarded to a job, what solutions have you found to help you integrate into the company?
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