Onboarding Remotely.

(Reading time: 5 min.)

Starting a new job can be an overwhelming experience. A new colleague can feel everything from being really nervous to super excited. Therefore, it is key for companies to have a good onboarding process, making new employees feel safe and welcome. However, the current situation with COVID-19 requires us to adjust our mindset towards a new onboarding process.

We have talked to Hedvig von Essen from HR and our new colleague in Stockholm, Simone Slaviero about the experience and learnings from one of our first all remote onboardings.

How has this been different from the usual onboarding process? 

Hedvig: Good onboarding should include preparation, consistent communication, structure and proper follow-up. In that regard, this onboarding was not much different from the usual process. We still had to provide Simone with relevant information and get her on board the right way. It was more a question of how to execute the onboarding in a good way when missing the most essential part; meeting face-to-face and getting to know her new teammates and workplace.

To answer the question, the difference was to get Simone properly onboarded and help her become a part of the team without meeting anyone. And I have to say it would not have been possible without all the remote tools, and the collaborating effort from everyone in our studio – I am very grateful for that.

What did you do to prepare Simone from a distance? 

Hedvig: Our first priority is always to make sure that new employees feel welcome, ready, and prepared; providing them with the necessary equipment ahead of their first day like a computer, phone and so forth. Luckily, with great teamwork, this went by smoothly even though we were not able to meet face-to-face at the office.

We send out personal postcards before a new employee starts to welcome them and let them know how excited we are to have them on board . This felt more relevant than ever, since we are not able to introduce ourselves at the office during these times. Getting close to the first day, I sent out an email with a somewhat full itinerary for her first day with relevant info. This way, Simone got the chance to ask any questions she might have before starting.

Simone: It was really great receiving all startup details and equipment ahead of my first day. This way, I could get everything set up and ready to go. It made me feel a part of Jayway, even before I joined!

Everything has been very organized and open, which made it easy to ask for help if needed. I also had some people to connect with on LinkedIn welcoming me prior to joining, and phone calls with the team to make me feel welcome and prepared.

The personalized handwritten postcard was such a nice gesture and really made me smile – I have it proudly sitting on my desk :-).

So, how was the first day?

Hedvig: Usually, I would give a new colleague a tour around the office. I explain our daily routines, and all the “don’t-want-to-ask-but-wonder-questions” like, how to use the coffee machine, when and where to get lunch. With remote onboarding, we naturally had to skip all the office-related parts.

Instead, we focused on setting up, getting access, and talking about the coming meetings, fun parts, the organization and the people she was going to meet.

First of all, Simone was introduced to our Studio Lead, her “buddy” and our competence communities. Competence development is a big part of our culture and something we care very much about. The communities give all developers and designers at Jayway a network within their own field. Here they can discuss and review solutions, technical issues or ideas. You are not only a part of the local team where you work, but a part of a whole community across 5 different locations and 9 different studios.

Simone: I remember meeting up on virtual hangout with many friendly colleagues from the Stockholm studio the first day. This included eating lunch “together” and Fika (Swedish tradition that includes a cup of coffee and cake). My buddy also gave me a good introduction to Jayway’s culture, including competence development, as Hedvig mentioned. It was quite exciting to learn about the different communities where all the studios come together. We also had some fun trivia planned during the first week. All in all, it was a great first impression!

Hedvig: It has been a high priority for us to find a way to e-meet as many as possible, getting the feeling of the studio in the best possible way. We are always looking for new opportunities to connect online.

What is a buddy? 

Hedvig: Every new person at Jayway gets a buddy who is assigned for them during their onboarding to feel safe and  to whom they can ask all kinds of questions. A buddy will do regular check-ins making sure everything is alright. With remote onboarding, our buddy has done these check-ins more frequently and played a bigger part – which has been great.

Simone: It was super nice to have a buddy to feel more connected to Jayway! We started with daily check-ins, both morning and afternoon. Recently we have adjusted it to ‘whenever needed’. It has been great to get to know each other and share our experiences, whilst knowing I can ask any ‘silly’ question too. I also really feel that everyone at Jayway has been so welcoming that I could easily get in touch with them just the same.

Looking back, how did you experience your 1st week? 

Hedvig: The first two weeks Simone, our Studio Lead, and I had frequent follow-up meetings. During these meetings, we have talked about how she felt, if there were any questions and if she had any feedback on the process or anything else within the studio.

Simone: I felt really welcome and I am grateful to the video conferencing tools that have allowed me to meet so many friendly “Jayway’ers” online. Many reached out to me on Slack or email which was really nice. Again, everything has been very organized and I especially loved the wiki  – it is probably one of the best I have seen in terms of design, content and structure!

Hedvig: Just a short comment on that – Wiki is Jayway’s digital assistant, an online archive where you can find the answer to most of your questions as an employee at Jayway.

Simone: Besides Wiki, I learned a lot from different communities during the first week and immediately felt part of them; they have a nice intimate vibe with everyone getting a chance to openly share their perspectives.

Onboarding and working remotely has certainly included a lot of back-to-back scheduled meetups. Weaving in some ‘breathers’ in between to absorb, getting time to complete some recommended reading and tasks was definitely needed. Therefore, I have started to reduce some check-ins or move some meetings around to allow time to reflect and complete things before moving onto the next.

The first week also had a good dose of fun with a trivia quiz, online Fika, and lunch sessions of “Getting to know Jayway’ers”. We even had a really cool surprise from the Easter bunny and his friendly helper, delivering Easter candy directly to our doors! It was a really fun way to end a great first week at Jayway!

1 month later, what are your reflections?

Simone: I have been very happy with my remote onboarding, from the organizing and sharing of information to introducing and welcoming me to everyone. Now a month later, I already feel part of Jayway and the different competence communities I am subscribed to. It gives me great opportunities to learn, which I love, so I will need to find a way to balance that with working in projects.

It was especially nice to join the remote KHalfday (internal competence day) where I got to learn from other colleagues across studios and explore different concepts, skills, and projects. Although, it was such a shame that we had to cancel the original plan of everyone meeting up in the south of Sweden for the weekend. It is a bit difficult to have discussions as large groups online though I think we still managed it well.

It has been good to discover different perspectives on working remotely. One of the biggest challenges has been presenting on Google Hangouts as it does not allow you to see everyone, or sometimes no one at all! It can make you feel like you’re presenting to a wall especially with everyone keeping their microphones on mute to keep white noise to a minimum. Although I have now discovered a Chrome extension to work around that and enable split screen, I think it is hard to beat the real thing – presenting to people, in person.

Finally, I would say that there were many scheduled back-to-back meetings in the beginning which could be spread out more over the first week or two. Though I do really appreciate having them scheduled to begin with since I would not know at first who to get in touch with. Now I feel that I have a good balance between scheduled and spontaneous meetings. I always feel like I can reach out to anyone, and it is nice having others like Hedvig (HR) and the Studio Lead doing the same.

From an HR perspective, what are the learnings from this remote onboarding?

Hedvig: I think we have learned a lot from this experience. Of course we would have liked to meet Simone at the office, but since that was not an option we had to make the best out of a strange situation. A big plus was that we had a lot of contact before she started which made it more natural for our first remote meeting. In short, this is what we have learned: