It is natural to have first day jitters when you start a new job: new office, new colleagues, but... what happens when you have to start remotely due to Covid-19? Here is how my first week at Gigapay.co has been like.
Covid 19 has negatively impacted many industries, and whilst some companies like Airbnb have had to let go 25% of their employees– almost 2000 people, there are others like Gigapay.co that are continuously growing, and as a result, I am their latest hire.
Gigapay is getting attraction from the major gig-platforms in Sweden. In order to cope with its exponential growth, they needed someone with sales experience. So, that's where I come in, but I never thought how strange it would be to onboard remotely.
When you last started a new job, you probably remember how talking with your colleagues in the kitchen while you made a coffee was a great way to socialize, and a good way for your colleagues to get to know you better. Now I only see my new colleagues faces via my laptop’s screen a couple of hours a day. As strange as it may sound, thanks to video conferencing from home, I have discovered a part of them that in normal circumstances would have taken years to unveil.
Even if it is not the first time you start a new job, the fact that you don't have your colleagues near you, complicates things a bit. It means you can't get immediate answers to those hundreds of questions you have during the first days, and it is impossible to bond in the same way, with your new office mates. However, we have a great tool called Slack which has facilitated my onboarding quite a lot. It probably saved my colleagues some time without annoying questions like “how does the coffee machine work?” or “what is the alarm code for the office?”.
Now, even if you use Slack, if the company you are starting at, doesn't have a good company culture, you will have a hard time understanding how things work. Trust me.
The reason why I say this, is because everytime I have had to ask a question, the team has immediately answered, and I see how a lot of them have made an effort to assist me in the tiniest things. This can only be achieved with a strong company culture.
Knowing how much they have on their plate, I have really appreciated their help, so if you are onboarding from home too, don’t forget to show respect for their time and appreciation when somebody helps you– and don’t forget the fiesta parrot emoji if you use Slack!
Another important factor to take into account is being a parent. Due to Covid-19, I can't take my son to kindergarten, which means that even if he is normally a well behaved kid, our team conferences sometimes get interrupted when my son decides to make loud dinosaur-like sounds. This has been a short cut to finding out how my colleagues are very supportive in these situations. So thanks to my son, I have had a good way to break the ice with the team. It actually was a great way to make everybody laugh during these unprecedented business times.
This is an example of a situation I would have never had to go through at the office. Now, thanks to onboarding from home, I know they all are very understanding of these things– I am lucky to be part of a team of good people!
Last but not least, and to describe the more technical aspect of what has made my onboarding easier, it has been Hubspot's tutorials on how to use their CRM system. I am a former Salesforce user and switching to a new CRM system is tough when you don't have a neighbour colleague to interrupt and ask questions about how to use it.
So another good piece of advise for those who are considering a job switch during Corona-times, would be to make sure your new employer has video tutorials to teach everything related to the CRM system they use. This is great because if you forget how to use any of the features (which you will, during the first weeks) you can always go back and play the videos again and the rest of their employees can focus on their work. If your new employer doesn’t have these videos, there are thousands of tutorials on Youtube, so I am sure you will get some help there too.
I would like to finish by saying a massive thank you to the Gigapay team for welcoming me to their Gigafamily! and if you are starting a new job now, don't be afraid of asking 1 million questions on slack, emails or calls, because people are, in general, very understanding of the situation, and your priority now is to do a good job so, go for it!.
I will share with you more of my Gigapay journey in our blog, but in the meantime, if you are interested in getting in contact, you can reach me here:
andrea@gigapay.co
