3 Ways Savvy New Hires are making Remote Onboarding a Success
I had the very happy experience recently of tuning into a final career coaching session with one of my #jobsearchcopilot clients. I could hear it in her voice before Zoom had even connected our cameras. She had got the job.
After a serendipitously timed interview prep session the week before, she was called to arrange an interview, and only hours later was offered the job. Not wanting to miss a beat in offering value for our session, I pivoted from a planned assessment of the state of play in her thoughts, feelings and actions around her job search, and rather to her thoughts, feelings and actions around starting a new role. From home. After a career break.
After breaking down the offer in terms of remuneration, connection to her career goals, and opportunity for her to truly work from her mission statement through the employer, we turned to onboarding.
"I am a bit worried" she said. Beginning any new job is naturally slightly angsty, and without the benefit of learning via osmosis onsite, not knowing whether we're on track with employer expectations and style just adds to the stress. Onboarding, whether in person or done remotely, is a key opportunity for employers and employees to set the tone for the rest of their career journey together. "Is it ok for me to ask them this?" Yes, it totally is. Here are 3 ways savvy new employees are taking advantage of this new frontier to own their career for years:
Invitation - If we do not share our thoughts, others will assume them, and in a remote working environment with new tasks and new people, there simply is not enough information available to be making assumptions. Being proactive in sharing openly with your manager what you need and asking them to do the same creates a runway for communication around expectations, feedback, and questions.
Identification - Lots of things attract us to a role beyond the tasks associated with it. We love the culture of an organisation, the work they do in pursuing their mission, and the cross exposure they have in different forums and with different organisations. We know that when an employee's career mission is aligned to the work of their employer, the result is a culture of resilience, loyalty and support. Literally putting a hand up to say "I like this", "I'd love to help with this", "down the track, once I'm achieving my KPIs, I'd be really interested in training on this as well", and "how did this project come about?" show added investment in the work of the business as a whole. It demonstrates a connection between the role the employee is settling into, the employee's conditions of career fulfilment, and the organisation's goals.
Reflection - At the end of the day, week, and month, even if the employer is not prompting them to do so, savvy new hires are making mental notes on what worked and what could have been made better. This relates to areas they own as well as those of their employer, and finding constructive and respectful ways to ask for change where it will make a difference, and to notice where within themselves they could change as well. This is key in practicing alternative perspectives. When we know some employees are losing sleep over the tone of an email #ahri, reflecting on what we really know about an experience vs the story we are telling ourselves, frees us from the burden of misplaced grudges.
Trial and error, with thoughtful, curious questions and a safe arena for feedback are how employees and employers both are making remote onboarding work. A bonus fourth strategy savvy new hires adopt is granting themselves permission to be bad at something for a while. This is not to be mistaken with complacency, quite the opposite. We cannot get good a something we are not willing to be bad at and struggle with first. Like a pushup, we could cheat on form so it looks like we are keeping pace, but in the long run, we only get better and doing things by halves, and an employer will not thank you for it. A condition of loving your career for years is that you are an active participant in how you experience employment, from day one.
All the good stuff,
Lydia