An on-boarding experience in a very different world!

In July of this year we were able to sign off the 3 month probation period for four new members of the Pega Development Team, and we were able to fully welcome Rajeevan Vijayakumar, Adam Shawcross, Jacob Eddison and Christopher Burns to TalkTalk. Of course they had already been part of the team for this induction period and had been working towards some interim objectives to enable us to confirm their successful on-boarding.

Now, I’m sure around our business and many other organisations there have been similar experiences for other new starters who have gone through this process, and I can hear you say what is extraordinary about that?

This year has been the most challenging, eventful and difficult year any of us could ever imagine, and for new starters it must be a truly unusual experience.

For example, none of our new people have ever set foot in our offices in Salford; they have worked remotely in places as far away as Glasgow & London; they have never met in person, any member of our team and they have never attended an interview/induction session, socially, with any other colleagues at TalkTalk!

All of their tasks and development has been conducted whilst they and their support network are working in remote locations, and all training and knowledge share has been carried out using MS Teams, shared documentation and other means of communication that has been designed to enable them to get up to speed with their new role. We didn’t know how this unusual induction was going to work either and so we created an action plan based on essential learnings and tried to focus their initial objectives on creating both an incredibly supportive environment, but also targeting their capability on key application knowledge. We also created a buddy system for them, and I want to acknowledge the role that these colleagues played as it was an important component in the development for our new people. By having people act as an immediate point of contact to coach and direct them proved to be something that enabled our new starters feel engaged with their remote colleagues. I also want to acknowledge the role we created of a technical mentor who assisted me in creating the targeted development plan and his subsequent help and support throughout their assignments was critical to the progress they made.

Such was our uncertainty on how this approach would even work we initially set an objective that our four new team members wouldn’t be productive in their development assignments until a third Release Cycle, which for anyone who doesn’t know that is approx. 18 weeks. Remember that in that time they would have to become familiar with a coding principle that they had little experience of, they would need to learn the applications they would be working on and also understand the ways of working here at TalkTalk, all of which have varying degrees of complexity. In addition to that they were required to playback to others the knowledge and understanding they had gained and they would also need to build relationships with their new team, all done virtually and remotely of course. Further to this they have their own experiences of living through these extraordinary times and we placed a significant emphasis on their wellbeing by keeping in touch and having some personal check in meetings where they could let us know how this experience was for them.

What is more remarkable about this experience is that rather than hit the target of being productive and delivering tasks in 18 weeks, they actually started to be productive after approx 11 weeks in the second Release Cycle, some 6 weeks ahead of schedule!

All four of them have applied themselves with enthusiasm, commitment and a hunger to learn and they have pushed themselves to take on more work throughout their on-boarding. They have been tenacious and determined to succeed and I really admire the willingness they have shown to make as much progress as they have.

If anyone had asked me that this is where we would be when we started this induction for them, I probably wouldn’t have believed it as even I was uncertain how it would work for them. But don’t just take my word for it here is what they have said about their journey thus far at TalkTalk.

Christopher Burns “Overall I’d say the experience onboarding with TalkTalk was a good one. The onboarding process and training schedule were planned out well in advance, and so we managed to get prepared for doing real work in a reasonable timeframe while never feeling like we were being overworked. There was also constant support from the buddies, team leads, and other team members if any issues arose”.

Adam Shawcross “Whilst no road you ever travel is smooth, it is those you meet along the way that make the journey what it is. That’s exactly why our time onboarding at TalkTalk was as smooth as it was, the people. The team were immense in their willingness to share their time and knowledge. It helped nurture what could have been a frustrating process into a good one.”

Rajeevan Vijayakumar “The support provided for onboarding remotely in these strange times was exceptional. There was a clear yet flexible plan in place to allow us to gain the necessary knowledge that was required for us embed into the team and start working. The help provided by team leads and buddies to aid us in the process was second to none and truly, the only downside was that it was not done in person but remotely.”

Jacob Eddison ““I was impressed by how smooth the onboarding process was given the circumstances, there was a well laid out plan giving us enough work to do without feeling overwhelmed and the support from everyone was great especially the buddies.”

I want to say a huge thank you to Raj, Adam, Jacob and Chris for their patience and attitude in making themselves successful since they joined, and again a huge thank you to their buddies and everyone else who has enabled them to become so effective, so quickly.

When TalkTalk looks back on this crazy year I think that the induction, onboarding and support it has offered to new employees should be one of our highlights and we should all feel incredibly proud that we have made this experience so positive, despite the challenges we all face.