On-Boarding Remotely: Lessons from a COVID New Starter.

Starting a new role is hard. Starting a new role from home, with the whole organisation remote working, is really tough. These are my 13 top tips on surviving and thriving while on-boarding remotely.  

I am lucky to have started an exciting new role in the current climate and it is a privilege to be able to work from home, doing a job that means a lot to me. Starting right - getting inducted well and making an impact quickly - is thus even more important to me.

I am a massive fan of Niamh O'Keeffe's 'Your First 100 Days' plan for on boarding. I have used it for my last few roles and I have used it again for this one. It has helped me create a vision of what the business needs from me and thus what I need to do in my induction period to start right. The most important lesson I have taken from this is that a successful transition is dependent on good planning. Firstly, knowing what to do to wrap up the current role well and thus mentally moving on. Then secondly, knowing how to assimilate quickly to a new role and deliver the impact promised at interview.

To start well remotely, needed more planning than usual. Two months in now, some aspects have gone well and others have been harder than expected. Here are thirteen things I have learned about remote on-boarding and two things I am still trying to fathom:

Before you start - Get Organised.

I am a firm believer that induction is the post holder's responsibility. Yes, the business is invested in my performance, but ultimately it is my reputation and my future career that is on the line if I do not make a success of a role – that is very motivating. I made the most of the time I had between roles, to rest and get prepared. The key things I would recommend are: 

1.      Write an obituary: Take the time to review what is expected of the role. Then understand the business and the market it is constituent in, and thus what you need to do to succeed. Based on this learning, write an obituary – know what you want to say in your leaving speech a few years from now. If you know where you want to go, it’s easier to start right.

2.      Define your leadership brand. My brilliant coach Carla Miller helped me think through the leadership requirement for this role before I went to interview. I reviewed this when I was preparing to start and listed what actions I would need to take to deliver that leadership. 

3.      Write a 100 day plan. Knowing what I wanted to achieve and what kind of leader I wanted to be enabled me to think through what I wanted to do in my first 100 days. This included what I needed to learn, who I needed to meet and what success-scaffolding I needed in place. Niamh O'Keeffe's template for this is brilliant.

4.      Have a virtual cuppa with your new manager. I am so glad I had time with my new manager and one of my team before I started my role. This gave me an opportunity to get up to speed on the urgent tasks and big events in my first weeks.

5.      Know what tech the organisation uses and get to know it before you start. My new organisation uses Jabber. It means I can quickly and informally contact anyone in the organisation. It has been invaluable as a new starter. I saved a lot of time and stress by being up and running on this from my first day. 

Day One - Show up as a leader

6.      Have a full IT Induction. I did not leave the IT helpdesk and hop on a train home on my first morning until I knew I had everything I needed, had checked passwords and had the direct line phone number of the IT advisor who helped me.

7.      Make sure you have a full organogram - full names and job titles. I have laminated my version and still use it every day. I also have found a corporate acronym list invaluable.  

8.      Then show up as a leader. I spent much of my first day reaching out to people and setting up induction meetings. I knew whom to contact because I had thought it through before I started. The acting post holder and I had agreed in advance how our handover would work – we communicated this on my first day. This enabled us to give the team some immediate clarity.

Week One - Start Building relationships.

9.      Recreate the office vibe. With no opportunity for good mornings, chats in the kitchen and bumping into people in the lift, my first priority was to get to know the people I was working closely with. My first meetings with team members were more about getting to know them, what they needed and how everyone was managing with the second national lockdown. I reached out to peers and I joined other team meetings to meet people. 

10.  Know how to communicate. Remote working means appropriate communication channels are critical. I made understanding how communication - formal and informal - works a priority for my first week.

Month One - Get to know the organisation

11. Reach out - I gradually introduced myself to a larger and larger network of people in my company and across the governments we work with. With no natural opportunities for meeting, this has had to be done one personal email at a time.

12. Get to know the culture – I find the hardest part of transition is acting within the unspoken rules. I asked about culture in the majority of my induction meetings and then used this to adapt my approach.

13. Virtual meetings are you friend. I have been able to sit in on board and C-Suite meetings as a virtual observer – I doubt I would have had these opportunities so quickly if I were starting in the office. Ask about what you can join to help you learn quickly.

Months Two and Beyond

Six weeks in (and time off for Christmas) and I am really enjoying the challenge of starting a new role. I still have lots to learn, and many of the above steps need repeating to ensure I have the understanding and relationships I need across the organisation and with external stakeholders. The planning I did about the role has served me well – it has helped me prioritise and systematically working through my plans has given me confidence.

I have two ongoing induction challenges in this remote environment. Firstly, have I misunderstood? With no body language to read, it is very difficult to know if I have gauged things correctly.  I am finding summing up conversations and checking that I have done so accurately, helpful. I am asking to be corrected if I do get something wrong and checking when I think I have misunderstood.  

The second challenge is pace and work scheduling. Some aspects of the role are zipping ahead faster than I had expected. Others aspects are more challenging - especially as we are all now dealing with another national lockdown and home schooling.  Getting the balance right will continue to be a juggle and require ongoing consultation. 

I have certainly found remote on boarding a test, but thinking about it as a unique leadership challenge and adapting my approach to induction has made it more manageable and enjoyable.  I am really looking forward to eventually meeting my colleagues and it will be exciting to see how the role changes when the world opens back up. Until then, I am feeling pretty lucky to be working with great people, in an exciting role and still being able to have dinner with my daughter every evening.