Starting a New Job in the Pandemic – Tips for Success

As part of the “Great Resignation”, there are millions of people starting new jobs remotely every month. If you are one of them, how can you be successful? Having worked remotely prior to the pandemic and now two months into my new role, I’ve found the following tips helpful in getting up to speed.?

1.?Be Helpful to Your Manager and Seek Feedback Often?

Most of us know that this is the relationship that will make or break your career, especially in a new company. Focus on how you can create value for your manager and customers. This is true if you get a new manager in the pandemic as well. It is challenging to have to prove yourself to someone new, so it is easier if you offer help to your manager. Do you know if you are working the priorities that are the most critical to your manager? You can proactively ask to help with those priorities. Also, you need to know how you are doing as a new hire. Giving feedback outside of performance review cycles may not be natural to every manager, however, as a new employee or if you have a new manager, it is critical to ask for it regularly.

2.?Get to Know People – Upward, Downward, and Across

This might be a no-brainer. You need to know people across the organization to help you get up to speed. Some employees get too focused on networking upward with senior leaders and ignore the importance of establishing relationship with peers or team members. Your manager should be able to provide guidance on key players to meet during your early days. Internal networking can be challenging in a remote setting so you have to more intentional in creating and maintaining connections with your new colleagues. In a recent interview, I talked about the "Random Connect" PayPal uses to foster connections between employees. By leveraging technology and being intentional about building your internal network, you can set yourself up for success as a new hire. ????

3.??Have Intellectual Humility

Just because an approach worked at your former company doesn’t mean it will work at your new company. The reality is, no matter where you came from, no one likes to hear what they have been doing is wrong. Having humility means staying open-minded about what will work at your new employer. It does not mean your prior experience should be forgotten, but you need to mindful of how much historic context you may be missing in your current role to understand how an approach may or may not work. Intellectual humility is fundamentally the recognition that what you believe in might in fact be wrong and being curious about your blind spots.

4. Understand the Culture

Do you know how decisions are made? Do you understand the meeting culture? Do teams have core meeting hours? Is the video always on? Do participants use the raise-hand feature or jump in and talk over others? Do you know the communication norms? How polished should the presentations be? Who sends the presentations to leaders and who gets copied on the email? The list of questions goes on. You will learn more by observation and listening as new hire, and you can ask your manager, mentor, or onboarding buddy to help you as well. Understanding the culture will help you know what behaviors are expected and what will make you successful.??????

5.?Assess the Talent on Your Team and Create a Psychologically-Safe Environment ??

As a people manager, you should assess the talent on the team and understand the capability gaps in your early days. Depending on your assessment results, you may want to quickly create specific develop plans for each of your team members or you may choose to hire externally to complement the current team. Another critical aspect as a people manager is to create a psychologically-safe environment where your team feels comfortable speaking up and raising issues without fear of negative consequences. Your ability to do this well will help you see and hear problems early. Building a psychologically-safe environment is also important to fostering a sense of inclusion and belonging on the team. ???

Starting a new job in the pandemic does not have to be daunting. These five tips can help you be successful as a new hire. What resonates with you? What else have you found helpful if you did start a new job in the pandemic?

For other articles I’ve written, check out:

• A Summer of Breakups?
• Navigating Career Crossroads - Three Questions to Ask Yourself
• People Analytics Career - Do’s and Don’ts
• Use HR Tech and People Analytics to Shape Your Post-Covid Workplace Strategy
• What Can Organizations Do to Help Employees Improve their Mental and Emotional Well-being?

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?Dr. Serena Huang is currently the Global Head of People Analytics & HR Technology at PayPal. She is a thought leader in people analytics, HR technology, digital transformation, future of work, and employee experience with deep expertise spanning large multinationals including GE, Koch Industries, Kraft Heinz, and Deloitte. Her recent interviews appeared on People Matters,?Data Chief podcast,?HR Leaders podcast,?Workforce.com?and?Rallyware.

Follow her on LinkedIn here:?https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/serenahhuangphd/

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