When you start a new job, there can be a lot of unknowns. Things like how it will feel during your first month, the everyday ways teams “just work together”, and all the unwritten norms.
We’ve set up our onboarding process to be intentional about answering some of these questions. We want to ensure the smoothest transition for new folks coming into the company. Auvik has a globally distributed workforce, so it’s also set up to best accommodate employees who are operating fully remotely around the world.
I’m the People Programs Specialist on our People team, and I want to share five parts of our onboarding process for new hires at Auvik.
1. Start on a Tuesday.
At Auvik, new hires start on Tuesday. Take the Monday to recharge, so you can come into your first day with a fresh mind. We like to give people a day, especially since many people are just finishing up a role in the prior week.
That said, your onboarding experience with Auvik starts well before your first day. After you’ve signed your offer, you’ll receive a welcome package from us that includes a checklist of what you need to do to set up accounts and complete pre-boarding forms. That way, the admin stuff doesn’t necessarily cloud your first day. Tuesday morning, you’ll join our orientation session. It includes sessions with our People and IT teams and our CEO.
2. Learn about The Auvik Way from our CEO, Marc.
The Auvik Way is our set of principles we all work by. It’s not just empty words.You’ll hear them around, and they act as the framework for our culture. They’re things like shit happens, kindergarten rules apply, and don’t be an asshole.
At every orientation session, our CEO and Co-Founder Marc Morin walks through what they mean, and how you’ll see them in your everyday work at Auvik. You’ll also learn about how we recognize people through our kudos channels and our company-wide weekly meetings.
3. Review the often “unspoken norms” that exist at every workplace.
There are things you want to know when you start a new job, but may feel uncomfortable asking about. Any workplace culture has many unspoken nuances that take a while to pick up. We want to be intentional about it. In our orientation we go over things like:
- How many hours will I work in a week?
- What are the expectations around flexible working hours? What if I’m in a different time zone than ET?
- What communication channels do people typically use for what? (eg. Slack vs. email)
- How can I book time off in the future?
4. Be paired with a buddy.
On your first day, you’ll be paired with someone at Auvik in another department to be your buddy to help make your transition a bit easier. There’s so much we want to tell new hires on their first day, but we understand that information overload is really a thing! Having a go-to person who can share their insights, help you to gain knowledge of other areas of the company and be there to help answer other questions as you get settled in really helps.
We want to be able to foster those cross-functional connections too, especially as we’re in this distributed work environment. You’re going to have that collaboration and check-ins with your team on a daily basis. But being able to meet other people in the organization and build and foster new relationships is also super important.
5. Keep growing—onboarding doesn’t end after your first week.
Onboarding is a journey through your first 30, 60 and 90 days with Auvik. It’s not just a one day or one week event. In this time, you will continue to deepen your knowledge of the company by sitting in on functional sessions with different areas of the business, learning more about what each does and how they fit into Auvik’s goals.
One of the most important relationships you have at work is with your manager. You’ll work with them to understand expectations in the role and what success looks like after 30, 60 and 90 days at Auvik. Our People team has really invested in leadership training with our managers to ensure they’re set up to support employees and understand what growth might look like for each person.
It’s a lot of absorbing and learning when you start a new job! There’s so much we want to tell new hires but it’s about prioritizing what they really need to know upfront. Defining what success in the first few months looks like helps make sure you’re ramping up to your role effectively and have the help and support you need.
6. Making it memorable
What makes my job so amazing is that I get to see the direct impact our programs have on people at Auvik all the time. It feels great when I hear an employee leave their first week saying they felt really welcomed and are reassured they made the right decision joining Auvik.
When Michelle Gauthier, Senior Customer Success Manager, started at Auvik, she could tell from the onboarding that “culture is taken seriously here.” She explained that “it’s these ways that they go above and beyond—to make you feel like you’re valued and recognized no matter what position you’re in.”
Moving to a new job is a big decision that changes what your everyday life looks like. You remember your first day and week at a new job, and we want to make sure your first experience at Auvik is the best it can be.
