How do you tackle onboarding while working from home? Some of the Tribe team share their experience and advice on welcoming a new team member.
Head of Business Support, Cathi Thomson, turned the tables on Ellie Carter and interviewed her about starting at Tribe while working from home.
- What were your initial thoughts about New Zealand going into Level 4 lockdown and the impact on your role?
The announcement came the week before I was due to start my new role at Tribe. I was incredibly nervous that I was going to receive the call telling me I no longer had a job. Instead, the call I received was about going to the office to collect my equipment! I started my first day with all my logins ready to go and it was one of the smoothest inductions I’ve had!
- How did Tribe handle your onboarding?
I had a call first thing with my manager before jumping on Zoom to meet the rest of my team. Across my first week, I also had welcome introductions with all the team leads where they would run through who and what they recruited for. Throughout the whole pandemic, Tribe has been completely transparent about the impact it has had on the business so there have been no surprises, which eases anxiety in such a difficult time.
- How did you navigate and build relationships within your team?
Every morning we would have a Zoom team catch up where we would run through the plan for the day and also talk about what we had for dinner and watched on Netflix. Even though we weren’t together in person, I was able to bond with my team really well. No one was ever too busy to help me if I was stuck or had a question. As a business, we also did Friday drinks and daily Zoom workouts together, so there was always something to look forward to!
- What have you learnt from your experience of starting a new job during this time?
I have learnt to be even more flexible and be open to jumping in wherever is needed. Instead of it being about personal/team targets, everyone really came together to run towards one big goal, which was to not lose any staff. We succeeded in this and now go into the second lockdown with even more confidence to tackle it.
- Any tips for others starting a new job in similar circumstances?
Unexpected things happen which can throw everything you had planned out the window, but get to know your team and support each other and you’ll get through it!
Supply Chain lead, Dan Percival, asked his candidate, Saeyorn, to share his experience of job hunting while in lockdown - yes, it can be done!
I want to thank Dan and the team Tribe for my new role. Recruitment and interviewing in itself is a process, but mine was very interesting given the timing. I had been in the market for a role that was the right fit functionally, commercially, industry-wise and culturally for a wee while. So when a role came up with a few ticks, I contacted Dan and got the ball rolling - this was just a few days before lockdown v1. Over the next few months, as we went through the different stages of lockdown and its challenges, I had various calls/texts/MS team chats and interviews before coming out of lockdown to a final face-to-face interview. It all ended really well for me, with a role that ticked all my boxes and dare I say, a dream job.
Lockdown was a challenging time for many and for Dan to ensure things kept progressing whilst all parties were working through heightened workloads is a credit to him. Thank you for the support through this process and here's to hoping you can keep others supported in the same way during this round of lockdown.
Victor, a candidate of Tribe's Digital, Data & Tech lead, Sarah White, shares his perspective.
I found my recruitment process during the different levels of the COVID-19 lockdown simple and smoother than expected. I was in the initially daunting, but ultimately successful, position of searching for a role during a global pandemic which had a material impact on the bottom line of most businesses.
My experience highlighted some important things to me:
- Even though the NZ and global economy had taken a significant hit which meant that more business were under financial pressure and there were more potential candidates searching, there were still businesses looking to invest to grow in the right areas, and thus fantastic opportunities for those with the requisite skills, experience and temperament to navigate this new normal
- The fact that high quality connectivity technology was now democratised to the extent that I could have meaningful conversations and interactions for a senior role while sitting in my home, with no incremental cost or effort required
- Businesses were prepared to invest time and money during this period to not only recruit, but also to onboard new starters
- Tribe had pivoted quickly and seamlessly to ensure the connections they had with employers and job seekers were still of its normal high quality, and robust enough for employers to make major people investments during this time
If you have a plan and are prepared to stick to it through the ups and downs, there are still many great opportunities to be found.
