This blog was written by Amanda Thompson, the Chief Operating Officer at Setup.

I accepted my job offer at Setup  on March 3, 2020 to start on March 23rd.

By then, COVID-19 was already on the rise and, while others were beginning to learn of furloughs and layoffs, I felt lucky that my company wanted me to start as planned, albeit 100% remotely now. I had friends wondering out loud, "How on earth did you get a job offer and start a new job during a global pandemic/economic crisis?" All I could say is that I tend to do things a bit differently than most, and this new job scenario is no exception. 

But after a few weeks of being in my new role, I received the occasional update on LinkedIn, like “Congratulate Jeffrey K. Rohrs for starting a new position as Chief Marketing Officer at Jobvite,” then another, then another, and so on. Okay, so maybe I’m not as unique as I thought, and that’s a great thing! 

I reached out to several of those contacts to ask about their experiences starting a new job during these strange times.

I spoke to Jeffrey Rohrs, CMO at Jobvite, Kelly Martin, Client Success Manager at thoughtbot, LaNell Nelson, Advertising Operations Manager at The Olympic Channel (under the IOC) and Christina Benaza, Director of Business Development at Xpedition Media. Here’s a taste of what the five of us have seen and learned.

Finding a new job during a health + economic crisis

The truth is that the five of us had initial conversations/interviews before COVID-19 became what it is today. Conversations started in January/February, and job offers were extended in March. We are lucky – our roles are still needed despite the lifestyle and economic changes.

Starting a new job remotely

I, like most others who have a sit-in-front-of-a-computer job, have enjoyed pockets of working from home in every job I have held over the past ~ten years. 

In the past, an ideal structure for starting was to: 

• At first, be in the office as much as possible. I usually take this time during the first few months to get to know the company, people, role and expectations.

• After that point, I’m at my most productive if I can balance 3-4 days in the office to collaborate, hold face-to-face meetings and stay connected.

• I then enjoy the occasional 1-2 days working from home to focus on thinking, writing, strategy and creativity. 

That ideal structure was over before it started during the pandemic. I would have to figure out how to learn all those expectations and get to know people through screens and emails.

Everyone I spoke to has also worked remotely previously in his/her career. But even if a job were always intended to be remote, you’d initially start with an intense onboarding in person. 

Because of the current status of the world, none of us had that luxury. 

How can leaders of companies help onboard new employees/replicate the “special” and intentional office moments?

#1 - Enforce culture-specific meetings. 

I felt strange waking up on my first day of the new job and not having an office to go to. Our team at Setup  has daily stand-up meetings, and now they’re on video. On my first day, we had an extended stand-up so I could chat to get to know everyone. We use Slack to stay connected and update each other on initiatives, and the first Slack message I saw was this:

I loved this “sign.” It served as a stand-in for a sign they might have had up at the office on my first day walking in the door. We had a “Welcome Amanda” lunch that week, which was of course virtual and BYOL (bring your own lunch). We shared personal stories and did all the things you’d normally do at a welcome lunch, all while sitting in our own homes and eating our own homemade lunches.

#2 - Facilitate a team welcome and introductions.

Christina’s team had her fill out a questionnaire a few days before her start date to answer some personal questions like “What’s your favorite restaurant in LA?”. On her Day 1, she had multiple deliveries to her apartment – her work laptop, company swag, goodies to snack on – all making her feel very welcome and part of a new team. They held a virtual Happy Hour that week, where all employees joined to meet her “in person.” Xpedition Media made the experience as close as possible to what it would have been in the office.

Jobvite also held an All Hands meeting, where the HR lead interviewed Jeffrey on video, asking personal and marketing strategy questions to help the company get to know their new CMO. Several of his personal answers prompted various coworkers to reach out about shared interests like being Prince fans or Assassin’s Creed masters, creating instant connections. To share the news externally, Jobvite bundled the announcements of Jeffrey starting as CMO with the news that Forbes named them the Top Private Company of the year.

#3 - Give the new team member everything they need to prepare - onboarding emails, lists of tools and breakdown of processes.

Kelly opened her computer on Day 1 to several pre-booked onboarding meetings and an email series to slowly introduce more tools to her with context. thoughtbot shared a company-wide post about her and held an All Hands meeting where they welcomed her.

LaNell’s new job is in Madrid, Spain where she will be moving from the U.S. Her plans to move were delayed when travel bans went into effect, so she was onboarded virtually at 4:00am, a truly different experience for her. Her Switzerland-based boss sent a welcome email to the company. The emails from new colleagues started pouring in, she was pulled into meetings by Day 2, and by the end of the week she was in full motion. She’s sorting through how to manage her job on Central European Time and her family and household on Eastern Standard Time.

Getting to know new colleagues

There was a consensus among our group of new hires: it’s all about reaching out to people, scheduling video calls and talking one on one.

Jeffrey insightfully commented, “Empathy is at an all-time high. There’s greater patience and empathy because everyone can relate now to being physically separated.” People are simply more willing to spend time on the phone or video, and that’s great for those of us who are new to our roles.

Daily video stand-up calls don’t hurt either. thoughtbot’s stand-up calls have themes, so Kelly is getting to learn things like her colleague’s favorite mugs and seeing them dress on-theme for “Throwback Thursdays” and “Fancy Fridays.”

Read Related - Being An Empathetic Marketer Takes S.O.U.L.

Working Remotely - The Upside

Level playing field.

Each one of us is grateful for the level playing field that we’re experiencing because everyone at our companies is remote, too. Being remote is hard when you’re the only one not in the room. Now, everyone is not in the room. We’re all figuring out how to make it work together.

No commute!

This one’s a biggie whether we are living in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston or Ohio. We’re getting extra sleep and spending less time getting ready. It’s pretty great.

An uptick in virtual team collaboration around COVID-19 response.

• Jeffrey reviewed a piece of recently produced annual research and immediately recognized the survey results were pre-COVID. He and the team went back out in just a few weeks to re-survey so as to compare/contrast the two sets of survey results, and Jobvite is seeing surprising statistics about what has and has not changed in the mind of the job seeker.

• My team at Setup  spun up brand and agency-side surveys around demand for products/services, impact on marketing spending, morale and more to gather insights and stay on the pulse of the marketing community.

• Kelly’s thoughtbot team has spent time building out relevant services and resources for teams new to a remote world.

More time with family, pets and the great outdoors.

It’s nice to have our dogs snoring at our feet, have lunch with our fiancés (ok, that one’s just Kelly!), go for a midday walk or work on the patio when the weather is nice.

Working Remotely - The Downside

It’s hard to read the room and pick up on body language.

Christina says, “Since I’m only interacting with [all new] people on video and for a specific amount of time, there’s not much of an opportunity to see who they are, read a room or social cues/mannerisms, which I think are important when in the workplace physically.”

No in-the-room energy during brainstorm sessions.

While virtual brainstorms do work, it is difficult/impossible to replicate the energy that can be palpable inside a room of colleagues putting their minds together to generate new ideas.

Working more than normal.

It’s important to set boundaries for yourself so you don’t end up mentally and physically draining yourself by staying stationary in your workspace for too long during the day/evening.

Missing the water cooler talk.

It’s going to take us longer to build relationships with new colleagues without the age-old water cooler talk in the office. We’re doing our best to proactively reach out to colleagues virtually to get to know them, but we all know it isn’t the same.

What’s the first thing we all want to do when we return to office life?

Catch up and talk to all these people we now know through screens. We simply cannot wait!