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The guys on our team who have been working together in the office for a while are continuing to work together online. No Problem. The two new guys we hired get

by rb808 6y ago

The guys on our team who have been working together in the office for a while are continuing to work together online. No Problem. The two new guys we hired get little help and they're drowning I suspect. Its just too difficult to help them. If anyone has success with onboarding new people remotely I'm interested in hearing tips.

janesvilleseo 6y ago
I have been working remotely for a decade. The best way to onboard remote workers is to have regular one on ones. Weekly is easiest. Just having an open line of communication does wonders. Often people are afraid to ask for help but once they get to know people those fears dissolve.
- ghaff 6y ago
  When I was last onboarded--well, quite some time ago--one thing my manager did that was useful was to connect me with a number of different people in the company and had me set up 1:1s with them both as a get-to-know-them thing and to start working together on various areas of interest. Many, maybe most, of them weren't in the office as I was anyway.
jcheng 6y ago
My current thinking is to schedule daily 1:1s at first. As they get their feet under them, scale it back to a few times a week, then once a week. If the onus is on the new team member to ask for help when they need it, they'll have to figure out what difficulty and quantity of questions are considered appropriate. That's pretty stressful to try to figure out remotely. Much easier for them to have a senior person looking them in the face and asking "How'd it go yesterday? What questions can I answer for you this morning?"
- ljp_206 6y ago
  Wow, you've hit the nail on the head about what I need as I continue onboarding on to a new team at work. I was shuffled around right when our state shut down. Indeed, figuring out how and when to ask what questions has been exceedingly difficult. It's super hard to ask for time with people I haven't even met properly.
  - meristem 6y ago
    Ugh, I feel for you. New teams are complex in the best of times... what has worked for you in finding out those questions/limits? When in office, there is a lot of unstructured conversations. I have found that having 2 hour blocks of video conf 'coworking' do help a lot there in terms of surfacing questions in an unprompted and organic way.
jefflombardjr 6y ago
Empathy, documentation, and proper communication channels. Have you tried holding "office hours" for the newer guys? i.e. give them a window when they can ask their questions to the other devs? Have you given them an idea of what you expect from them when they're stuck? example here: https://medium.com/@JeffLombardJr/for-new-devs-how-to-ask-intelligent-questions-be1c70a0128f https://medium.com/@JeffLombardJr/for-new-devs-how-to-ask-in... People will be on different schedules, but it is nice to have a weekly sync at the beginning of the week. Gitlab and Zapier have alot of great resources on setting up remote teams - https://zapier.com/blog/survival-guide-to-remote-work/ https://zapier.com/blog/survival-guide-to-remote-work/ - https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/guide/ https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/guide/
deleted 6y ago
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by rb808 6y ago

janesvilleseo 6y ago

I have been working remotely for a decade. The best way to onboard remote workers is to have regular one on ones. Weekly is easiest. Just having an open line of communication does wonders. Often people are afraid to ask for help but once they get to know people those fears dissolve.

ghaff 6y ago
When I was last onboarded--well, quite some time ago--one thing my manager did that was useful was to connect me with a number of different people in the company and had me set up 1:1s with them both as a get-to-know-them thing and to start working together on various areas of interest. Many, maybe most, of them weren't in the office as I was anyway.

jcheng 6y ago

My current thinking is to schedule daily 1:1s at first. As they get their feet under them, scale it back to a few times a week, then once a week. If the onus is on the new team member to ask for help when they need it, they'll have to figure out what difficulty and quantity of questions are considered appropriate. That's pretty stressful to try to figure out remotely. Much easier for them to have a senior person looking them in the face and asking "How'd it go yesterday? What questions can I answer for you this morning?"

ljp_206 6y ago
Wow, you've hit the nail on the head about what I need as I continue onboarding on to a new team at work. I was shuffled around right when our state shut down. Indeed, figuring out how and when to ask what questions has been exceedingly difficult. It's super hard to ask for time with people I haven't even met properly.
- meristem 6y ago
  Ugh, I feel for you. New teams are complex in the best of times... what has worked for you in finding out those questions/limits? When in office, there is a lot of unstructured conversations. I have found that having 2 hour blocks of video conf 'coworking' do help a lot there in terms of surfacing questions in an unprompted and organic way.

jefflombardjr 6y ago

Empathy, documentation, and proper communication channels. Have you tried holding "office hours" for the newer guys? i.e. give them a window when they can ask their questions to the other devs? Have you given them an idea of what you expect from them when they're stuck? example here: https://medium.com/@JeffLombardJr/for-new-devs-how-to-ask-intelligent-questions-be1c70a0128f https://medium.com/@JeffLombardJr/for-new-devs-how-to-ask-in... People will be on different schedules, but it is nice to have a weekly sync at the beginning of the week. Gitlab and Zapier have alot of great resources on setting up remote teams - https://zapier.com/blog/survival-guide-to-remote-work/ https://zapier.com/blog/survival-guide-to-remote-work/ - https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/guide/ https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/guide/

deleted 6y ago

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