In Covid-19’s wake, Sensibill’s People and Culture team quickly shifted our focus to building an engaging and effective remote team, ensuring that new team members were welcomed, included, and positioned for success through a new virtual onboarding process.

Contactless Laptop and Swag Delivery

We might not get to meet new teammates in person but they can still expect a swag and laptop delivery! Determining how to get desks, chairs, laptops, and additional monitors to our team has been challenging, but a personal door drop-off guarantees that our team is well-equipped for success with their home offices right away. Hugh, Senior Product Manager at Sensibill, mentions that having the necessary hardware and care package before his start date was a great welcome that allowed him to hit the ground running from day one!

Hello, Welcome, Nice to Meet You

Our remotely onboarded team members expected an initial challenge since they would be separated from the in-office culture from day one. Trevor, Senior Engineering Manager, worried about the challenges of meeting new people; a sentiment echoed by Jenn, VP of People, who found not ‘shaking people’s hands or greeting them face-to-face’ to be the biggest challenge of virtual onboarding. To combat this, the People and Culture Team implemented a few new processes.

Prior to day one, our new hires answer four questions while setting up their employee profile:

• What is your favourite flavour of #PIE?

• Where are the majority of your purchase receipts from?

• What are some of your favourite hobbies outside of work?

• What is one thing that’s still on your bucket list?

The responses are shared via email across the company on the employee’s first day. This information provides interesting conversation-starters for the rest of the team, so they can discuss the important stuff (like restaurant recommendations and travel tips). New employees are also greeted with a flurry of messages in our #celebrations Slack channel to personally welcome them to the team.

At our bi-weekly townhall meetings, we saw an opportunity for new team members to introduce themselves and share a little bit about their families, hobbies, previous work history, and what they're excited to contribute to Sensibill, allowing everyone to put the face to the name. Trevor explains his pleasant surprise at a ‘well thought out and thorough welcoming in my first week.’ 

Coffee, Lunch, or Cocktail?

On day one, we schedule a team lunch so new employees can get to know their teammates in a more informal environment. We send our new employees a $25 voucher to purchase lunch for themselves and enjoy it with their new teammates over Zoom.

Cross-team relationships are equally important, so each new employee is paired with a Sensibuddy for their first week. This randomly selected Sensibill employee schedules a virtual coffee, lunch, or evening drink with the new hire to answer questions and learn more about their new teammate. 

After the first week, new employees are added to the #coffee-buddies Slack channel, where they’re  randomly paired with a different Sensibillian to enjoy a coffee or cocktail with every week. “We like to spend some time chatting about current affairs, weather, anything that seems topical, funny, or ridiculous,” says Hugh. 

Set-Up for Success

To guarantee new employees have what they need to be successful, the People and Culture team spends the morning with new hires walking them through our mission, vision, values, and behavioural traits. We provide them with a customized 8x8 document to guide them through their first 8 hours and first 8 days at Sensibill. The 8x8 includes everything from product demos, team goals and OKRs, department playbooks, and meeting descriptions.

We also leverage a Learning Management System (LMS) to provide online overviews for each department’s responsibilities and commitments. Trevor appreciated Sensibill’s readiness for employees to join remotely while finding ‘ways to include him very early on despite him still learning the ropes.’ Jenn agreed that the structured 8x8 document helped her get up to speed in her first week and beyond. 

With the shift to fully remote work, virtual employee onboarding became a critical priority for Sensibill. We have worked to adapt our existing processes and create fresh ones to welcome our new Sensibillians and ensure they feel secure in their new role. As we continue to learn more in this ‘new normal’ our processes will be continuously iterated and improved. We’re proud of the way our team has shown resilience, adapted to change, and continues to make our new Sensibillians feel welcome and included, even from their homes.

Interested in a career at a growing scale-up? Check out our careers page here, and who knows, maybe you’ll be the next new hire to be virtually onboarded.