Culture Assimilation in the Virtual World

 

 

2020 was a disruptive year. Whether you wanted to or not, you were forced to make changes and rapidly while you were at it. The interesting part is between March to May of 2020 most organizations adapted to the new ways of working, finding a middle ground and eventually embracing this change. When you do not have a choice, you adapt faster maybe? I am talking only  across most Information technology business as I do have first hand experience in this. Call it from a place of privilege if you want.

This was the year, I moved jobs and decided to join an organization virtually . The interview process/ joining all happened remotely and my laptop was promptly delivered a day before my joining. As I jokingly said, the only change is I will switch laptops and login with a different ID on my first day.  But on a  serious note this is more than what meets the eye. As my role involves doing this everyday and hiring people into an organization in the virtual way, a key aspect to making this a success is how do we assimilate an organization’s culture to its new employees. Let me write from my experience  on some learnings that make it work.

Communication is the key

 

As HR or leaders hiring for your team, ensure you overcommunicate before the joining happens. With about 60-90 day notice period, this is almost a cooling period if you ask me. Unless you develop the rapport with your hiring manager, as a candidate you are left in the lurch wondering if you made the right decision. This is across mid/senior hires and take the help of your team if you don’t have bandwidth. But take that time to have your touchpoints and get to know the candidate both professionally and personally. While we are in an connected world, its very easy to be disconnected too if the effort isn’t made.

Joining day/week interactions

This is where the cookie cutter approach may not work with a day long induction on mandatory sessions that are popularly called death by PPT. A  personal 1-1 connections with leaders/stakeholders or basically influencers make the situation more bearable. For certain roles and with bulk hiring maybe gamification of this whole process helps. But goes back to the 1-1 connect you can fit in the first week. The onus is also on the new joiner to reach out and make that extra effort. You don’t have a coffee break, so pick up the phone and call your team/anyone. Take that extra step and you will be surprised at how many people meet you half way. Most organizations assign a buddy to help you navigate so use that person wisely.

Questions Questions Questions

There is a fine balance between asking questions for class participation and actually asking questions. Know the difference and ask. Especially in the IT world where RTW or RTO will be used within 2 lines in a call. You don’t know what it means ask😊 . Don’t hesitate and this comes with practice. Take your time to understand your landscape and then start firing. We tell kids that no question is a bad question but as adults we sometimes tend to forget

Participate in Employee Engagement events     

 

It is a generic assumption that we have a dedicated team to plan these events and make it fun for employees throughout the year. Especially in a virtual world while connections can move from local to global in no time, participate in these events. Get to know like minded folks through these events and eventually understand where the organization stands on volunteering or EAP or PRIDE allegiance. Use these platforms to your advantage and you will soon be aligned with another like minded set of individuals outside your team

Using Social Media

 Use linkedin as a starting point to understand the organization. Glassdoor and reach out to your network to know more? You can do this before joining too and after joining make the connections. It is effort but nothing like establishing connects to help you navigate the new organization. It seems very obvious but I still see a lot of people in key roles who have outdated profiles.

*And nope this isn’t a paid promotion for Linkedin.

Try these simple five step approach and like any relationship the 90 day litmus test will tell you if you did actually assimilate the culture of the organization. I frankly feel, in the virtual world, you can dial down the background noise and focus on how you want to tailor make your journey. While these steps are relevant virtual or not, they need to almost be mandated in the virtual world. 

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