Like most companies, the pandemic has forced us to reimagine how we approach many of our processes, which includes how we onboard new employees. New hires traditionally came onsite to a Deacom office, but this has now switched to a fully remote setting. Sure, team members are now interacting in 2-dimensional meeting rooms, but the value of our onboarding program is not lost in a virtual environment… it’s just a faster commute.
Our virtual onboarding program has grown and been perfected over the past seven years to provide new team members with the knowledge and confidence to hit the ground running. It provides them with a strong understanding of their role in the company, how teams work together, and how they can make an impact both independently and as a team contributor. This program also benefits our current employees as they are able to streamline the onboarding of their new team members, resulting in the ability to share workloads faster.
Before You Start
Prior to the first day, new hires receive everything they need to get started from a company laptop and headset to their first week’s schedule and calendar invites. (HINT: It is best to make sure all tech equipment is set up and ready for the first day.) Additionally, our Human Resources Manager will work with you to get all of your onboarding items completed and benefit elections set up so that they are active on your first day of employment. That’s right, there is no need to wait 90 days until they are in full effect!
We’re not shy about showing off our new hires! As a seven-year long tradition, our Director of Talent shares bios and headshots of new team members with the global Deacom team. Especially as virtual workplaces become more prominent at Deacom, being able to introduce new hires to the company is important for keeping our culture intact.
Days 1-2
Sessions start bright and early so make sure to have a cup of coffee, water, and snacks ready. But don’t worry, there will be plenty of breaks throughout the days for refills, stretches, and getting some vitamin D!
In order to provide a more comfortable and supportive experience, we start new employees in groups, or classes. Together, they will go through a Deacom crash course where individuals from each department discuss their role within the company and how they impact the journey of a Deacom customer. To accomplish this, we created a fictional customer, The Chesterbrook Brewing Company, because who doesn’t love an excuse to talk about beer at 9am? New hires will follow this company through various presentations that explore not only how we market and sell our software but how we develop, implement, and provide ongoing support of it too. This is vital so that all team members understand how their role fits into the Deacom puzzle.
Aside from the onboarding training sessions, new employees will have a manager and peer resource meeting. This is a great opportunity to learn more about what Deacom life is like, what to expect after the new hire classes are over, ask questions, and start to put some faces to the names they will be seeing.
To accommodate different time zones, our new hire classes are held geographically so our US-based teams will join together for their classes while our Europe-based teams will have a separate schedule.
Days 3 and Beyond
After the new hire classes are complete, the individual job training will start. Each department has a detailed training program designed to get their new additions up to speed and confident in performing the job successfully. Whether it is a 10-week self-start training or 30/60/90 plan, our employees are never left in the dark when it comes to job expectations.
This is a very exciting time to be joining the Deacom team as we are growing each day with new departments, projects, and processes but we never lose sight of how critically valuable the first few days at Deacom are. At the end of the week, new hires will receive a survey from the hiring team asking about their experiences thus far. It is important that we take the company developments as well as the survey feedback into careful consideration when fine-tuning our onboarding program. Sometimes, this may mean that we need to introduce new sessions, update our onboarding materials, adjust the structure, or incorporate new strategies for sharing the material. As Deacom continues to grow, we are committed to ensuring our onboarding program does too!
Bonus… SWAG!
Oh, and we love swag! Shortly after signing on with Deacom, we send some pretty awesome goodies including a Deacom backpack, branded shirts, Yeti, office supplies, and lots more. We are excited to welcome team members to our growing family and want them to proudly show their new company pride too!
The Deacom team is growing… and fast. So, it remains critically important that we continue to provide a culture that focuses on our employees’ happiness, no matter if they are working in Philadelphia, Denver, Germany, or from their home office.
