After having worked so hard through the application process, it is the best feeling in the world to finally receive an offer for the position I wanted. My name is Pauline, and I’m excited to be joining the AB Tasty People & Culture Team from NYC.
As a newcomer, I’m very enthusiastic, but starting a new job can also be stressful. You know the imposter syndrome, the fact of being the ‘newbie’ and then there’s also the onboarding process with so many meetings and the certification to get validated*! The goal of this blog post is to share with you how I’ve experienced my first few weeks and give you an inside look into AB Tasty’s onboarding process.
Despite the overwhelming feelings at first, I was actually pleasantly surprised by my initial experience. AB Tasty has developed an impactful strategy for welcoming new employees, which has left a very positive impression on me. As soon as I was on board, I felt excited, appreciated, and confident.
In my view, the success of AB Tasty’s onboarding is related to four magic key elements:
1. From the very first moment, AB Tasty makes you feel you’re already one of them.
From day one, a warm atmosphere emerges from each meeting. All the speakers are enthusiastic, kind, and open-minded. It is clear that the first week is only focused on your onboarding process to make sure you have everything in your hands to succeed in your role and responsibilities. Thus, onboarding is an essential part of the employee lifecycle in employee engagement, integration, and retention.
On my first day, I set up my new home office, and I joined a virtual onboarding session coordinated by the People and Culture team. We not only covered the basics, like signing up for slack or benefits, but we also had the opportunity to learn more about AB Tasty’s history, mission, and values.
We already felt the energy and the strong values that are part of the company’s DNA.
2. AB Tasty organizes the onboardings at the team level.
Attending for the first time a mostly remote onboarding process, the experience was different from what I experienced before. But the good news is that I felt that AB Tasty’s team spirit was part of every interaction.
During this week, I was lucky to meet many great, professional, and kind managers. Each of them was introduced to us with simplicity, accessibility, and always with kindness.
The different innovative systems helped keep managers engaged with new employees while allowing new hires to interact or ask questions.
With agility, the managers were able to show and explain to us a global vision of the company with transparency.
We felt welcome and appreciated in our new position. By the way, AB Tasty establishes an open door policy so we know that we can always approach the manager if we have a question or need help with something.
3. AB Tasty has in place a welcoming and innovative working culture.
There were almost 25 people worldwide (Madrid, Paris, Berlin, Minneapolis, New York City) also starting the onboarding session that same week
On my side, I spent much of my time on Zoom, having meet & greets with my team. I’m based in New York City, but most of my team works from different locations, so this is how I have first met them.
To keep us connected in this digital working environment, the People and Culture Team created a dedicated channel on Slack for this month’s newcomers. The chat was a place to ask any questions, which were quickly and efficiently answered.
Furthermore, to help us meet people and build a network at AB Tasty another slack channel exists. It’s called “random_e-coffee”. Every day, four people in the company are drawn and offered to chat for 15 minutes altogether.
And then, thanks to a quick survey that everyone received on their first day, I learned tidbits about my new coworkers ranging from their favorite sport or sports team to the different ideas they had on their bucket list. Our LinkedIn Profile is also shared so we get a better understanding of who we’ll be working with and what each person does on the team.
Thanks to these innovative ideas, I feel like I’m learning a lot of personal anecdotes about my coworkers, even if I’m not in person with them in the same office.
4. AB Tasty has almost a tool for everything, and this is very convenient to get started.
You can organize and prioritize your projects in a fun, flexible, and rewarding way with Trello.
Because we always have too many passwords to remember, 1Password is your best friend.
For any IT requests, we are using Jira. I raised three tickets in only three days (am I the only one? 😉), and I can assure you this tool and the team behind it are very helpful.
I’m sure you already heard about Confluence, the AB Tasty Knowledge Base. This is definitely the place to go to know everything about anything here.
Then there’s Semana which allows you to schedule onsite and remote work and to easily operate in flex-office at all levels of the organization. MindDay, is another tool that provides a dedicated space for everyone with tips, programs, and activities around wellness and performance. Both professional and personal subjects are addressed and this is 100% anonymous and confidential.
And last but not least, AB Tasty is using the tool Briq. Briq helps AB Tasty scale its recognition-rich culture. Each AB Tasty magic maker is granted the mission of showing their teammates how and why they matter, celebrating every single victory… and making their values and spirit live on a daily basis. And yes, if you are asking, we give Briqs to teammates we want to reward.
I would like to conclude that based on my experience, AB Tasty has an excellent magic recipe to onboard new hires from various locations, cultures, and backgrounds. I could not be more excited to start working with this amazing team, and I am very thankful for the time and investment taken to allow me to be confident in my new role.
If you’re reading this blog post and are not yet part of the AB Tasty’s dream team yet, I can only encourage you to apply to one of the positions we currently have open.
*At AB Tasty, all employees are asked to get AB Tasty certified – this way we make sure that we all know what we’re working for.