What I learned one year after starting a new job at Insider while remote
One year ago I started working at Insider as a Talent Associate during a significant transition — the entire company went remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Onboarding into a new role at a new company on its own has its challenges. However, when you lose the ability to be in the office with your team, you encounter even more unique learning curves. However, a year since onboarding remotely, I have found certain tips and tricks to help overcome work-from-home obstacles.
Take the time to onboard and learn about the company
When starting a new job while remote, it can be easy to focus solely on your new role, rather than the company as a whole, since you are not in the office and around coworkers. However, it is important to still take the time to onboard and do things like complete new hire trainings. Insider’s trainings, now recorded and virtual, rather than live and in-person, cover a range of topics, from navigating key company systems and platforms to best practices when giving and receiving feedback. These not only helped set me up for success, but also showed me key company values, such as the importance of career development for Insider employees. I also found that reviewing past company events & programming helped me get a better understanding of Insider’s company culture. I watched past recorded events, such as DEI panels and coffee chats with other teams at Insider, which allowed me to hear from employees from different teams and departments, all while working from home.
Lastly, I made sure to familiarize myself with the other teams, departments, and leadership at Insider, which is something that often happens naturally in an in-person office environment. I navigated through Namely, our HRIS platform, specifically by filtering employee profiles by business unit, department, and sub-department. I also read through Talent resources, like our Company Contacts & Resources document, and tuned into our company All Hands calls. Learning more about the heads of departments and go-to contacts for different business needs was very helpful as a new hire, especially when I was not in the office able to meet with everyone in-person.
Meet with your team individually for 1:1 time
Another challenge I faced when starting remotely was being unable to interact with my team in-person on an everyday basis. I combatted this challenge by setting up virtual meet & greets with my team individually. In these meetings, I asked questions about career backgrounds, roles and responsibilities at Insider, and how we could best partner. I was also able to learn more about their preferred work and communication styles by reviewing “A Guide to Working With Me” documents with each other, which share working styles and other information that you would naturally learn being in an office environment. I also participated in quarterly team lunches, as well as daily virtual socials at the end of each day. Getting to know your teammates more personally and taking the time to chat about non-work topics again builds a better sense of community within your team and overall at the company.
Practice work-life balance and avoid burnout
It can be difficult to find a balance when your home is your office and vice versa. Identifying time management practices that worked for me helped me avoid burnout. In the first few months of my new role, I hand-wrote lists of all of my to-do items from the day before and would work off of them the next day. However, these hand-written lists were scattered, often incomplete, and not prioritized. Once I noticed that this was leading me to feel overwhelmed during the day as I was not working efficiently, I started to block time off on my calendar with to-do items as a tentative agenda, and began creating digital lists. These were game-changers — I became more productive, had more time for breaks, and felt less burnt out. I also began taking walking meetings for a change of scenery during the day, avoided checking email and Slack messages outside of work hours, and made sure to take PTO even though I was working from home.
Starting a new job while remote has its challenges, from feeling a lack of community to difficulty maintaining a healthy work-life balance. As I enter my second year at Insider, still remote, I feel confident that the tips and tricks I implemented in my first year set me up for success in my role, with my team, and at the company.