Recruit and Onboard in the New Normal

It is not a scoop anymore ... the virus has changed our personal and professional lives. A lot of companies had to change their operating model to adapt to full remote working conditions. Sparkers was not an exception. A lot of challenges were in front of us while intensive recruitment and onboarding were necessary to support Sparkers’ growth.

How do we attract new talents to Sparkers when the merits of a stylistic office, cafeteria and playroom are no longer viable assets, when remote working becomes a necessity? How to make sure every new recruit feels included? This is our experience.

Before the start of the pandemic, Sparkers had a home working policy allowing employees to work from home 1 day per week. The possibility to work remotely, away from the office, was an offer made to employees, it was never imposed. This is because we know that some people excel in an office environment and that remote working will bring some additional challenges not experienced in the office. There was one exception to the policy: new hires. They were usually asked to come to the office for at least the first 3 months to ensure a successful integration. This was before the pandemic.

In March 2020 when lockdown was declared, it became necessary for everybody to work from home on a full time basis. Luckily enough, as an international IT services company, most of our tasks could be performed remotely and we were already used to virtual teams and meetings with our colleagues abroad. Indeed, Sparkers is present in Belgium, Spain, Australia, Russia, Armenia, France, the UK and the US. While the transition was quite easy for most of us, some of our new recruits had to continue their onboarding from home.

This obviously demanded adaptation and commitment from both the newcomer and the persons in charge of the onboarding. The good thing is that we are an agile and flexible company which successfully enables and trusts its employees in delivering work in a timely and professional manner. Our hiring process focuses on people who know their responsibilities, who are autonomous and do not require micro-management. This is part of our DNA and this proved to be successful when everyone found themselves full time at home.

In total, since February 2020, we onboarded around 30 colleagues in 5 different locations who either worked in full or in partial remote working conditions. These 30 people include freelancers and interns as well as employees, and they were hired under permanent or temporary contract to help our 44 collaborators already in place.

Remote Recruitment

To recruit these collaborators, we had to adapt our recruiting methods and tools to the new conditions imposed by the pandemic. Unfortunately, home working today is still the norm and it has become difficult to meet candidates face-to-face. We therefore have reorganized the whole recruitment process to occur remotely.

For the candidate, there is no more commuting to plan. For the recruiter, he can organize more interviews in the same day, thus increasing his productivity. Scheduling interviews is faster and the recruitment cycle shorter. This is particularly useful in the IT sector where the war for talents is fierce and reactivity is a must have !

Of course, having face-to-face interviews will always remain the preferred method of recruitment as it facilitates connectivity with candidates and reading body language plays a huge part in that connectivity. One of the most challenging tasks for the recruiter is now to demonstrate the values and work environment ​​of the company through a screen. It has not been easy but we succeeded… 30 times !

To overcome the difficulty of remote recruitment, after a first HR discussion to connect with the candidate, managers and future colleagues are involved in a second interview. This interview is more technical and includes a discussion about the numerous projects the company is working on and what it is like to work for Sparkers. We indeed truly believe that our employees are the best ambassadors for our company.

Virtual Onboarding

Besides recruitment, we obviously also had to adapt our onboarding processes. Previously, on day one, the newcomer was systematically welcomed in the office, introduced to new colleagues, shown the facilities and time was allocated to go through the employment contract, who we are, how we work and other practical information. All this changed with the pandemic as we had to switch to online meetings.

The introduction to colleagues has become difficult. In general, the newcomer will only meet virtually with his direct colleagues before being virtually introduced to the rest of the company during a company meeting.

Junior vs. senior profile

Onboarding a new employee remotely can be challenging for companies and managers. While, in general, it can be quite smooth to onboard a senior candidate, it can turn to be quite difficult when the newcomer is a junior. Indeed, the experienced employee will understand quicker what is expected of him and be more autonomous while young graduates or interns will need more attention. Managers need to be aware of this and have to schedule more regular catch-ups with the newcomer. Additionally, periodic assessment interviews, including one at the end of the onboarding period, are organized by managers or HR to closely follow up on the employee’s development. These meetings are now mainly happening through Teams.

Structure and documentation are key

On the positive side, remote onboarding has forced us to be more organized. With the newcomer alone at home, a clear and structured training program needs to be planned in advance and time scheduled in people’s agendas. It has also urged us to improve documentation of our procedures so that training material is created and easily available remotely. To help with this process, each employee will have their own Udemy-For-Business license to follow an individual learning path. This way, the employees will have permanent access to training as well as internal information. 

When interviewing new employees on their experience with remote onboarding, feedback was generally positive. They all felt warmly welcomed and supported by their team and the company in general. Daily training sessions were organized for them and, when not in meetings, they were assigned with online training or lectures. Thanks to the new communication technologies, it is easy to chat, call each other and share screens. It is as if you were sitting next to your colleague.

A slower integration

On the other side, they were also faced with challenges and that was to be expected.
Generally speaking, even if they quickly integrated into their team, the integration at the company level was slower. They had regular meetings with their teammates but not with the other teams and unfortunately, there is no more opportunity for coffee corner talks. At Sparkers, we organize monthly company Teams meetings during which we provide updates on the strategic objectives and projects. It is also the opportunity to introduce the newcomers to the rest of the company.

From LA to Sydney : the big stretch

Another reported difficulty is the time zone difference between some of our offices. Indeed, we are onboarding colleagues from Los Angeles to Sydney. This reduces the number of hours available for training with colleagues from another location. This also means that the newcomer will find himself alone before or after the working hours of his buddy depending on the timezone. The structured training program, including lectures and online training through our e-learning platform are key to circumvent this difficulty.

Interviewees also mentioned that when at home they might not have answers to their questions immediately. The questions would usually be sent through Slack, our Messaging tool, and the responses will only come when their interlocutor reads it and has the time to deal with it. When new in a company, one might also not feel at ease sending questions too often so as not to disturb teammates. New employees may spend more time than needed trying to find a solution to an issue. That can result in reduced efficiency of the onboarding compared to being on site, with an impact on the time required to become autonomous.

Finally, to ease the integration of newcomers, even remotely, we decided to launch an employee handbook. This guide provides information about our values, our products, our organizational model; we explain a first day at Sparkers, tips & tricks, ... Our handbook is a worldwide HR ongoing project as we have to adapt it to each of our offices.

These initiatives aim at ensuring the best integration of our new colleagues and guaranteeing good progress in skills mastering.

New ways to network with candidates

Digitalization has become key for companies. Recruitment and onboarding are not an exception. They are so important for companies that there is no other choice but to adapt to the new trends. Fortunately, in the IT sector, remote practices are not new. Developers usually enjoy working from home and are also used to collaborating with colleagues all over the world.

To support this evolution, new digital recruitment options are popping up, like video interviews, which will most probably become an important part of the hiring landscape in the following months. Another pretty new concept that Sparkers is exploring, is a “Tinder-like” recruitment platform which is based on the like-match-chat process. That way, the job seekers can decide which company they want to interact with, rather than being unwillingly solicited through the different social media and other communication channels. This is saving precious hunting time. This is also true for the job seeker.

In this ever evolving landscape, innovation will continue to impact hiring processes. At Sparkers, we are willing to stay on top of the wave and follow the trends to ensure the best experience for our candidates and new colleagues.

If you want to reach us, you can send an e-mail to hr@sparkers.com.