When you join us, we want to make sure that you are well-equipped for the fight against food waste. That’s why we have a 6-month onboarding plan tailored for you! Our Head of People Jessica Salminen tells what you can expect from it.
First of all, let’s start with why we have decided on a rather long onboarding period – 6 months.
“There is no need to rush. We understand that it takes time to get comfortable with your new role, our culture, and procedures. It’s essential to build a solid foundation for all the learnings to come and take time to find your place”, Jessica explains.
The specific onboarding plan gives you an idea of what is expected from you but also what you can expect from us. “It’s a two-way street”, Jessica adds.
There are two main goals for the onboarding period:
We want you to be able to take full ownership of your own work. But we get that it doesn’t happen overnight. Therefore you will have plenty of time and support to make sure you will rock in your role after 6 months.
“The onboarding plan will be tailored to suit everyone’s needs and starting level. Some learn faster and some take more time to ponder. That’s totally fine”, Jessica says.
During your onboarding, you will have a session with all the different functions we have. This helps you to understand the big picture of how our business works. How does your work reflect on other teams? Who are the ones you will be cooperating the most?
“It is crucial that you understand how your team’s actions reflect on other teams. It will also make your work easier when you understand the big picture”, Jessica explains.
A few weeks before your start day, your team lead will contact you to let you know the schedule for the first two weeks. “And if we have any company or team events before your start day, you are most welcome to join us”, Jessica says.
On your first day, familiar faces from the recruitment process will be welcoming you: your team lead and our People team. They have been working to get everything in order for you, from setting up your work equipment to planning a tailored onboarding schedule for you.
In addition, you will meet your Onboarding Buddy who will be there for you whether you need to find the best lunch place or learn how the coffee machine at the office works. “We aim to find you a Buddy from another team than your own, to broaden your horizons outside your own team”, Jessica points out.
The first weeks will most probably be packed with general company onboarding such as an intro from the People team to general employment guidelines and best practices of our ways of working.
“We also go through our leadership principles so that you know what kind of leadership you can expect”, Jessica points out.
In addition to general company onboarding, each team adds its own twist to the onboarding plan.
“Team leads get to take full ownership of how they see is the best to onboard a new team member”, Jessica explains. “We have a general template for the onboarding process available but it will always be tailored to fit specific roles”, Jessica explains.
It goes without saying that your onboarding journey won’t be just you sitting and being lectured by other team members. You will get to into working from the very start.
“Every team has different approaches on how to introduce a new role and tasks to you. The main goal is that you will get straight to practical work while also getting other information from onboarding sessions and self-learning”, Jessica says.
Let’s have a look at a few examples from our Data team and our Dutch Marketing team on what their team-specific onboarding looks like.
“Before delving into role-specific topics, in our team, it's important to go through the general data onboarding process. It starts with a general introduction material of our data platform.”, Henri Saksi, Data team lead and CDO says.
The onboarding is then divided into different sections that are dedicated to a specific component of our data stack. Every section contains links to resources such as blog posts, articles, documentation, and code repositories. These resources are intended to be explored independently as part of the onboarding.
The Dutch marketing team’s onboardings are always planned from two perspectives: 1) what are the role responsibilities and 2) what is the background and current knowledge of the new team member.
“As a team lead, I track these down and then find a team member who is experienced in the topic the new person needs onboarding to help with”, Bas Dekker, Marketing team lead in the Netherlands says. In addition, there will be intros to different marketing functions and areas.
To ensure that your plan is used to its full potential – and for you to reach your full potential – there will be goals set for short and long terms.
Each team has its own OKRs – Objectives and Key Results – to set goals and purpose for the next time period. This a great place to start to understand where your team is heading and what is your role in this.
“As a data-driven organization, your feedback is valued. That’s why the People team will gather feedback from the whole onboarding journey”, Jessica says.
👉 Read more about OKRs as a goal-setting tool and how we use it!
If you thought the learning would end here – you were wrong.
From the very beginning, you will start your Personal Growth conversations with your team lead. It is a bi-monthly discussion that covers employee well-being, OKRs and goals, career growth wishes and needs for support.
First, there will be two important topics to discuss – your role’s impact and purpose.
“To be able to take ownership, you need to first understand what kind of impact your work has and what is the purpose behind every action”, Jessica explains. These will be checked at least once a year.
When it comes to future growth plans, we have a Frame of Growth to help you explore what opportunities in the company are or can be in the future. “As a company, we are growing all the time and so will our roles and career paths”, Jessica says.
👉 Dig deeper into our career growth opportunities!
How do we want every new member to feel after their 6-month onboarding journey?
“At best, onboarding builds the foundation for new learnings to come and ties you to our culture – it hopefully makes you feel that you can definitely fight against the food waste”, Jessica smiles.