3️⃣Onboarding
👋 Introduction
It can take time to understand a new culture and environment and we sometimes take things for granted, especially when a group of us have been here for many years. The most important piece of advice for any new person is to ask questions if you’re unclear about anything.
1️⃣ Probation
When you start, you’ll be considered to be in your probationary period for 3 months. It is a standard legal term required by labour law, but it’s really a time for us to ensure both you and the organisation are a good fit for each other.
Benefits and full permanent status takes effect once we have decided you’ve successfully completed your probation period.
2️⃣ The week before joining
You will get emails from People Ops (Monica), with details of your new email ID, sign in to Slack and a request to introduce yourself to everyone and say hi.
If you are able to, we would like you to also join our weekly Townhall on the Friday of the week before, at 4pm, and meet all the players remotely.
You will receive a link from Jaya, who manages Administration, to fill out your basic employee information online. She will also talk to you about hardware and let you know when you will receive them.
3️⃣ Day 1
We mostly onboard people on Mondays. This could be a remote onboarding, though we prefer an in-person onboarding. Here’s what you can expect from your first day:
We start the day late. We don’t want overwhelm you with information, names and processes on your first day.
Expect your first conversation to be around 11am with Monica from People Ops. You will learn about the organisation structure and where to find information you need as a new person.
You will then be connected to your buddy. The buddy is your lifeline to not feeling adrift at Obvious in the early days. Please feel free to ping or call the buddy anytime you feel you need to find something out. In due time, we will invite you to be a buddy to a new person, and you can pay it forward.
4️⃣ Week 1
The first week is usually slow. The idea is to let you settle in. Here’s what you should expect from Week 1:
You get on board all systems you will use.
You have met all the team members of your project, hopefully the rest of your function.
You have met the other team folk, at least have said hi to the founders and other function heads. If not, ask your buddy to make that happen.
You have attended your first townhall, where you introduced yourself to the rest of the org. There are no guidelines on how to do this, because the hope is that the intro is as unique as all the people joining us are.
5️⃣ Month 1
In the early days in any organisation, among the first three skills one needs to demonstrate are cultural assimilation, visibility and dependability. By the end of your first month, here’s what is expected of you:
You ramp up to independently taking up responsibilities on deliverables in your team
You add yourself to the informal donut 1-1s and meet people from other teams
You are present for townhalls every Friday. This is one place to see others, be seen, increase visibility, do your introduction and so on. This is not optional unless you have a meeting you cannot move.
If you are in Bangalore, you drop in for Fridays if not more frequently.
If you work remotely, you have spent one week in Bangalore at the office and have met the team in person. If the client office is here, you have made at least one trip there with your team/ your manager
We do a formal check-in every month for the first three months of your fellowship.
With People Ops, this check-in is about:
your well-being
if the work, work practices, people and culture are what you envisaged when choosing to work with us
your feedback on how we can help with work and getting to know your team
feedback from those working with you for advice and help the team work better together.
With your lead, this check-in is about:
a structure for your fellowship period
what needs to be accomplished in the first 90 days, leading to successful confirmation
Neither the goals we set nor the check-ins are designed as stressful challenges to prove your worth or skills. We won’t grade you during a check-in and you won’t be blindsided by a surprise evaluation. Like you, we want you to succeed and to become a full member of the team. The check-ins are a chance for us to work together to help you integrate with the team and to thrive and be happy in your new job.
6️⃣ Month 2
At the end of month 2, you would have settled in the org and in your new role. Here’s what you should look out for:
You have a functional working relationship with your lead, your team members and allied team folk. You are comfortable talking to the folks at admin, finance, people etc. and get answers to questions on your mind
If you are stuck, you don’t waste time to reach out and ask for help, depending on the situations, from your lead, your peers, function head, People team, admin/ finance.
You have enough functional contacts on the other business team (That’s engineering if you are in the design team and vice versa) to reach out and get answers to questions about their work that might help you do your work better
On the work front, you have taken another clear step into independently delivering on work outcomes. By now, you have direct access to people you are working with on the client end. You understand what they are asking for and why, and what you can do to help/ resources at your disposal to make this happen
Second check-in with lead: Have a formal discussion with your manager on your next steps and goals for the next few months.
In case there are lags in areas of performance, those will be shared too.
7️⃣ Month 3
At the end of month 3, here’s what is expected of you:
You ask for and get clarity (and document this for your own and the team and lead’s future reference) your own career plan, where you are, where you would like to go and how you see the learning and opportunities at Obvious helping you reach these.
The reason these are gated on you and not your lead is that, the space we operate in needs high agency. Taking ownership of your own growth within Obvious is a good starting point, to understand that agency is assumed at the organisation and team level. For you to experience it, you need to take charge of things like these and build the muscles needed to work with agency.
You have clarity on how work happens, how your time can be used, what working hours your teams keep and how you can align with that, so you are optimising for collaboration despite being remote.
You are attending team stand-ups and periodic check-ins, are bringing to the conversations updates on your work and asking for help to be unblocked, whenever you are.
Third check-in with lead: We’ll get together with you for your second check-in with People Ops + your manager, to give you a sense of progress in the organisation.
We will bring the fellowship to a close and confirm you as a permanent employee.
If required, we could also extend the fellowship period. This may include changes to your work, or Obvious changing to accommodate your personal way of doing things.
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