How Proxyclick onboards new hires remotely

On March 11th, I went home with my work monitor under my arm. Proxyclick, like many others, became a remote company overnight and my colleagues went from 40-something people from all around the world to my partner and Mambo, my dog. I didn't know the monitor would sit in my living room for 5-month+, but here we are.

The timing was unfortunate: we had just officially opened our NYC office (I was quite impatient to visit it myself), about 10 days before the start of the lockdown. Gregory, our founder, had just moved to New York with his wife and kids in the last week of February to expand our operations in the US. 

Our NY-based team celebrating their first week in the new office.

In this strange time, screening visitors and contractors in lobbies became a must-have for many companies as they were getting Return Ready. Our product suddenly became more of a must-have for organizations even more so than ever before.

Welcoming newcomers before the crisis

At Proxyclick, we love a good welcome.

Before COVID-19 hit, it was in our culture to ensure that our new hires enjoyed their first few weeks as much as possible.

The experience included a breakfast on their first day (because, of course, getting to know your new colleagues over coffee and croissants is a pretty sweet ice-breaker).

Laura, our People Experience Coordinator, would also tour the office and introduce everyone to the newcomers. They'd regularly join in-person meetings in the first week to familiarize themselves with everyone's role, and they'd end up at the local pub with colleagues on Friday.

But since we had to move the Proxyclick onboarding process online, things are a bit different now. Our People Experience Team has worked hard to make sure our virtual process was as close as possible to our offline process. 

If you were to start at Proxyclick during these times of workplace transformation and home working, here's a little preview of our online onboarding.

The Reception 🛎️

The Reception is our orientation week for newcomers. This helps ensure that you get to know of our tools and people in a quick and efficient way. 

You’ll join with a group of new people from different departments and levels of seniority. Everyone takes part in the same onboarding, so you’ll get to know colleagues from all across the board!

You’ll dive into 4-5 days packed with Zoom calls to understand the ins and outs of Proxyclick and our mission. During these calls, you’ll meet people from every team who will introduce their respective departments and areas of expertise.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of what to expect to learn about:

• our “why” and the product vision
• our technical foundation
• why our access control integrations set us apart 
• why Marketing, Sales and Customer Success are under one team called Revenue
• how partnerships work

It’s a little intense but it will give you a nice overview of Proxyclick. (Pay attention, there’s a quiz at the end of the week!)

The Values Workshop ❤️

Our core values capture our shared way of building Proxyclick together. In our high-growth environment, our values help us stay true to our culture while providing our customers with the best visitor management system on the market. We use these values to guide our decisions on a daily basis, so it’s important for new hires to understand and apply them, too. 

During your first week, you’ll attend a values case study, which is an interactive workshop with situations and how we would react according to our set of values. This gives some insight into the Proxyclick way of doing things, and helps us form a stronger culture from the start.

The Virtual Welcome Breakfast 🥐

Sadly, we can't share croissants around a table right now.

But we weren't ready to let the breakfast tradition go. If we can’t gather IRL, why not gather on (you guessed it), Zoom? 

Every time we have a new batch of people starting, the whole team is invited to join a virtual breakfast and enjoy their morning coffee remotely. Proxyclick employees introduce themselves and their role, and we share a few fun facts and laughs. 

The Buddy System 🤜🤛

Prior to new colleagues' arrival, the People Experience team selects a Buddy for each newcomer. That is, someone that would be a contact point in explaining the inner workings of the company and answering any questions the new hire may have.

It's up to both Buddies to book regular calls and make the most of their time together. (Buddies are never on the same team, encouraging us all to meet people from the outside!)

Wise Words from Proxyclickers 🧙🏾‍♂️

During these calls, our more seasoned employees guide the newcomers about the ways of Proxyclick.

But we steer away from work talk (you've got all the time in the world to speak about work).

In these very informal calls, Proxyclickers answer the following questions (and more):

• What do you believe are the 'unspoken rules' of Proxyclick?
• What's one thing you wish someone had told you when you first started?
• What do you find most exciting about working at Proxyclick? 

An individual session with our CEO 👨🏻‍💼

During your first few weeks, you'll get a chance to meet our CEO, Gregory, in a one-to-one meeting. This is your chance to ask all of your pressing questions and pocket some good anecdotes about the early days of Proxyclick.

First month milestones 🚀

Want to know what's expected of you in your first month? What, exactly, should you be able to do, deliver, or understand in the first four weeks?

As a new hire, your manager will set up time with you for a "milestones" chat so you get a clear view of what to aim for early on.

Proxyclick swag

Would we even be a tech scale-up if we didn't offer any swag?

When starting at Proxyclick, you’ll get the essentials like a computer, mouse, notepads, and other office accessories, but you'll also snag a few other nice-to-haves. But I don't want to ruin the surprise, so I'll stop here.

As we like to say in Belgium, voilà! I hope that provided a good overview of what to expect in your first few weeks at our company as we all work to adapt to new  norms.

Wishing all of our job candidates good luck, and all of our new joiners an early and warm welcome.

Proxyclick is hiring. Check out our open positions here.