As an agency born out of the depths of a pandemic quarantine, our options to build a team that could work in the same physical location were slim to none. Therefore, we decided to widen the net to find the best talent for our agency. That's right, we took our search global!
Here at Sud Creative, we fully embrace remote work and team building. For us, it's essential to our growth and development. That means we must make a continuous effort to put communication at the forefront of our everyday work.
As we grow, we have to adapt to how we onboard new team members so everyone feels welcome and well informed from day one. Here's what that looks like for us!
Manning the Front Lines
Our team consists of a fantastic group of people from all walks of life and different backgrounds, cultures, and nationalities. Because of this, our efforts behind our onboarding process are imperative.
Communication must always be present regardless of where we are or what project we are working on. Every new hire gets a personal one-on-one tour of the tools and systems we use and their importance to our functionality.
Tools Are Our Lifeline
We know, we know! You've heard a thousand times from every possible remote agency how essential online tools are for productivity and organization, but it's the truth! Without these platforms, we'd have a more difficult time working efficiently. And ain't nobody got time for that!
Slack - Here at Sud, we use tools such as Slack for daily communication and random chats. We drop the latest memes, industry news, educational information, and company success stories here. It has been the best way to build our team bond and keep us all feeling connected.
Asana - It's no secret that we heavily rely on Asana, a project managing tool, to stay on top of deadlines and assignments. Our new team members will find current and future projects in this space along with documents and detailed instructions.
These tools help us maintain consistent communication with our team and clients. All updates and ideas are accessed through these channels along with video calls through Google Meet.
Our Onboarding Process
Without fail, every new team member is introduced to the other teammates via Slack introduction. This gives everyone a chance to say hello and get to know each other.
Mate, tea or coffee? Books, movies, or theater? These are a few things we like to ask each other to roll out the virtual welcoming mat for our new teammates.
If we really want to get the conversation going, we ask which soccer team you root for. Talk about an icebreaker!
Smooth Transitions Through Video Meets
Google Meet has been a lifesaving tool that allows us to see each other face to face. All new members are onboarded through a series of video calls in which we address the platforms they will be using and our process.
Here we use screen sharing to highlight certain functions or perform walkthroughs of platform features. We’ve all experienced jobs where onboarding only consisted of an email with a link to a platform and little to nothing else! That can leave anyone feeling left out, unwelcome, and lost.
Part of our success as a remote agency is the ability for everyone to feel they belong by offering support and encouragement throughout the onboarding process and beyond. Video call helps us achieve this by reminding us that there is, in fact, a human on the other side of the screen.
Finding Our Flow
We don't want to beat the dead horse about the importance of communication, but it's fundamental to the success of any company, remote or not. For us, at Sud Creative, we deeply understand this.
When a company decides to work remotely and open the virtual door to new hires worldwide, communication instantly becomes more difficult. Knowing this, we always make it a high priority to put communication first.
That means becoming more patient and understanding toward your teammates. As well as promoting transparency and trust. At our agency, we maintain our connections by adopting the agile way of working, for instance, having weekly team meetings with the design team. For the agency as a whole, we have meetings once a month.
Adapting As We Grow
With our target market aimed at companies and businesses abroad, it only makes sense to build a locationally and culturally diverse team. The benefit is a team that can relate to one another as we are all in the same position. In addition, it makes remote working more interesting (there's never a dull moment) and drives us to become better at what we do.
Sud Creative has opened itself up to continued growth and learning by embracing remote work. And as our team grows, we continue to look for better and more efficient ways to stay connected with each other through the computer screen.