You got the job. You did the work to get through the interview process and got the offer. During the process you put the best foot forward, and you can tell they did too. You're going to kill it.

Now what?

The Problem

Most people show up at a new job and just accept and adopt whatever onboarding process that exists on their team. Yes they might improve on some things, but the fundamentals of how they will succeed will rely on the existing process.

What they don't realize is that onboarding is about more than just installing the right software on the computer and doing all the training they tell you to. It's about creating your identity at a new workplace and getting to know the people who will help you create the best outcomes possible.

Your first six months will dictate what the next few years will look like. The concrete is not settled yet; you have a short time to solidify those promises you made during the interview.

So rather than go with the flow like everyone else, People Work helps you get intentional about how you're going to spend this next few months and beyond so what made you excited about this new role actually happens.

How we help

The People Work app helps you do this in the following ways:

Balancing Your Network

On some teams it's easy to spend your first six months heads down only getting to know your own team. On other teams you barely talk to the team and everyone is stakeholder or customer focused.

A proper onboarding, however, requires that you have a balance of all these types of relationships. You'll focus on different primary actions for each relationship, and so you need a good balance of these groups:

• Align: Figure out who will benefit from your work, beyond your boss, and what you'll do to align with these folks, nurture those relationships, and ensure those people are successful. These are your Stakeholders.
• Partner: Ensure that these folks are successful, that you think like your boss and understand what your whole team needs to do for everyone to succeed. These are your Peers.
• Guide: Who are the people who you rely on for your own success and look to you for guidance? For managers, this group is critical for success. Many individual contributors ignore these people, to their detrimient. Building a team that can treat you as a stakeholder, even if those people are interns, is critical to your success and for you to grow as a leader. This is your Team.
• Network: These are the people in the broader community who might be an office mate or someone you interact with in a group that you're a part of. These people are valuable to ensure you have a broader connection with your company. This is your Community.

There's likely at least one of those groups you wouldn't have thought of and that you have neglected until now. Now that you have an opportunity to become intentional about having a balanced portfolio of relationships, you'll be very well positioned to acheive your goals.

When you onboard onto our app, we'll ask you to define these groups of people and how you'd like to approach those relationships:

Depositing Into Relationships

Identifying these relationships is not enough; now it's time to have a regular, intentional connection with these people. This could be anything from a quarterly Slack message to check in, or a weekly 1:1, or a walk to the coffee shop once a month. Whatever it is, your goal is to relate to these people and begin working to help them.

In an onboarding situation, you're unfortunately a liability in most relationships. You're new, and you don't have a lot to offer because you don't know the job very well, so people can sometimes unconsciously avoid you.

When you create a plan for who you're going to work with and then actually reach out with the intention of benefiting them, understanding their goals, this changes that dynamic as they see you as someone who will help them to be successful.

You do this in the app by creating a quick journal entry of how that connection went:

This gives you insights for how relationships develop over time.

Driving to Clear Outcomes

As you build these relationships, you focus on what their goals are, and how you can help. You can make commitments to them and ensure you follow through on these commitments.

This makes you valuable. And news of that value will travel fast! You're no longer shackled with what the people at your previous company thought; you're making a new name for yourself, one that will help you achieve what's next.

Try it Today

We're a bootstrapped software company dedicated to helping people like you with the people side of their jobs. We're confident if you follow our process and use the app, that your onboarding journey will take you where you want to go. Most people aren't this intentional; when you do the work of connecting to people in your new company, you'll easily stand out from the others.

Take the next step and sign up for our 45-day free trial.