Our Onboarding at Remazing

What is onboarding?

Structured onboarding is an indispensable part of successful modern talent management processes. But what does onboarding mean?

The term onboarding comes from  the idea of welcoming new joiners “on board” and describes the steps needed to systematically integrate new employees into companies. The term includes all measures that promote the social and professional integration of the new employees. The onboarding  process is ongoing and  begins before the first day of work.

Why is good onboarding so important?

 “There is no second chance for a first impression.” Studies in the HR industry show that a large part of staff turnover (up to 20%) occurs within the first 45 days of employment, and experts believe that lack of onboarding and integration is the reason for about 10% of terminations during probationary periods. 

At Remazing, we strive to take advantage of this initial opportunity to make a positive first impression through organized and standardized onboarding. Furthermore, onboarding is crucial in the long term for solid employee retention, identification with corporate culture, and social integration of the new team members. Therefore, it was essential for us to develop an onboarding process where new employees feel integrated before they even step into the office. 

Before the first day

For us, onboarding starts when employees sign  their employment contracts. After  the contract has been signed and one to two weeks before the start date, we send new team members an email with the most important information for the beginning of their employment. This includes not only organizational information such as their start date, the time they should arrive in the office, and location, but additionally includes  a link to our onboarding handbook and our operational guide. 

In our onboarding handbook, new joiners will find an overview of all of Remazing’s teams and the team members. It also answers important questions in advance, such as:

• To what extent is home office possible? 
• Do we have a dress code? 
• What are important regular dates and events? 

Our operational guide gives an overview of the tools we use and how to use them. This offers new joiners a chance to orient themselves before they get to use the tools themselves in practice.

It is not only new team members who we seek to prepare for their start with us. We also get the rest of our team on board,preparing them for the new employee’s arrival. To do so, we send a “welcome mail” to our new joiners a few days before the start, in which they briefly introduce themselves to the team. Additionally, the employee’s direct supervisor fills out a questionnaire in advance. In this questionnaire,the supervisor defines the employee’s tasks, projects, and responsibilities for the first weeks and months, as well as clarifying which fellow team members they can turn to for support.

Last but not least, we ensure that the necessary technical equipment is available well before the employee arrives. This way, nothing stands in the way of the first-day onboarding process.  

The first day at Remazing

The first day is designed to create the framework conditions so that new team members are well-positioned and prepared for the coming weeks. We start with an organized workplace (equipment, goodies, merch) and a tour of our office. This is followed by an onboarding session in which we jointly set up the MacBook and all the necessary tools they need to work. 

To digest the morning’s information in good company, the new joiner enjoys lunch with their team.  

The first onboarding session together with the employee’s team takes place in the afternoon. Then, in a separate session, the new joiner’s direct manager introduces them to the team’s tasks, processes, and clients. This concludes the first day and creates the basis for the team member’s further training in the following weeks. 

And how’s it going remotely?

The same! In fact, all onboarding process steps can easily be done online, even after the first day. Required equipment is sent home in advance, and everything else, even lunch, is done via video call. And since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, this has served as the benchmark for all new measures we have implemented in the onboarding process.

What comes after the first day?

Every new job means that a lot of information and learning is poured on new team members at the beginning. However, this includes not only technical knowledge, but also conveying internal company structures and processes, the team structure, and other basic information. We usually do this in the first eight weeks.

After the new employee has conquered their first day, we focus on establishing contact with different teams and their members within the following weeks, aiming to be as structured as possible while at the same time giving a good overview of the core areas of our work. It doesn’t matter whether someone will be working directly in Amazon marketing or in another area – everyone gets an overview of our core business.

That’s why we hold rounds of introduction interviews with all the teams in the first few weeks. These make it possible for new and existing team members to get to know each other through personal exchange and to establish initial reference points. 

In addition, there are “learning sessions” given by specific team members for our new joiners. The learning sessions aim to provide an overview of Remazing as a company, the tools we work with, and the content behind our Remazing Pyramid, which describes our core activities as an Amazon agency.

Some examples of learning session topics:

• Company presentation
• Amazon Vendor vs. Amazon Seller
• Amazon Content Management (Amazon SEO and A+ Content)
• Amazon Advertising
• Remdash (our in-house Amazon software)

In addition, employees can access recorded videos of these sessions at any time via our internal Learning Academy.

At the same time, onboarding takes place within the employee’s respective team, lasting well beyond eight weeks. The new team member is integrated into the relevant processes and involved in their first projects, during which the degree of responsibility gradually increases. We’ve found that “learning by doing” still works best for us in many cases.

To ensure that the content from our learning sessions can also be directly transferred into practice, every new team member, regardless of level and position, works through our “Onboarding Challenge” starting on their first week.

The Onboarding Challenge

For each new joiner, we select one of our client’s products. In the course of the challenge, the new joiner completely optimizes the product for ideal positioning on Amazon – as always, with the support of our experts in the respective area.

There are three benefits of the process for our new team members:

1) Training: The challenge provides the basic knowledge of our Amazon Marketing Pyramid.

2) Teamwork: Each new team member has their first points of contact with the majority of our teams.

3) Tool: Everyone becomes familiar with our in-house software, Remdash, from day one.

After each challenge is completed, it is presented to the rest of the team, resulting in new learnings and inspiration  each time. And it has happened more than once that the presentation has ended up impressing one of  our clients as well.

Once the challenge is over, the rest of the onboarding is, as mentioned above, up to the respective teams, who are able to to further deepen their colleague’s  development of  necessary skills.

For our People & Culture team, however, the process is not quite finished at this point.

Onboarding is not a static process

If there’s one thing we can say about our onboarding process, it’s that it has constantly evolved and improved over the last few years. Every development that Remazing goes through impacts our process, so we adapt it accordingly and continuously bring in new ideas.

We get many of these ideas directly from the best source: the people who have recently gone through the process. That’s why every new joiner takes part in a survey after their onboarding which we use to measure satisfaction with the process and  collect suggestions for improvement. In doing so, we evaluate the results as a team and have regular follow-up conversations to get more details from employees.

Conclusion: Onboarding is key!

Developing a meaningful onboarding process takes work and time. However, if you are willing to invest both, you lay the best foundation for long-term retention and create value for both the team and the new employee.

Looking for a job in Hamburg and want to experience our onboarding process for yourself? Click here to go to our careers page, where you can find all open positions. In addition to full-time positions, we also offer internships and student jobs.

If you have any questions, just contact us!

Cover picture: Lisa Knauer