Tip: Bring treats for your coworkers...never hurts!
Day 01: Marshaling your resources
Humans
Your people:
People who’ve been in the company and in your line of work
are your first, and most likely easiest, resource. It just makes sense to make
a list of your top questions (who is our department HR rep? Who is in charge of
tech for my training rooms? Who makes the schedule for the training rooms? Etc)
and politely request a meeting with one or two of your friendliest colleagues
to get answers.
If your coworkers are also new (I was hired in a batch of 4
people, all of whom were just as new as I was-- it can happen!), you can reach
out to “sibling” departments—for example, if you work in Training, perhaps you
have a Point of Contact (POC) in Operations, Quality, or Launch. If you are
deployed to the Quality team, perhaps there’s a Communications team under the
same umbrella group.
One of the smartest things I did when coming on board as a Communications
Expert was getting to know the Training Team personally, taking the time to
develop relationships with them, and keeping in touch. Your “sibling”
departments, coworkers, and immediate supervisors can all be valuable resources
and touchstones.
Admin, HR,
Facilities, Travel, and Security:
Depending on your office, you may have one college student
who manages the schedule, or you may have entire interlinked departments for
different functions. Of course I don’t need to tell you to be as nice as pie to
these people, right? Thought so! But I do need to remind you that you should
not be too nervous or scared to take a moment to shake hands, take note of
names, and perhaps even ask for a business card, just in case you need it down
the line.
Robots
Your timekeeping, HR, help-desk ticketing system, company
homepage and like resources are key in keeping your working life running
smoothly. Usually you’ll have a very quick run- through with a busy staffer
whose job it is to get you in and out as fast as possible.
Take notes and ask as many questions as you can think of—why
are we inputting minutes in military time? Why am I assigned that code? What is
our department code? What happens if…..
It also helps to get the name, phone extension, and email of
the person who walked you through the applications, so when (not if!) you find
yourself with problems and questions, you can get in touch with the right help
fast.
Machines
Copy machine, phone, printer….it pays to know the name (each computer and printer has it's own "name" and you better believe that's the first thing the help line will ask you when you call. "What's the name of the computer you're calling about?" You don't want be stuck guessing "uh, Fred?"),
locations, quirks, and POC’s for these items. Don’t wait until it’s broken and
the client is about to get off the elevator on your floor for that big presentation to try to locate the POC/ tech
guru—you’ll save yourself a lot of headache and heartache if you take a few
moments and get the inside dish on the machines you use every day.
Tools
General:
Originally
for college students, but you can make
use of these tools for training, coaching, and analysis:
Microsoft Office:
Without going into a lot of detail (we’ll save that for
later posts), it pays off tremendously to take a few moments and learn how to
use your Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, and Word to the maximum effect.
Here’s a few links to help you manage your Office
Applications best:
Communications
Software (such as Skype, Net Meeting, Meet-me, etc):
Day 1 at my current job saw me trying to melt into the
background while my manager and her right hand man scrambled to make Web Ex
screen- sharing- function work, screaming at each other, banging desks and
phones, and generally going nuts. Not pretty.
Not only that, but they also had to desperately try to
wrench a user name and password for a conference call bridge out of a
reluctant, overburdened office mate who was otherwise engaged in trying to
rescue his crashed hard drive. For his Apple i Mac, where he had hundreds of
hours of video content saved. It was total chaos.
It would have helped to be familiar with the basics of the
software in question.
Internet Browser/
Firewall :
I often conduct research on the web for my job, and it helps
tremendously to know which browser you’re using (why isn’t this awesome typing
practice application coming up? Is it my browser, my firewall, the page
itself?) so that you can learn to avoid pages you know won’t load, will be
blocked, or will only half- work.
Having a plan is key, but knowing your own resources and how to use them is even more critical to success. Now go get 'em, tiger!
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