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Reading the title, you might wonder: “What makes this the biggest onboarding week at EMPAUA?”
Well, Covid-19 has changed our workplace a lot, not only in how we work but also in how we welcome our new colleagues.
Like previous years, PAUA-rangers from different countries working across Europe joined us for the onboarding week.
Bart van Leijden, Project Manager in Spain, shares: "I joined the onboarding week in Berlin and it's been great to have the opportunity to to re-meet colleagues, go for drinks, have dinner at night and to really talk with them. It's so nice! The work is remote, but still it's so important to have that connection with everybody. It was a great opportunity to be here. I am very happy that this was possible".
Quincy, one of our dear newbies, who just got back from the onboarding week, will spill “the tea” about what happened during this event. Read on to know more about the Onboarding Week at EMPAUA and her experience in Berlin.
Hi! My name is Quincy. I am 19 years old, from Vietnam, I work for the Berlin office and am currently based in the south of Germany.
I started working at EMPAUA around two months ago as a Working Student to support the People Circle. I usually work remotely but was invited to Berlin to join the biggest onboarding week in EMPAUA’s history.
On the first day, we were warmly welcomed by not only the HR department but by everyone.
The new joiners arrived around lunchtime from different places: Katalin and Bart flew over from Spain; George, André, Fabiano, Stuart and Tim from the UK; Michail, Weliko and Iuliia from different cities in Germany.
We were welcomed with a pizza party on the rooftop, and that was how EMPAUA won our hearts with that delicious moment.
After lunch, we met Florian Evers for 90 minutes. He is the Managing Director in Germany and Spain, who walked us through the EMPAUA purpose, values, goals, and our company's people and financial structure.
Later that same day, it was time for the Partner Relationship Meeting (PRM) meeting with Rilana, our People & Culture Lead. The PRM is a meeting designed to solve interpersonal tensions. This way, we try to connect more personally with our colleagues and understand what they are going through at work and in their private lives (if they want to share, of course).
In this meeting, we don’t talk about any problems you have with your projects, which can be solved in our weekly tactical meetings, instead, we discuss issues that might affect the whole team or personal announcements. We are all free to share how we feel, our problems, and what needs we have that have been met or not. Everyone's names got called out, so we made sure that everyone had the chance to speak.
One of the best parts of this meeting was the appreciation round, in which each of us will show appreciation to our colleagues, our mentors and even our parents or dogs or anyone that we want.
It was a unique and memorable meeting because many people, including myself, agreed that we had never had these experiences in a professional environment before, where we can feel deeply checked in, relieved and appreciated afterwards.
After all the important meetings, we had an after-work party on the roof terrace above the office in the evening. That was the perfect time to meet and connect with colleagues on a more personal level!
The second day had a normal start, which gave us time to continue working on our daily tasks.
The unique mark on the 2nd day was the workshop we had in the afternoon about “Introduction to Nonviolent Communication” (NVC).
The workshop was led by Elena Lange, who explained the definition of Nonviolent Communication, how it works and how we can apply it daily.
It was a fantastic workshop. We understood everyone has different characteristics, and therefore, different ways of communicating. We got to know our feelings better by filtering them, reflecting and being aware of how we reacted in some situations.
Once a quarter, we have an EMPAUAment Friday, specially designed to leverage Personal & Professional Development within the company, and it was included in the Onboarding Week agenda this time.
At these meetings, the whole company is invited to join workshops hosted by professional coaches from different areas, such as the Getting Things Done System (GTD), Sales Training, Leadership Training and Development Session.
There will be another blog that will dive into information about our self-development day soon! Meanwhile, you can check out our most recent EMPAUAment Friday here.
In the end, the whole onboarding week was more than extraordinary. Getting to know everyone was so inspiring, and we shared a lot of stories and laughter. And of course a lot of hugs too!!!
My time at EMPAUA has been very fulfilling, educational, and fun. I got taken great care of during my first days, and I received all the support I needed! Onboarding Week really helped me connect to my colleagues whilst working remotely. The onboarding process when I first joined was very successful in helping me integrate into the company and adapt to the new work environment.
