First day on the job – My go-to digital tools

On my first day in a new job in the midst of lockdown, leveraging my favourite apps got me off to a really good start.

Communication – Teams / Skype for Business

In my new gig there is a mix of Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams being used. I got myself aquainted with the desktop versions and was quickly sharing and chatting away in meetings.

I don’t want to start smashing people with emails, nor do I want heaps, so I am using chat and channels where I can to reduce that email load, and show people how I like to work.

I spent a lot of the day i nmeetings, as expected, but being remote is not the same as being in the room. Not everyone was automatically sharing video, so I put it out there and asked if they could, that way I can meet them face-to-face. Not everyone shared, and that is okay too. The point is, that sitting here in my office, 1000s of kilometres away from my new colleagues in the midst of a lock-down, being able to see them on video was an important connection point.

Notes – OneNote

I’m a self-confessed OneNote fangirl, and the first day in a new job really proves out why OneNote is great.

One of my first actions was to create a OneNote for myself so I could make notes during the many first day meetings and the fire-hose of information. I am not going to remember all of the things, but at least not I can use OneNote to search for it.

Because I am working on a project I also created a OneNote for my Change and Adoption plan. Long gone are the days where I create a Word document comms plan. Word has it’s place, but Change, Adotion and Communicaiton are living practices. So I created a OneNote and avoided some email by re-working my first peice of communications there and sharing the link in Teams.

Information – SharePoint and OneDrive

It did not take me long to find my way to the Intranet and SharePoint.

The Intranet is an important source of core company information and resources. I know where all the policies are and start checking out who is who through corporate communications and the organisational structure. And, let’s be real, as an intranet-nerd I really wanted to have a squiz and see how it was all set up. First impressions are really good with this one.

I’ve also sussed out where my team is keeping their documents, and have started using my OneDrive. I’m all about the links, no attachments!

Community – Yammer

So I have found the Intranet, which means I found SharePoint, which means I found the waffle menu, and now I know they are using Yammer. YAS. Through Yammer I can see which communities are active and I am pleased to see there are a few. The learning and development team uses it a lot, which is great because I can see what training options are available. There is also a really active Change Management community, also great because I need to connect with that team. My own team has also made some in-roads with a few communities, which will be a nice starting point for my own work.

Notes Part 2 – Analogue

For all the benefits of OneNote, a day of unavoidable screentime can get a bit much. And, I find there are some meetings where having a physical notebook to scribble in is less disruptive, and enough to capture what I need to retain information.