Congrats to you if you are in the fortunate position of being offered and starting a new role during this strange time! 

We do a lot of build up to interviews; we prep, plan, revise... but what happens once you start the role? How do you prepare yourself to successfully work from home when you are new to a company?  How do you become part of that team? 

I am one of those fortunate enough to start a new role only a couple of months back and working from home has not been all I expected, so I thought I would share the hurdles I faced and how you might overcome these too:

Hurdle: Building bonds with colleagues and feeling part of the team 

Working from home makes it difficult to build the rapport that would come naturally in the office environment, you may only see or talk to your colleagues on a weekly or monthly catch up. 

Jump the hurdle 

Set up one to one video calls with each of your colleagues (this may take time in a large company but worth the effort!), find out about their role in the company, how this relates to your role and find out some personal details so you can start to form a bond. 

Try to join in wherever possible, whether it’s a work-related email about advice, someone talking their successes, video meeting or a Slack/Whatsapp group chat on something completely not work related, be as sociable as possible to feel part of the team. 

Hurdle: Open exchange of ideas/communication

You can’t just quickly turn around your swivel chair and ask ‘Hey, has anyone had this situation before?’ or ‘what do you guys think of this?’

Jump the hurdle

You could suggest or even ogranise a weekly meeting if this is not already in place, where you and your colleagues can talk about each of your successes and challenges that week, encouraging everyone to chip in with their experiences and advice. 

Hurdle:  Work/life balance 

When working from home, trying to keep your work/life separate gets harder when you sit at the same table to work all day, and then eat your dinner off the same table in the evening. Sometimes you can burn out working more than you should as you feel you can’t switch off from it.

Jump the hurdle

Try to set up an ‘office’ in a room you don’t relax in when the evening comes, or failing that do some sort of activity (walk, yoga, even popping to the shop – for essentials obviously) at the end of the day, so it finalises the day. Read my colleague Paddy Well's blog on the 'Fake Commute' which is a great idea to keep your work/life separate. 

Check out our other blogs for more advice on working from home!

When it comes to my experience joining Forward Role these hurdles were thankfully made smaller for me by everyone, they had already thought of these issues and how they could help me overcome them. They pushed me to organise Zoom calls with everyone, they offer amazing flexibility and support, plus they already have a great Whatsapp group that's about 70% banter and 30% work chat, which is great ratio I say! 

I am now in month 2 and although I am very much looking forward to actually meeting my colleagues in person I do already feel part of the team, and really enjoyed our Zoom Christmas party last week!

If you are starting a new role remotely and need some advice, or if you are looking for your next contract marketing role then get in touch! 

Beth Price is B2C Marketing Contract Recruitment Consultant at Forward Role

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