Hi!
Seeking advice on onboarding a new tester remotely.
In some weeks a new tester will join our cross-functional team. Currently, I am the only tester there and will be the main contact for the new colleague. To help to get the tester started, make her familiar with our tools, processes, environment, and quirks.
Maybe also some mentoring, as I do have a bit more experience (whatever that may mean).
I want to be helpful and supportive but not a helicopter colleague. But where to draw the line?
Are there any tips from people who started their job remotely? What did you like the most and what didn’t you like at all?
Or if you’d onboarded people, are there activities you are doing always and others you gave up doing?
I’m a consultant and during Covid I’ve been starting small projects remotely, … all the time. Here’s some of my insights:
It’s a 2-way street. You can guide them as much as possible but they are going to have to give you some feedback also. I would book a 1:1 meeting with them every week or 2 weeks and ask them what they’ll need. How it’s going, what can be done to improve the way of working. Don’t suggest anything yourself and let them come up with idea’s. They’ll feel better and feel like the have added value.
Many new testers are scared in the beginning of not having an added value.
We’re having some pair-testing/mob-testing sessions with a few people just so they can learn the way of testing but also the people. Compliment them, when they find something even if it’s a dupe say “nice find” make them feel welcome and part of the team.
We tend to give them challenges as in ‘create X and Y in the app and get it to status archived’ – if they have questions, feel free to ask (just not me, you can ask questions to anyone of the dev-team to get to know them a bit also). Really fun and really works to get to know the team!
What I liked a lot is that my credentials & access are fixed the day when I started at my clients. There is nothing more annoying then starting a new job and having 0 access. Especially during the remote-working.