Hanna Makowska: Onboarding process should be constantly evolving When joining a new company, there is always a lot to learn: countless tools and processes, new faces and names to remember and ways of working to adopt in a fairly short time. How could a good Team Manager in Technical Documentation make the process easier for a newcomer? Let’s hear how Hanna Makowska from Etteplan’s Wroclaw office in Poland has tackled the challenge. Hanna joined Etteplan back in 2013 as a Junior Software Design Engineer and little by little she acquired more demanding tasks. After four years in programming, her career took a drastic turn to Technical Documentation as a Project Engineer. Currently she works as a Team Manager for a team of 9 Technical Documentation professionals. “I was given a lot of trust when I decided to walk down the path of project management with a background in Software”, Hanna smiles, “there was definitely a lot to learn but I’m grateful that people had the confidence in me and trusted that I was up for the challenge.” Remote but still engaged For her team, she always wants to highlight three things starting from the beginning: engagement, commitment and communication. Remote working has also further emphasized how important it is to help each other and nurture the relationships within the team – take care of the human side. When it comes to the onboarding, Hanna describes it as a constantly evolving process that can and should always be improved. The most important thing to tackle during the first few weeks in the new job is to avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed. “You need to be willing to adjust the onboarding based on the background and skills the newcomer has. During the first days, I’m trying to focus on introducing the team, company and most crucial tools to the new colleague.” Hanna tries to engage many people from the team during the onboarding process. In addition, new colleagues who join Hanna’s team will also get a personal buddy to accompany and support them during their first weeks. Growing requires willingness to change The aim of the team is to keep growing and one upside of the pandemic is that the team is now open to hire great new talents also from other cities in Poland since everyone is working remotely regardless of the physical location. In Technical Documentation, people can come from very different background as Hanna’s own case already proves. According to her, different profiles and skills for example in illustrations, animations, UI, 3D design and writing content form a strong and diverse team. To Hanna, it is interesting to see how the team evolves over time and also develop new ways of staying connected as more and more people join the team. As a manager, she sees that her job is to remove barriers and support the collaboration within her team and have the willingness to change.
