Works better than you think!
In these crazy times, social distancing and isolation in the home office characterize our everyday lives. Some have been sent on short-time working at short notice, while others fear for their livelihoods. Even if the easing of regulations and subsidies is within reach, working life continues as normal for many. This is also the case at virtual7. We dedicated ourselves to the German public sector several years ago and have therefore been able to build up stable and continuous growth over the last few years. We are continuing to grow and would like to give you an insight into what the recruitment and onboarding process looks like for us, even in difficult times. To this end, we conducted an interview with our new colleagues, Kim and Philipp.
How was your start at virtual7?
Kim: I had my first day of work at virtual7 on April 1. I was so looking forward to this day and was incredibly excited to see how my first day at work would go during the corona crisis. When I entered the Karlsruhe office, I was immediately greeted warmly by Anja and Miriam, so all the excitement was immediately gone. After receiving a short briefing in the office with the most important things I needed in the first few days to be able to work from home, I was allowed to take part in the morning office meeting via (MS) Teams.
Philipp: Of course, it was a bit “special” because the coronavirus issue is influencing everything right now and that also affected my start at virtual7. I think the start was quite good and I always find it exciting when I look at the calendar and see that it was actually only five weeks ago.
How did you feel when you were sent home on the very first day?
Philipp: It was a bit of a strange feeling, also kind of surreal for the first day at work. But it could have been a lot worse. Everything was just super well prepared. Laptop, cell phone, access data, … everything was ready, I just had to plug in at home and get started. It was really well planned.
Kim: As I was in email contact with Anja before I started, I knew that my first day at work would only be a short one in the office and that I would be working from home for the rest of the day. So I was able to adjust well to this.
How was your first day working from home?
Kim: After the morning office meeting, I drove home because I had an appointment with our Managing Director Marcus Weiss at 11:00 a.m. to get to know him via (MS) Teams. After a short question and answer session, Marcus gave another new employee and me an interesting presentation about the company.
Philipp: Yes, it was a bit “special”. I remember being relatively exhausted in the evening because I had almost six hours of video calls and that was a lot of input. I spoke quite a lot with our sales manager, HR gave me a briefing on the internal systems and then I got to know my two mentors. After that, we actually went through customers and projects and discussed processes with each other.
How did your onboarding go?
Philipp: The individual appointments, which had already been planned and set beforehand, naturally had to be changed because I wasn’t on site. By the end of the first week, I had already spoken to almost all departments and got to know many colleagues from my cluster. You can just tell that virtual7 is growing and that onboarding is an everyday topic for colleagues. And I believe that virtual7 also has a special ability in its DNA to integrate new people into the system. It went really, really well for me.
Kim: Onboarding at virtual7 is very clearly structured. At the beginning, you have lots of meetings with other clusters so that you quickly get an overview of who is responsible for what and whom. I was very happy that this made it very easy for me to get started at virtual7.
How did the application process work?
Kim: I applied to virtual7 at the end of January. At the beginning of February I was invited to a telephone interview and shortly afterwards to an interview at the office in Karlsruhe, where I was told that they would get back to me in the middle of next week with an answer. I didn’t have to wait long for an answer. One day after my interview, I was invited to meet the team again, where I was presented with a job offer. I was so pleased that everything went so smoothly and quickly.
Philipp: I was lucky that virtual7 “found” me, so to speak. I just answered the phone. A colleague called me and asked if I would be willing to talk to someone from the HR department. In fact, the timing was a pretty good match. In the weeks before, I had already given some thought to my future career prospects. And then I went into the first telephone interview with Fabian. That was pretty good and it was definitely a good fit on both sides. Then I sent my CV afterwards and then I received an invitation for an interview in Karlsruhe. A little later, I went to Karlsruhe and sat down with Fabian and Jochen for an interview, which lasted an hour longer than planned. But I think that’s a good sign, because both sides were interested in talking to each other. Yes, and then I was accepted at very short notice. After I had made and communicated the decision, the contract issues were dealt with first, but beyond that they never lost contact with me. virtual7 simply filled this difficult time between acceptance, resignation and first day at work really well and did a really good job. As a new employee, you just feel really well looked after.
Why did you choose virtual7?
Philipp: I perceived the way they work as very professional during the discussions. And in combination with the upcoming organizational change to a responsive company structure, I also had a good feeling. In retrospect, this feeling has proven to be absolutely right, that you can do an incredible amount as an employee at virtual7. In many companies, it’s somehow a bit state-of-the-art to want to do this, but very few companies do it properly, because there is of course a lot of change involved, especially for managers and management, and decision-making powers are shifted to the clusters. In the conversations I had beforehand, I had the feeling that it would work better at virtual7 because a lot of thought had been put into how it could work well.
Kim: As I’ve been working in office management for a long time and the advertised position suited me perfectly, I simply had to apply to virtual7. The clear and modern homepage and the interesting videos online made me even more convinced that virtual7 was the right employer for me. And after the first 3 weeks I have to say that I am totally happy to be a part of virtual7.
How do you rate the corporate culture at virtual7?
Kim: The corporate culture is very transparent and open about all company-related topics. The team spirit is simply great and very warm. You immediately feel like a team member and not like “the new girl”.
Philipp: Well, with over 100 employees, virtual7 is no longer a small company and certainly no longer a start-up. Nevertheless, there is a very “familiar” atmosphere and a very open communication culture. I think our colleagues are proud of what they do at virtual7 and of the projects they drive forward. Modern communication culture, flat hierarchies and a social group into which you can integrate very well.
