
In the whirlwind of AI revolutions, Machine Learning breakthroughs, and relentless digital modernization, the tech 
world moves at what feels like the speed of light. But, amidst this ceaseless rush, it's crucial to remember: we're 
still human.

### When stepping down becomes a strategic move

Our need to pause, to breathe, to step back from the unending drive for innovation is not just a 
luxury; it's a necessity. It's what keeps us sharp, focused, and, paradoxically, more innovative in the long run.

Yet, in our quest for the next big thing, for staying ahead of the curve, we often forget this simple truth. We 
glorify the grind, the ceaseless hustle, forgetting that even the most gifted among us are not immune to burnout. 
Herein lies the critical role of organizational leaders.

It's not just about pushing for results; it's about 
knowing when to tell our teams to take a step back, to recharge. This isn't just about avoiding burnout; it's about 
maintaining a sustained appetite for challenge and innovation.

### Protecting high-achievers from themselves

Consider this: the most gifted individuals, those who drive our tech advancements, often neglect their personal 
needs in the pursuit of a higher goal. They're so focused on reaching that elusive next milestone that they forget 
to look after themselves.

This is where a leader's insight becomes invaluable. It's about protecting their people not 
just from external pressures but from their own tendencies to overextend. Leaders must be the guardians of balance 
in their teams, ensuring that their drive doesn't lead to their downfall.

### Short pauses for long-term success

Remember, the journey we're on in the tech world is a marathon, not a sprint. It's a long-term game, one that 
requires endurance, resilience, and, most importantly, periodic rest. We need to recharge our inner batteries, to 
ensure we have the stamina to see our visions through to fruition. This means creating an environment where taking 
a break is not seen as a weakness but as a strategic move for long-term success.

### Conclusion

In conclusion, as we navigate the exhilarating yet demanding world of technology, let's not lose sight of our 
humanity. Let's embrace the power of pause. By doing so, we're not just taking care of ourselves; we're setting the 
stage for sustained innovation, creativity, and success. Let's remember, to stay at the forefront of technology, we 
must first take care of the human behind the tech. Cheers to balancing the scales of innovation and well-being!


The Human Element in Tech: Why Slowing Down Matters

Every company's onboarding process is a pivotal moment, the first step in a dance that either cements or strains 
the relationship between a new joiner and the firm. It's the initial glimpse into the company's heart, showcasing 
its values, expectations, and working dynamics.

However, a poorly executed onboarding can inadvertently be the first step towards an employee's exit. Here's why, 
and how firms could differentiate themselves in this crucial process:

### The Risks of Getting It Wrong

1. **First Impressions Matter**: Initial perceptions are hard to reverse. A chaotic or impersonal onboarding can 
   leave new joiners feeling like mere cogs in a machine.

2. **Mismatched Expectations**: If the role doesn't match what was promised, disillusionment can quickly set in.

3. **Lost Confidence**: A confusing onboarding can make employees question their own capabilities.

4. **Isolation and Disconnect**: Without a proper introduction, newcomers can feel adrift in a sea of unfamiliar faces.

5. **Lack of Role Clarity**: Without clear expectations, employees can feel lost, leading to inefficiencies and 
   dissatisfaction.

6. **Missing Resources**: Absence of essential tools can hamper their ability to hit the ground running.

7. **Company Culture Mismatch**: If onboarding doesn't reflect the company's ethos, new joiners might feel out of place.

8. **Feedback Vacuum**: The initial days are when feedback is most crucial, and its absence can lead to insecurities.

9. **Future Uncertainty**: Without a growth roadmap, employees may question their long-term prospects.

10. **Decreased Trust**: A lackluster onboarding process can erode faith in the organization.

### Differentiating the Onboarding Process

Firms should recognize the importance of a robust onboarding process and incorporate unique elements to make new 
joiners feel valued:

1. **CEO Welcome**: An acknowledgment from the top brass emphasizes the importance of every role in the organization.

2. **Mentorship Programs**: A guiding hand ensures smoother integration and personal growth.

3. **Cultural Immersion**: Delving into company traditions and values fosters a deep sense of belonging.

4. **Tailored Training**: Catering to individual needs instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.

5. **Interactive Onboarding**: Engaging, interactive sessions boost involvement and retention.

6. **Feedback Loops**: A channel for newcomers to voice their opinions showcases their value.

7. **Ongoing Integration**: Continued support ensures long-term success and satisfaction.

8. **Networking Events**: Building relationships across the company enhances collaboration.

9. **Resource Accessibility**: Equipping employees with the right tools from day one is fundamental.

10. **Inclusion Initiatives**: Demonstrating a commitment to diversity sets a positive and welcoming tone.

11. **Transparency**: Keeping new joiners in the loop fosters trust and alignment with company goals.

12. **Flexible Onboarding**: Catering to individual learning paces and needs.

13. **Wellness Activities**: Highlighting the importance of mental and physical well-being in the workplace.

In conclusion, onboarding is not just an introductory phase, it's the foundation for an employee's journey within a 
company. It sets the tone, establishes trust, and can significantly influence retention and satisfaction. 
Businesses must, therefore, invest in refining their onboarding processes, ensuring they cultivate a sense of 
belonging, clarity, and mutual respect from the outset. Cheers!!


Onboarding: Why It Can Make or Break the New Joiners Experience


Working in the field of technology requires endless development and constant growth. This applies both to each employee individually and to the company as a whole. To this end, every six months we conduct reviews of different kind.

## Mid-Year Review

The mid-year review is aimed at self-analysis of each company member regarding their qualities, skills and habits. Each employee receives a personalised questionnaire to fill out.

After the completion of the survey, a 1:1 is conducted with the goal to discuss results, goals and conclusions. The results of the review are private, and shared only with direct management.

The mid-year review is conducted twice per year every January-February, and every July-August.

## 360&#xb0; Review

The 360&#xb0; review aims to help employees of all levels get feedback from colleagues, management and subordinates. Each employee receives personalised questionnaires to fill out.

After the completion of the surveys, a 1:1 is conducted with the goal to discuss results, goals and conclusions. The results of the review are transparent, so every feedback is delivered directly with names disclosed.

The 360&#xb0; review is conducted once per year every January-February.

## HelloWorld Review

As simple as it may seem, the company also needs its people feedback. Each employee receives a general questionnaire to fill out. The results of the review are private, and shared only with upper management.

The company review is conducted twice per year every March-April, and every September-October.

You can find it here => [https://docs.helloworldpc.com/docs/reviews.html](https://docs.helloworldpc.com/docs/reviews.html)

Enjoy!!! 😉


Reviews


In HelloWorld, each Software Craftsperson and UX Expert can belong to a specific seniority level at any time. These levels affect people's duties and compensation and help them focus on very clear and specific things while climbing the career ladder.

Above all, HelloWorld wants to act as a tailwind and not as a bottleneck for its people and their careers.

In order to help potential candidates to grasp fast what skills we evaluate mostly, we published the 4 core levels we use internally for our people to shed light on this blurry topic.

HelloWorld pays huge attention to actual hard and soft skills apart from the years in the field.

We believe that the years in the field are an indicator of battle-tested experience but on the other hand, we cannot rely solely on them since they can be extremely misleading regarding the actual development of the skills we evaluate most as an organization.

Enjoy 👉 [https://docs.helloworldpc.com/docs/roles.html](https://docs.helloworldpc.com/docs/roles.html)


Roles and Seniority Levels


Everyone is talking about culture so culture seems to be everywhere nowadays.

Culture for hiring, culture for working, culture for delivering, culture for speaking, culture for listening, culture for collaborating, and many more.

What is culture though? Is it the way we behave or we think? Is it the way we work and we collaborate? Is it the level of results we provide or the impact our team has? Is it the way we behave and we communicate? Is it the way we dream and set higher goals every single day?

So what is an organization's culture all about? Can you put it on paper using simple words to describe it?

This is what we did by issuing our manifesto divided into two main pillars:

- principles for our individuals

- principles for our teams

You can find it here => [https://docs.helloworldpc.com/docs/manifesto.html](https://docs.helloworldpc.com/docs/manifesto.html)

Enjoy!!! 😉


Our Manifesto


In a remote working environment where written communication is the primary way of collaboration, intentional writing is an extremely efficient way of exchanging information.

On the one hand, we reduce the noise in our messages but on the other hand, our words are wisely picked so they have greater meaning and value to the receivers.

This good habit helps our teammates to grasp fast what is really going on so they can act accordingly.

Intentional writing is not an easy skill, but it is an important one when we are talking about highly effective remote teams.


Intentional writing is the key


Remote working is great but it can cause you problems if you find yourself moving or disconnecting rarely throughout the day.

Sitting on a chair for hours can become a nightmare for your body’s posture or even your mental well-being.

Taking regular breaks or even standing up for a couple of minutes every now and then can be extremely beneficial for your health and your mindfulness.

Techniques like Pomodoro can assist you so that you switch consistently between focus and break time.


Take regular breaks


We are used to talking about remote working, but we rarely talk about the elephant in the room, which is remote management.

Remote management plays a huge role in the equation, if not the most critical one.

Organizations have to invest, hire experienced executives with the right mindset, and create more attractive workplaces in order to land talent from all over the world.

That said, organizations are forced to redefine themselves hugely if they want to stay competitive in the post-covid era.

After all, remote working is here to stay for good.


Successful remote working means successful remote management


Retrospective meetings are extremely important for the team’s health.

These are recurring meetings where the team members can speak their minds, highlight problems, propose alternatives and come up with efficient solutions.

Discussing common issues in an open-minded and transparent way is very helpful and helps the team members to get closer.

C-level executives and managers, better keep out of such meetings if you really trust your people and you want to see meaningful results.


Run efficient retrospectives


Running 1-1s regularly is a great way to stay in touch with our people.

Especially in a remote-first environment where there is no physical contact, we need to find ways to run meaningful discussions every now and then.

These meetings help us to build a stronger bond and discuss matters that concern us and cannot be shared in public channels.

After all, it is very important to prove to our people that we listen to them and take their personal will and goals seriously, and 1-1s play a vital role in this effort.


Catch up with your people regularly


Remote working is outstanding and helps us maintain a great work-life balance.

On the other hand, remote working mostly means working alone for a long period of time day in and day out.

Loneliness is a bad thing and can lead to depression sooner than we can imagine.

That said, it is important to take care of this side-effect of remote working to prevent ourselves from ugly burnout.


Burnout is lurking, so beware


One of the biggest perks of remote working is the flexibility that comes with it.

Being able to work from anywhere inevitably leads to that I can have flexible working hours too.

Setting a proper framework with regular standups, planning, review, and retrospective meetings helps remote people to arrange their schedules accordingly while staying focused on the outcome of their work and their team’s goals.

Just avoid overdoing it with calls.


Remote means flexible


Bringing remote teams together every now and then is very important for their morale.

Through such events, team bonding is getting stronger and people are given the opportunity to build even more qualitative relationships with each other.

After all, humans are social beings so periodical physical meetings are really important to their well-being.


Physical meetings are critical in a remote-first environment


Remote working might reduce office costs, but on the other hand, the demand for various collaboration tools increases so that these people can do the job in an optimal way.

Remote professionals need the right tools to communicate and collaborate, share notes and sensitive credentials, arrange meetings and video calls, submit a request to go on vacations, and so on.

Such tools and services might have been considered nice-to-have ones some years ago, but now they are absolutely must-have ones so that a remote team can function smoothly.


Equip your people with the right tools


Our people are the most valuable asset of our organization, so if we stop investing in them is like shooting our leg.

Devote adequate time and resources to help them evolve and develop their skillset.

After all, the level of our organization derives from the quality of our people 💯.


Invest in your people


Provide adequate time for your colleagues so that they can get prepared for an important meeting in an asynchronous way.

Running repeating low-value video calls to prepare for the “big” meeting is killing your team’s productivity 😬


Start favoring emails over video calls


Always start a video call with a predefined agenda 🎯

Video calls without a proper agenda in place tend to become brainstorming meetings leading to a huge waste of time.

Don’t hesitate to cancel a video call when there are no concrete topics to discuss 😉


Always start a video call with a predefined agenda


Teammates need to use the same language so that everyone is on the same page constantly.

This can be achieved through an official Handbook that encloses teams' guidelines and best practices.

That way, people can focus on the essential things without worrying or making constant decisions about all these little details here and there.

The absence of an official Handbook may lead to randomness and conflicts due to personal preferences and lack of guidance. Conflicts disappoint people and nobody actually wants this.

Last but not least, the official Handbook helps new-joiners to accelerate and grasp how the team works straight ahead 😉


The absence of an official Handbook may lead to randomness and conflicts due to personal preferences and lack of guidance


In a remote working environment, we must ensure everyone is on the same page at any time.

The secret ingredient is «asynchronous communication».

To accomplish this, all team members must become great writers and master «written communication».


Asynchronous communication means excellent written communication


Using old and inefficient techniques like [waterfall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model) while building modern software applications can become extremely dangerous in today's fast-paced business environment.

The main reason is that competition is enormous, things change lightning fast so businesses and IT teams need to find ways to work closely, maintain their flexibility and adapt fast.

[Extreme Programming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_programming) is a great recipe that solves these issues and helps us to build complex and useful applications while maintaining strong collaboration bonds with our customers. Let's see why.

## The problem

As an IT team, how often do you come across new requests from the customer's side that force you to refactor heavily or do things from the ground while a project runs?

As a customer, how often do you realize that you actually need something different compared with the things you asked for upfront while a project runs?

## Business needs are doomed to change

We need to realize that we tend to build even more and more complex software applications so not being able to predict everything upfront is quite possible to happen.

Actually, this is the most common one.

So the 1.000.000 dollars question is "How can we describe, estimate and foresee all these things that are not known or described in full detail yet, and might be required in the near future?"

We simply cannot!! We are not wizards that can tell the future, right?

## The solution

[Extreme Programming](http://www.extremeprogramming.org) is an approach that helps hugely to minimize this risk and bring the 2 worlds closer.

This Agile model helps us have small iterations, work side-by-side with the customers and adapt fast to their growing needs without worrying about error-prone estimations, newly introduced requirements, or last-minute changes.

With XP methodology we can provide value to our customers constantly while adapting to various requirements that were not visible or even described at first.

XP improves a software project in five essential ways:

- communication
- simplicity
- feedback
- respect
- courage

Through these principles, customers and IT people come closer, build stronger bonds, stay constantly on the same page and work for a common cause all the way long.

Let's build useful stuff together then. Cheers!!


Business and IT teams, stop arguing and start collaborating


The most valuable asset of every organization is its people. That said the hiring process plays a crucial role into finding talented people who match perfectly with the organization's culture.

Apart from that, the hiring process actually is the start of the journey, so it speaks volumes regarding the organization's ethos and values. Who wants to make a bad first impression, right?

So how do we check for perfect matches?

### Use the right tools for the job

We are using tools like [Workable](https://apply.workable.com/helloworld-pc/) to publish and manage our openings.

Platforms like [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/helloworld-pc/) and [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/helloworld.gr) are used to demonstrate them to the world.

### Curriculum Vitae scan

A CV cannot describe accurately a talented person, but it can provide some very important details about their background, their interests or even their personality.

Things that stand out:

- cover letters with a personal flavour
- involvement with open source projects
- hobbies, interests and activities outside of working hours
- social profiles
- the general feeling that the CV is prepared with ❤️

Why such an interest about social profiles, hobbies and activities?

This is because we are looking first for a human-being that can fit into our team and then for a professional who can do the job.

### Assignment

The very next step is a short technical assignment that lasts less than one (1) hour. Through this assignment we verify that the candidate has the technical knowledge required for this position.

There are tons of online platforms out there that provide excellent tools for this job and help us to automate it as much as possible.

Things we evaluate:

- soft skills questions, so we spot matches
- ability to solve algorithms with any programming language
- deep knowledge of the technologies in question like ReactJS, HTML, CSS, RESTful APIs, MVC, OOP etc

### Interview

At this stage a thirty (30) minutes interview takes place, so we get to know each other, discuss things that are not mentioned in the CV and analyze the assignment's results.

The candidate asks things about the organization's vision and goals while we try to see whether we are a good fit and vice-versa.

It is important to have a match for both sides in order for this marriage to become a functional one.

### Work together period

This is the final stage during which candidates work side by side with some of our people on actual stories and tasks. This period lasts for one (1) week and in the end we evaluate all this together with the candidate.

Through this process, candidates can see what does it mean to work with us in order to eliminate the possibility of any unpleasant surprises after getting hired.

We definitely don't want to waste peoples' time, so candidates are getting paid for their precious time and efforts before getting involved in this process and not after.

Let's make it work then. Cheers!!


Publications about "management"

The Human Element in Tech: Why Slowing Down Matters

Marios Fakiolas

CEO

Onboarding: Why It Can Make or Break the New Joiners Experience

Marios Fakiolas

CEO

Reviews

Marios Fakiolas

CEO

Roles and Seniority Levels

Marios Fakiolas

CEO

Our Manifesto

Marios Fakiolas

CEO

Intentional writing is the key

By HelloWorld PC

Take regular breaks

By HelloWorld PC

Successful remote working means successful remote management

By HelloWorld PC

Run efficient retrospectives

By HelloWorld PC

Catch up with your people regularly

By HelloWorld PC