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It’s important to reflect on the fact that, for many, it’s a difficult time right now in our country and across the world. COVID-19 continues to thwart our efforts to carry on as usual with our lives and, in many cases, with our careers.
Luckily enough, at Advertise Purple, we’ve had the distinct pleasure of being able to hire and onboard scores of new employees during a time when a lot of companies are downsizing. This is in part due to e-commerce and affiliate marketing witnessing a huge push at the moment.
It’s also due to the fact that we have systems in place that are designed to make sure new hires succeed here, from the very start. Human resources and onboarding/training are of the utmost importance here.
For the latest cohort of Advertise Purple hires, which started this week, it’s a pivotal time for them to soak up as much new information as possible, quickly. They’ll go through our rigorous all-encompassing training via Zoom, rather than in person, like they normally would have.
This is an adjustment both for those giving the training as well as for those being trained. It’s not ideal, but in 2020, if there’s one thing we’ve all learned, it’s that you should get comfortable rolling with the punches.
Our staff, new and old, have been incredibly adaptable during this time, and we commend them for staying passionate and engaged.
Our mentorship program
Devon Norris, Senior Director of Enterprise Accounts, told me a bit more about the mentorship program here at Advertise Purple, which started out as an idea posed by a more junior account manager.
Like many things at AdPurp, it was taken into consideration and eventually implemented.
It was put into place a few quarters ago, and it has stood the test of time as a great way to integrate new and growing employees more quickly into the culture.
Devon is in charge of matching mentors and mentees and had this to say regarding her feelings about the program:
“I’m in a unique position where I’ve been at the company for a good amount of time and I work closely with all of our departments, so I have a really good understanding of our employees. I can take into consideration their strengths and backgrounds, so that we can appropriately match them with a mentee. It’s truly one of my favorite parts of my job and I’m so honored that I get to spearhead this amazing program!”
How the mentorship program works
Through a simple process, employees at Advertise Purple are given the opportunity to sign up either as a mentor or a mentee. Of course, this is relatively common at many companies and agencies and by no means did we reinvent the wheel.
However, the goal of our mentorship program specifically is to connect mentees with mentors based on what they are looking to gain from the relationship. We aren’t merely talking about performance in this case.
For example, some employees are looking for how to grow in their role (or a new role that they might be setting their sights on) while others might simply be looking to build more relationships with members of different teams or even within their own team.
We don’t keep rigid structure to the mentor/mentee relationship, and we like to give ownership of the relationship to the mentors themselves.
Why the mentorship program works
One of our most valuable assets is our people.
At Advertise Purple, we know that the different backgrounds of our employees can be incredibly useful and can honestly move the needle in ways we can’t imagine. Of course, because we have great colleagues, our company culture is award-winning.
But, beyond just accolades and happy employees, we think that our advantage can come in shared information and cross-pollination between different teams and coworkers who might not necessarily have worked together.
The coolest thing to see is when a mentor gets something from the mentor/mentee relationship too! Of course, they’re supposed to help the mentee grow, but realizing how much knowledge one has at their disposal and sharing it is also a way to grow as well.
The combination of experience and new ideas can get us all a lot further than if we tried to go it alone.
Keeping our culture intact is on us
There’s no way to maintain a great company culture without the employees themselves banding together to help create and foster a community that supports each other and with the mentor/mentee system, it’s great to see us all be cheerleaders for those still up-and-coming.
It’s great to see more senior people realizing they can be of assistance, mostly due to the fact that they were in the mentee’s shoes at one point. Things can be difficult in a fast-paced agency environment.
That’s why we try to give everyone tools to help themselves thrive. We can’t wait to see more from these great new hires in the weeks and months to come. And, who knows, maybe one day we’ll be able to actually meet and go back to the office. Maybe? Okay, it was worth a try.
