I joined the Thomas team last year after being in my previous company for three years. It was a medium sized company, but I was in a small team of only four.A lot of our workforce were working in field-based sales roles, so you’d only have about twelve people in the office at a time and everyone in my team were in the office full-time. So, you could say I’d gotten to know my team members quite well over the past few years and I felt pretty comfortable with them.
I’m quite a shy person, and starting a new role always feels a bit daunting. You’re stepping out of your comfort zone, which is exciting, but like I said... daunting. Compared to my old company, Thomas allows flexible working, with many people working in a hybrid model and my new colleagues were now based all over the world. It meant that the usual ‘water cooler’ chatter that I’d gotten used to in the past to get to know my colleagues was a bit trickier. Everyone was super friendly and keen to help me, but it meant that without the constant face-to-face contact it was a bit harder to get to know people.
Within my first week at Thomas, a new team member of mine showed me my team in Thomas Connect.I was able to see everyone and how we compared with each other. Who was assertive, who was a perfectionist, who was methodical and who was naturally outgoing, amongst other personality and behaviour traits. My name and my insights sat right next to theirs, so I could see where I fit in within the team and where my skills sat. It immediately made me feel like I belong. It was a scientifically-backed tool which told me how I was going to fit in, which was really reassuring.
Whilst I was settling in, I had many intro calls with my new colleagues from different departments. Due to us being a hybrid workforce and based all over the world, many of these were over Zoom. Everyone was super friendly and happy to help (like you’d expect working for a company that focusses on making people happy at work!). A few weeks in, I received a request from someone via email. Instead of the cheerful, conversational tone I had with them in our intro call, this email was short, succinct and void of many pleasantries. Before I could allow myself to spiral into whether I’d offended them in some way, I went onto their Thomas Connect profile and compared theirs with mine. It showed me how they like to communicate in a direct, to the point, way when sending emails. Without having this at my fingertips, this would have taken me months to realise.
As it’s a new product, I’d never used Thomas Connect before starting my new role at Thomas, but now it’s my go-to. I’ve been in my role about six months now, and although I feel settled, I’m still finding my feet. Thomas Connect helps me prepare for meetings with different stakeholders, understand how different people like to work within the business and it gives me a wealth of insights about myself that feel pretty spot on. It’s like having a mate at work who’s always ready to help you, and it’s all backed by science, so I know whatever it tells me can be trusted.
