Internal Onboarding Process

Before email creation

BambooHR

Make sure the person’s profile exists and is complete. See the BambooHR profile section.

The two most important fields are the “Work email” and the “Timezone TZ”. Via the Okta integration, the email will be created using the value written in the “Work email” field (make sure to follow preferredname.preferredsurname@sourcegraph.com convention); and Okta access will be sent to the new hire considering their timezone.

Onboarding Checklist

A week before someones start date, make sure to run their checklist. We use Process St as our onboarding tool. Go to our Internal Process St hanbook page to see how to run a checklist and complete them.

The checklist is integrated with Slack and it notifies the Tech Ops team in the #onboarding-internal channel when a checklist is run. The main reason we create them the week before someone starts is because it is enough time for all internal teams to set everything up.

Keep in mind that the person’s email won’t exist yet, but we can add it to the checklist all the same, as we already know the format.

Payroll

As a next step, a week before their start date, we send Payroll an email with all US teammates starting, see the onboarding email templates doc.

All other teammates get access to Deel (if applicable) and Airbase via Okta.

Hiring Managers

Managers should work with Tech Ops so that new hires have the necessary tools by day one. Once we assign them the onboarding checklist, they should inform the Onboarding team of any changes they’d like to make. Note that the week prior to start date we can only make minor tweaks, big changes should be asked for in advance.

Onboarding Buddy and Mentor

Hiring managers should tell the onboarding team who the teammate’s buddy and mentor (for relevant teams) are. We must complete the onboarding checklist with the correct names so they populate for the new teammate.

Avatar

Before someone starts, we use the image provided by them here to create an avatar. For each person, we create a folder in the Automated Avatars folder called “YYYY-MM Preferred Name+Surname Avatar” that contains the original image and three versions of the avatar. You can follow the instructions here to create an avatar.

Teammates are encouraged to create a new one or change the background color themselves if they want to.

Swag

We use Printfection for onboarding swag. You can read more about how we order swag here.

We send a link to teammates in the Welcome email thread, that allows them to order the type of swag they want (unisex or form-fitted) and put the address they want for shipping. You can see the email in the onboarding email templates doc.

After email creation

Once the email is created, there are several things we need to do.

Notify the company

We send a message to #teammate-announce letting everyone know that new teammate are joining and that their emails are now live. The sooner we do this the better. Here is a template message:

    Hello everyone! :tada:
    New teammates are starting next week and their emails are now live:

    Role/Title
    - Teammate's preferred name + surname - teammate's email

    Tag the manager

Hiring Manager

Hiring managers should:

• Create recurring 1:1 with new teammate
• Add new teammate to any team/role specific meetings and calls

Calendar

Because they will be added to Google Groups by Tech Ops, they will be automatically added to company events and team specific ones. We should schedule some events in the new teammate’s calendar:

• Schedule 15min meeting on 1 month mark (with Inés)

  • Invite description:

    Hi! I’ve created this meeting to catch up and talk about how your first month at Sourcegraph went. Feel free to change the time of the meeting.

    Feedback is super important for us. Please take some time before the meeting to think of the highlights and lowlights of your onboarding process. Have a great day!

• Add all new teammates in cohort to:

  • the next “Meet the Founders” event - in the Events calendar (just once)
  • the next “Meet the People Team” event - in the Events calendar (just once)
  • the next “Meet & Greet” event - in the Events calendar (just once). This event should happen the day after start date (Tuesday)

• Schedule a 15min i-9 meeting for US teammates on their first or second day.

Welcome email

The Friday before someone starts, we send the Friday email in the Welcome email thread started by the recruiter when they were hired. You can see the email in the onboarding email templates doc. A good practise is to schedule send this email for Friday 6am UTC.

Slack channel

We create a channel for the cohort. We add all new teammates, the onboarding team and payroll.

• Channel name: new-teammate-cohort-monthday (example: new-teammate-cohort-may12)
• Channel description: A channel for teammates joining MONTH DAY to get to know each other, ask questions and share experiences :tada:
• Welcome message: Schedule send the message for Monday morning (7am UTC). - Message: Hi @here! Welcome! :blob-dancer: Please use this channel to connect with other teammates starting today, ask any question you have and even share information. I will be here all week, and then leave this channel for you