Most startups spend months hiring, but they forget that the first day of work is more important than an interview. It is in the first week that the employee decides whether it is mine or not.

I'll tell you how we built onboarding in teams. Without too much romanticism — with cases and mistakes.

Problem #1: Nobody needs a beginner

The classic picture is: an employee enters a chat where there are 126 unread messages, no one answers, no access to systems, no tasks, no mood.

What to do:

• Appoint a buddy "mentor for a week." This is not a Team Lead, but an openspace neighbor/department colleague.
• Make an access table — Notion or Google Sheet with a checklist: "access to Jira - yes, to corporate mail — yes."

Welcome package (a case from life)

In one of the teams (20+ people) We made a simple but memorable welcome set.:

• Hoodies with the company's logo
• Stickers and a notepad with quotes from the CEO (yes, it worked)
• Letter from the founder: short, personal, without pathos
• Bonus: a promo code for coffee at the nearest coffee shop near the office. 

As a result, people actually posted it in stories. Not because it was necessary, but because it touched.

The scenario of the first day

Here is an approximate plan for 1 day (can be adapted to the remote location):

09:30 — welcome call from HR

10:00 a.m. — Getting to know buddy and setting up a workplace

11:00 a.m. — mini tour of the office / virtual tour of the systems

13:00 — welcome lunch with the team

15:00 — product introduction from product

16:30 — the first mini-task in the task tracker (must be successful!)

17:30 — feedback on the first day

What is important

• Feedback in both directions. Ask at the end of the day, "What was unclear? Where are you stuck?"
• Make sure that the newbie meets at least 3 people in person (or in a video call).
• Don't expect loyalty — create an excuse to show it.

Onboarding is not about instructions. It's about the atmosphere: "you're not here by chance, we've been waiting for you."