A new colleague needs more than a list of documents. They need to know who can help, what good work looks like and whether a question is welcome. In a distributed team, those signals must be made visible. Use this playbook to give the first week a gentle structure without filling every hour with meetings.
Before arrival: make the essentials easy to find
Assign an onboarding owner and a buddy with enough time to help. Ask the new colleague about their working time zone, preferred name and languages. Share a simple arrival message with a meeting link, the first-day schedule and a person to contact if access does not work.
Create a welcome room with a short checklist, a team map and links to the few documents needed this week. Check permissions using the role the new colleague will have. Do not give organization-wide access simply because it is faster than identifying the right project rooms.
Day one: introduce people and working agreements
Begin with the buddy, not a tour of every feature. Walk through finding a colleague, reading availability and asking a short question. Explain the team’s quiet hours and how to leave a useful message. Make it explicit that Focusing is a normal part of the day, including for new starters.
Choose reading languages together in Live Translator before the first team conversation. Let the new colleague try a sentence in the language they are most comfortable using. Agree how to clarify unfamiliar words. Share a small glossary of project terms and explain who can update it as questions emerge.
A helpful opening: “You never need to wait until our weekly catch-up to ask where something is. Your buddy is your first stop for the small questions.”
Days two and three: complete one real task
Choose a task that matters, can be completed in a few days and has a named reviewer. It might be improving an error message, updating a support guide or checking a small workflow. Explain the outcome and the boundaries, then show an example of a similar completed piece of work.
Use a project room for a short working session. Let the new colleague share their screen and explain what they understand so far. The buddy should ask questions and supply context instead of taking over. Record any missing documentation while the gap is fresh, then give the new colleague time to work independently.
Days four and five: build a small network
Introduce three people with different kinds of context: someone who understands the customer, someone who knows the product history and someone who can unblock practical problems. Give each introduction a purpose. A short conversation about a real question is usually easier than an unexplained thirty-minute coffee invitation.
For colleagues outside the new starter’s hours, use a welcome thread with a personal introduction and a reply window. Ask people to share how they prefer to be contacted. Do not turn being present in the workspace into an attendance test; connection should make the first week safer, not more performative.
End the week with a useful review
Ask the new colleague to show their completed task and describe where they got stuck. Review the welcome checklist together and remove anything that did not help. Ask which names, tools and terms still feel unclear. Those questions give the buddy concrete work for the second week.
Agree on one independent responsibility and one learning goal for the next fortnight. Record the owner and the next check-in in Meeting Notes & Decisions. Get participant consent before using assisted notes, review the wording together and keep personal onboarding feedback in an appropriately private place.
- Can I find the right person when I need help?
- Do I know what I can decide on my own?
- Can I explain how my first task helps the team?
TAKE THIS WITH YOU
A good first week leaves a new colleague with one completed contribution, a few trusted people and permission to keep asking questions.