Medium Engineering revamped remote onboarding by adding recorded classes, dedicated checklists for managers and buddies, point-of-contact handbooks, and richer feedback loops, showing how structured processes cut stress and speed new-hire productivity.
Medium Engineering realized that remote onboarding needed concrete structure to keep new hires productive and engaged. By treating onboarding as a repeatable process rather than an ad-hoc checklist, they reduced uncertainty and accelerated ramp-up time. The core change was to make learning resources flexible and always available, letting managers schedule classes within the first 30 days and giving hires the freedom to attend when they can absorb the material best.
They recorded all onboarding classes, turned them into a library, and built living handbooks that anyone can edit but now have clear owners. Point-of-contact owners keep the content fresh and give new hires a go-to person for specific topics. Separate checklists for managers and onboarding buddies were rewritten for remote friendliness, covering Slack access, calendar invites, initial 1:1s, and starter project assignments.
Feedback became a two-way street with deeper new-hire surveys and plans for manager and buddy surveys. A dedicated Slack channel surfaces suggestions in real time, and the team iterates on the process continuously. The result is a scalable, remote-first onboarding flow that lowers stress, improves knowledge sharing, and accelerates new engineers' productivity.
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