I’m seeing more posts saying that new hires need to be in the office because they ramp up faster, than if they’re remote. There’s a fundamental presupposition in these statements that once we’ve hired these people, we’re immediately going to throw them to the wolves and have them work all by themselves.
If that’s true, then being in-person does have advantages in that…
- someone may notice them struggling and offer to help
- they may be more likely to ask for help if they can physically see people in the space around them.
Yet, throwing them to the wolves on day one is a horrible plan, if the goal is really to get them ramped up quickly.
It would be far more effective if we paired them up with someone experienced and had them work together until that person was up to speed. Interestingly, when we do that, it doesn’t matter if we’re in-person or on a video call.
If we really care about our new hires then perhaps we should focus on those practices that actually help them. Making them work in isolation is not that.
Related:
- An example where we truly supported the new hires and ended up with two of the best teams in the company.