Engineering onboarding plan template

Engineering onboarding plan (30/60/90)

General information, not legal advice. (law) = required by the source named.

Paperwork you owe (Ontario, unless noted)

• ☐ Before day one, if you have 25 or more Ontario employees: give written job info. That is your legal and operating name, contact info, where they'll work, starting pay, pay period and pay day, and expected hours. (law) ESA guide, Mandatory information (https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/mandatory-information-employees).
• ☐ Within 30 days: give a copy of the latest ESA poster. (law) ESA s. 2(5), (7) (https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/00e41).
• ☐ Within 30 days, if you had 25 or more employees on January 1: give your written policy on disconnecting from work. (law) ESA s. 21.1.2(3).
• ☐ Within 30 days, if you had 25 or more employees on January 1: give your written policy on electronic monitoring. (law) ESA s. 41.1.1(4).
• ☐ As soon as practical: tell them about your policies to support employees with disabilities, including job accommodation. (law) O. Reg. 191/11, s. 25 (https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/110191).
• ☐ Collect SIN and emergency contact info now, after the offer, not before. (guidance) OHRC sensitive-info guide (https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/iv-human-rights-issues-all-stages-employment/6-requesting-job-related-sensitive-information).
• ☐ Quebec: make the employment forms and documents about working conditions available in French. (law) Charter of the French language, s. 41 (https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/document/cs/C-11).
• ☐ Other provinces: ask a lawyer what you owe a new hire.

Days 1 to 30: get set up and ship something small

• ☐ Laptop, accounts, VPN and dev environment work. (Setup)
• ☐ Read the architecture overview, coding standards and deploy process. (Learn)
• ☐ Meet each teammate 1:1 for 30 minutes. (People)
• ☐ Pair with the buddy on a small fix. (Code)
• ☐ Ship a first pull request that is small and real. (Code)
• ☐ Join sprint planning and a retro. (Process)
• ☐ Shadow an on-call shift. (Learn)
• ☐ 30-day check-in with the manager: what's clear, what's confusing, what do you need? (Feedback)

Days 31 to 60: own some work

• ☐ Own a feature, with support. (Code)
• ☐ Take part in architecture reviews. (Learn)
• ☐ Give a short demo or talk. (Communicate)
• ☐ Review teammates' pull requests. (Code)
• ☐ Find one piece of tech debt and propose a fix. (Initiative)
• ☐ Meet product, design and QA partners. (People)
• ☐ Join on-call with a senior buddy. (Operations)
• ☐ 60-day check-in: are expectations clear? Where do you want to grow? (Feedback)

Days 61 to 90: lead something

• ☐ Lead a project from plan to delivery. (Lead)
• ☐ Help onboard the next hire. (People)
• ☐ Share what you've learned at a retro. (Communicate)
• ☐ Write or update docs for a system you now know. (Docs)
• ☐ Take on-call shifts on your own. (Operations)
• ☐ Have a career talk with your manager. (Growth)
• ☐ 90-day review: self-review plus manager review. Set goals for next quarter. (Feedback)

Check-in questions (use at 30, 60 and 90 days)

1. What's working?
2. What's in your way?
3. What do you need from me?
4. Is anything about the job different from what you expected?
5. Do you need any accommodation or change to do your best work? (If yes, follow your accommodation policy.)