Get New Engineers Committing Code in Week One, Wherever They Sit
For a new engineer, the first fortnight is mostly access and context: a laptop, accounts in the repository, ticketing, chat and cloud, and an understanding of the codebase and the team. We design the joining and probation process your company runs, from offer acceptance to a dated confirmation decision, with remote joiners in mind. We then help you set it up in your own system or on the GullyHR platform.
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Share your requirementsThe starting point
Is Your First Month Slowing New Engineers Down?
Where onboarding is left to the hiring manager, the order of events changes with every joiner. The laptop arrives late, permissions are asked for one at a time, and a remote joiner has no desk neighbour to ask. Probation then ends in a formality or a surprise.
We help you give each joiner the same dependable start, whichever team or location they join.
You may be experiencing:
- Laptops, repository, ticketing and cloud access arriving piecemeal across the first weeks.
- Remote joiners left to work out the team's habits alone, with no named person to ask.
- Security and confidentiality briefings given to some joiners and missed for others.
- Client-specific requirements, such as background checks or training, discovered after the person has started on the account.
- Expectations for the first months held in the manager's head, so the probation review has nothing to refer to.
- Reviews postponed during a release, leaving confirmation to happen by default.
- Interns, contractors and conversion hires following a different route from permanent staff.
What we can help with
Our Onboarding and Probation Services for Software Companies
Joining Journey Review
Trace what happened for recent joiners from acceptance to confirmation, including the engineers, QA, support and delivery staff who joined remotely. We note where steps were missed, repeated or left without an owner.
Pre-joining Plan
Design the contact between acceptance and the first day: documents to bring or upload, equipment dispatch, the first-day schedule, the buddy's name and a message from the manager. Remote and relocating joiners get a plan suited to them.
Access and Equipment Readiness
List what must be ready on day one: device, accounts in source control, ticketing, chat, cloud and client systems, with an owner in IT and a date for each. Access is requested by role, from a standard set, instead of one ticket at a time.
Buddy and Team Orientation
Define the buddy role, what a buddy covers in the first weeks and how much time it needs. Add a team and product orientation covering codebase, release routine, on-call and the people to know.
Security and Confidentiality Briefing
Set a briefing every joiner receives before touching client or production systems, with a signed record. Where a client contract asks for specific induction, that item is added to the role's checklist.
Staged Expectations Plan
Write the expectations for the first weeks, the first quarter and the end of probation, by role family, in terms a manager can observe: first merged change, independent task, on-call readiness, client interaction.
Probation Framework
Fix the probation length and review points for each role, the format of the review, who attends, and what evidence is considered. Include a route for the joiner who is struggling and for the one who is clearly ready early.
Confirmation and Letters
Prepare confirmation, extension and non-confirmation formats, with an approval route and recorded reasons, so each outcome rests on a dated decision.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the agreed scope, you can expect:
- A map of your current joining journey with the gaps marked.
- A pre-joining pack and day-one schedule, with a remote variant.
- A standard access and equipment list by role family.
- A buddy guide and team orientation outline.
- A security and confidentiality briefing record.
- Staged expectation plans for the main role families.
- Probation review formats and a confirmation approval route.
- Set-up of the joining workflow, reminders and records in your system or on GullyHR.
Step by step
How We Work
Follow Recent Joiners
We speak to the last few joiners, their buddies and managers, and to whoever provisions access, to see what happened and not what the procedure says.
Agree the Standard
We settle what must be ready before the first day, what must be completed before production access, and who owns each item.
Design and Test
We prepare the plan, checklists and review formats, and try them with the next joiners in one or two teams before wider use.
Set It Up
We configure the workflow, reminders and records so pending access, briefings and review dates are visible to HR, IT and the manager.
Review Against the Baseline
Before work starts we note where you stand today. After a group of joiners has gone through, we review the results with you and adjust.
The difference
Make the First Weeks Productive and the Probation Decision Clear
A structured start helps your company:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering the time from joining to full access, the share of joiners with a completed security briefing before first access and the probation reviews held on the planned date, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Have accounts, devices and access ready before the first morning.
- Give every joiner a named person to ask, including remote joiners.
- Record security and confidentiality briefings before systems are touched.
- Tell a joiner what good looks like at each stage.
- See which probation reviews are due and which have slipped.
- Record confirmation or extension with the reasons.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Product and Engineering Teams Hiring Steadily
Give a steady flow of joiners the same start, whichever manager receives them.
IT Services Firms Onboarding to Client Programmes
Combine company induction with the client's own requirements for each account.
Remote-first and Hybrid Companies
Replace the desk neighbour with a designed first fortnight.
Companies Hiring Freshers and Interns
Run a cohort start with a shared induction and a clear conversion review.
Support and BPO Operations
Handle batches of joiners with training, system access and floor readiness in order.
How it usually shows up in information technology and software
Onboarding in software companies is largely about access and context. A laptop has to arrive, accounts for the repository, ticketing, chat and cloud environments have to be opened, and the new engineer has to learn the codebase, the team's habits and the client or product. Where this is left to the hiring manager, the order varies, equipment arrives late and permissions are requested one by one over the first weeks. Remote joiners feel it most, since there is no desk neighbour to ask. Security and confidentiality briefings are given to some and missed by others. Expectations for the first months are carried in the manager's head, and the probation review becomes a formality, or an unpleasant surprise, because nothing was written down at the start.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in information technology and software
Access arrives piecemeal
Repository, tools and environments are requested one at a time over the first weeks.
Remote joiners are alone
With no buddy or schedule, they learn the team by trial and silence.
Security briefing is patchy
Some joiners sign confidentiality terms and hear the rules, and others do not.
Probation expectations are unwritten
The review is about impressions rather than agreed outputs.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Prepare before the first day
Equipment, accounts and a first-week schedule are ready before joining, triggered by the accepted offer. The onboarding process lists the steps and owners.
- 02
Assign a buddy
A named colleague for questions, a first task and an introduction to the team, whether in the office or remote.
- 03
Brief on security and confidentiality
A short, recorded session on client data, devices and acceptable use, signed on the first day.
- 04
Write a staged plan
Agree what the engineer should be doing by the end of the first, second and third month, with the manager.
- 05
Hold the probation review on a date
A conversation against the plan, followed by a clear confirmation, extension or other decision. Use onboarding workflows if they help.
What to check this week
- Ask the last remote joiner how long it took to get all access.
- Check whether a buddy was named for each recent joiner.
- Find the signed confidentiality record for the latest three hires.
- Look for a written plan for any engineer in probation now.
- Note the date of the next due probation review and who owns it.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies depends on your establishment, your state and your sector, and it changes. This page describes a practice; it does not state a legal position.
What this looks like in information technology and software
The parts of onboarding and probation that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Offer to Joining
The silent notice period is where offers are lost.
What this coversHide
Offer to Joining
The silent notice period is where offers are lost.
What this coversHideMost no-shows are decided mid-notice, not on joining morning. A contact plan with named owners closes the gap.
- Offer acceptance confirmation
- Appointment letter within 24 hours
- Manager contact in week one
- Counter-offer check mid-notice
- Document collection
- Pre-joining communication
- Logistics confirmation
- Day-minus-two contact
- Acceptance-to-joining tracking
Onboarding for Technical Teams
Productive in week one, not month two.
What this coversHide
Onboarding for Technical Teams
Productive in week one, not month two.
What this coversHide- Pre-joining communication
- Document collection
- Asset and access provisioning
- Repository and tooling access
- Buddy assignment
- Team and product induction
- Security and confidentiality briefing
- 30/60/90-day plan
- Probation review
- Confirmation
Questions on this, in information technology and software
Ideally before or on the first day, in a standard set decided by role, with production and client systems added after the briefing. We help you set the order and the owners. The timing you adopt is your decision.
Usually a peer on the same team, close to the work and not the manager. We define what the buddy covers, how much time it takes and how the arrangement ends, and we suggest a short check at the end of the first fortnight.
That depends on the role, your appointment terms and what must be observed. We help you set review points and criteria that fit each role family and record the outcome. Please confirm the period and notice terms with a qualified professional.
The process notes concerns early, discusses them with the person, agrees a support plan and reviews again. Extension or non-confirmation then follows from recorded evidence. GullyHR does not give legal advice, so confirm your obligations with a qualified professional.
Often yes. If your HR system, ticketing tool or chat already carries parts of the work, we design the process first and then set it up there. Where nothing suits, we can configure workflows, reminders and records on the GullyHR platform.
A proportionate version of it. Their terms differ, but identity, confidentiality, access approval and equipment still need to be recorded. We design a lighter route alongside the one for permanent employees.
Laptop or device, accounts for the main tools, a first-week schedule and a named buddy. Waiting until the first day to request these costs the first week.
With the same plan as office staff, plus scheduled calls, a buddy and clear written steps. Remote joiners rarely ask for help unless they are given an easy way to.
The period follows the appointment letter. What matters is a written plan, a mid-point conversation and a review date that is kept.
Both, with a split written down. HR owns the paperwork and the sequence, and the manager owns the role orientation and the plan.
Give Every Joiner a Clear Start and a Fair Probation
If new engineers wait for access, or probation ends without a decision, start with what actually happens between acceptance and confirmation.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Book an Onboarding Consultation
Tell us about your teams, the roles you hire and how new people join today.
The general method — what onboarding and probation covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the onboarding and probation page. What is above is the part that differs for information technology and software.
To run this in a system rather than on paper, see onboarding and employee movement.
Other HR topics for information technology and software
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for information technology and software, or another industry.