As the race for talent heats up company’s need to up their game. It’s no longer enough to provide a new employee with a company laptop and a desk on their first day. Here are just some of the amazing onboarding perks that the world’s top tech companies are offering.

Just to be clear, the majority of these onboarding perks pre-date COVID, and will no doubt be coming back in full swing as we ease restrictions all over the world.

Buckle up for boot camp

Etsy puts all new employees through their paces at their one of a kind bootcamp. During the camp, all new starters rotate through every team in the organisation.

Naturally, they spend a week with the team that hired them. After that, they spend four to six weeks with various other teams so that they can become fully immersed in the company. Well, at least you’ll be able to learn everyone’s names.

Wine not?

It’s no surprise that Twitter has a fairly elaborate onboarding policy in place. When a new hire accepts a job offer, Twitter begins the ”Yes to the desk” procedure. This is basically a 75-step process which covers everything from handoffs to setting up email addresses.

When a new hire starts, they are greeted with a Twitter t-shirt and a bottle of wine (happy days!). They also have monthly happy hour drinks on Fridays for new employees, as well as staff lunches.

Buddy up

Social media company Buffer has a fully distributed team, which means that they don’t actually have a central office. All of their staff work remotely, which poses its own challenges for onboarding (as we all know too well, given the last 12 months).

Each new hire is given three ”Buddies” who play different roles in their six-week onboarding; a Leader Buddy, a Role Buddy, and a Culture Buddy. New hires are introduced to their buddies before they start, and frequently communicate with them throughout their “boot camp experience”.

Get knitting

Pinterest has offices all over the world. Despite this fact, all newbies are brought to their San Francisco office for their official onboarding.

Before new hires arrive, they receive an introductory email with their schedule and are given the opportunity to introduce themselves to the company. All new hires met for breakfast on the first day before taking part in icebreakers.

New recruits are encouraged to take part in ”knitting” – a Pinterest term used to describe collaborating with people and seeing things from a different point of view (so you can leave your needles at home!).

Microsoft Mentors

Every week, Microsoft holds New Employee Orientation, or NEO, for new hires. At the NEO, the company runs through things like health insurance, holiday time and IT protocol. Of course, there are a few cringey icebreakers thrown in for good measure.

Most Microsoft starters are assigned a mentor who will be your go-to person if you have any questions. They really encourage an inquisitive culture, so there’s no such thing as a dumb question (within reason).

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