Onboarding

Welcome to Sourcegraph! We are so excited you are part of the team or considering it. This page outlines the onboarding process from the time an offer is signed, through starting at Sourcegraph.

This guide applies to all Teammates globally, including temporary and part-time contractors. Please reach out to the People Team (people-team@sourcegraph.com) with questions.

Ways a Teammate can join us

Types of employment

  • Full time contractor
  • Part time contractor
  • US Employee
  • Intern
  • PEO Employee

You and your recruiter will discuss employment types and start dates prior to signing the offer.

Before Day 1 at Sourcegraph

After signing your offer, you’ll receive two important emails. The Talent team will send you a welcome email and BambooHR (our HRIS) will send you an email.

There 5 tasks new hires must complete within 48 hours of signing your offer letter.

  • Fill out your BambooHR profile. You will receive an email from BambooHR titled “Welcome to Sourcegraph” prompting you to complete your profile information. This ensures our People Team will have everything ready for your first day!
    • Please fill out everything listed in the form, including the citizenship and visa information which will be used by the People-Ops to remain fully compliant with all local laws, country employment laws, customer contacts, and to support travel for work events.
  • Upload a photo of yourself to your Bamboo profile. We will use this photo to create an Avatar for your Sourcegraph accounts, like Slack. Please submit a color image that is not blurry or pixelated (selfies work great!) Please upload the photo directly to this task using the attachment feature.
  • Complete your background check. You will receive an email from Checkr to complete a background check. Please provide all the required information as soon as possible to ensure the background check results are returned prior to your first day, which is a requirement to start.
  • Place an order for your Sourcegraph computer immediately after signing your contract. You can find instructions here.
  • Make your welcome video. We have a company meeting every other week, during which we introduce our new hires via a video! In the next 48-hours, please record and submit a ~30 second video (recorded horizontally) and submit the final version using this google form. Details to include in the video:
    • Your name
    • Where you are located
    • Your role / who you report to / what you’ll be doing
    • How you heard about Sourcegraph (feel free to only include if you heard about us in a cool way, if you were referred by someone, or if your Sourcegraph Recruiter did a great job recruiting you)
    • What you are most excited to work on at Sourcegraph
    • A fun fact about yourself 🎉
  • Order your Sourcegraph swag pack. We love our swag and think you will, too! Use this link to provide your shipping address and place your order.

The People team will send additional information to prepare you for Day 1 at Sourcegraph. You will receive this email by the end of the business day prior to your start date.

After Day 1 at Sourcegraph

Guiding Principles

Everyone is here to support you as you onboard.

  • Joining a new company can be overwhelming—there’s a lot to learn! As you navigate your first few weeks at Sourcegraph, we want you to know that everyone on the team is here to help and will gladly drop anything to answer any question you have.
  • Every time you’re curious or confused about something—just ask! When you do so, use public discussion channels as much as possible.

Think and act like an owner

  • At Sourcegraph, we don’t think of teammates as resources—we think of them as owners of their work, who constantly reevaluate how to use their talents to be as impactful as possible. We value your opinions and ideas. You should always feel empowered to identify potential improvements and act upon them, whether they be improvements to processes (like onboarding), our handbook and general documentation, our codebase and tooling, or our product. Never assume that a problem is somebody else’s to fix!

US Teammates

🔍 Employment verification

US Teammates will complete an I-9 form remotely through Workbright within their first 3 days at Sourcegraph. More information and instructions will be provided during onboarding, but please be aware that you will need to present valid employment documents to complete the I-9 form (you can find a list of acceptable documents here.

⚖️ Benefits

Benefit eligibility begins on your first day. Keep in mind that when you get your credentials will depend on when you set everything up.

💸 Getting Paid

US-based Sourcegraph teammates are on a semi-monthly payroll cycle. Paychecks are the 15th and last day of every month (or the closest business day prior to those dates). You will receive an email from our payroll team, with a link to set up your payroll and benefits through Rippling.

Keep in mind that teammates starting on the day before any given payday will receive their first paycheck on the following payday.

Non-US Teammates

💸 Getting Paid

Non-US based teammates are on a monthly payroll cycle, whether they are hired through a PEO or as a contractor. Contractors will submit an invoice at the end of each month. Please read more about the invoicing process and find resources here.

🗺 Talent outside the US

You can read more about how we engage talent outside the US [here].

Onboarding expectations

This is a basic breakdown of our expectations for providing a smooth onboarding process:

  • New teammate has the tools and resources they need to navigate their day to day (accounts, software…)
  • New teammate has the necessary support from their peers, manager, and People team (regular 1-1s, shadowing…)
  • New teammate knows where to find answers to their questions
  • New teammate experiences no logistical challenges (payroll, expenses, benefits, setting up accounts or other systems…)
  • The onboarding checklist is manageable and easy to navigate by new teammates

Onboarding experience

Onboarding checklist

Before your first day, we will email you a link to your onboarding checklist. This will serve as a guide for you to navigate your first weeks with us. You will be provided tasks, context, and will be pointed to the right resources.

We don’t expect you to know everything by the time stated in each task. We know this is a process. But we want you to have the resources available and to know where the information is for you to come back to them later.

For the most part, this is a self paced process, tasks and content is presented in sequence, but you are free to organize your own time. However, some tasks are mandatory. Mandatory Tasks

Some parts of the onboarding process are mandatory. Current onboarding mandatory tasks are:

  • Tool Set up - No due date

  • Enabling Jamf

  • Completing BambooHR profile

  • Security Training - Due one month after start date.

    • Watch Security Awareness training
    • Complete Security Awareness training assessment (form)
    • Read the security policy
    • Sign security policy acknowledgment
    • Enable 2FA on GitHub
    • Enable 2FA on GSuite
    • Review the Code of Conduct
    • If the task was not completed by the due date you will receive a reminder alert via email. The grace period for completing the task will be two weeks after the original due date. In the event the task is not completed by the end of the grace period an escalation notification will be sent to your manager and the People Ops team.

  • Preventing Harassment and Discrimination Training - Due one month after start date.

    • This mandatory training is refreshed annually on the anniversary of your start date.

  • One-Month Feedback Milestone Meeting - Due one month after start date.

Please reach out in #ask-people-team or tag Kemper Hamilton directly in the Process St comment section if you have any questions or would like to request updates to any onboarding information.

Onboarding buddy program

Creating a positive and successful onboarding experience for our teammates is a top priority. One way we ensure new hires are supported is through our Onboarding buddy program, which connects new teammates to a current Sourcegraph teammate that can share their experiences and advice to help make onboarding a little smoother.

Onboarding Feedback

We welcome feedback about how we can improve our onboarding process for future new hires. Here are some of the ways we collect onboarding feedback:

Onboarding Feedback Milestones

Onboarding Feedback Milestones help us to enhance new teammates’ performance and wellbeing. These milestones help managers gather insight about teammate’s progress and development, as well as support teammates in avoiding burnout, clarifying expectations, giving feedback on progress and stimulating confidence in new teammates during the first few months.

We conduct milestone surveys via Lattice at the one month and three month mark.

One month check-in

People Ops sets up a 15 minute zoom meeting with each new hire at the 1-month mark to collect live feedback and address any questions or concerns.

Onboarding survey

Surveys are conducted at the 3-month mark to collect feedback from all new teammates to make sure that their onboarding experience is properly equipping them with the support and resources necessary for them to be successful in their new role.

Onboarding experience - Survey questions:

  • Was the onboarding process successful in helping you become productive as fast as possible?
  • Was the general onboarding process successful in helping you become productive as fast as possible?
  • Was the specific onboarding process successful in helping you become productive as fast as possible?

Onboarding content - Survey questions:

  • Was there anything that was not provided in your onboarding that you think should have been?
  • Did the onboarding process provide you the tools to carry out your role?
  • Did you have the resources to use them properly?
  • Did you have the necessary check-ins with your manager and teammates to ask questions, have shadowing sessions, etc?

Onboarding format and presentation - Survey questions:

  • Was the onboarding platform (Process.st) intuitive and easy to follow?
  • Was the format easy to follow?
  • Was each task and its purpose communicated clearly?

Here you can find dashboards with the onboarding survey results.

Team specific onboarding

Many teams also have their own team specific onboarding pages that are important to review, such as: