A well-structured onboarding process significantly improves morale, engagement, and retention. Employees who experience strong onboarding are up to 18x more committed to their roles.
This is especially important in tech, where turnover rates are the highest across industries. Developers require tailored onboarding that addresses company culture, distributed workflows, and complex knowledge transfer.
Use Tecla’s onboarding framework above to overcome common challenges, streamline integration, and maximize the value of your new hires from day one.
Tecla Answers: What Is Developer Onboarding?
Employees who undergo exceptional onboarding are 2.6 more likely to be satisfied in their roles. But how do you undertake effective onboarding for tech talent?
Developer onboarding involves integrating a new hire into their role, including the larger tech team and company. It entails not only connecting them with the right tools, resources and paperwork, but ramping up key relationships and project knowledge transfer.
Learn more with Microsoft’s developer onboarding template.
The Logistics of Onboarding Software Developers in LatAm
Hiring from LatAm introduces unique dynamics: different time zones, languages, and workflows. It also offers exceptional potential, if onboarding is done right.
Overall, key outcomes of strong onboarding include:
- 50% faster time-to-productivity
- Higher engagement and morale
- Stronger long-term retention
- Smoother integration into workflows and culture
Yet, 44% of companies require at least two months to onboard a developer – such as getting familiar with the codebase, architecture, remote processes, etc.. Tecla’s approach aims to reduce that ramp-up without sacrificing quality.
Find out how to accelerate tech onboarding from GitLab here.
Top Developer Onboarding Challenges in the U.S. & Beyond
Onboarding is the first impression that your new hire will get on the job. The first 44 days are highly influential on their decision to stay — which is why you should address common challenges in your remote developer onboarding practices.
Remote Onboarding Challenge #1: Information Overload
81% of employees feel overwhelmed by onboarding, especially with info dumps. Even though you have lots of documentation, try to break it into chunks for microlearning.
Tecla Recommends:
- Break onboarding into microlearning sessions.
- Use a mix of async materials and live intros.
- Assign one hands-on task in the first week.
Check out PeopleManagingPeople’s guide to stop drowning new hires in info.
Remote Onboarding Challenge #2: Tool & Access Issues
It’s difficult to ramp up as a new hire when you’re locked out of company systems. In fact, 43% of new hires waited more than a week for tools/workstation to get in place. Be sure you take the time to verify full access, credentials and licenses for your developer.
Tecla Recommends:
- Verify credentials before Day 1.
- Introduce workflows and tools early.
- Provide clear onboarding on security policies.
Learn from the best with Harvard Business Review’s guide to onboarding new employees.
Remote Onboarding Challenge #3: Poor Documentation
Poor documentation isn’t just bad for product quality, uptime and productivity. It’s also a factor in the developer job experience. Studies suggest that subpar documentation leads to 2.5x higher developer churn in the first 30 days.
As developers get familiar with your systems, they may waste hours figuring out codebases or architecture. Overall, 45% believe greater access to corporate knowledge would reduce turnover.
Tecla Recommends:
- Bring your documentation up to speed before the new hire arrives.
- Schedule documentation reviews to spur ongoing updates.
- Give developers access to documentation tools such as Nuclino, HubSpot and GitHub.
Need to clean up documentation? Head to New Stack’s guide to fixing poor documentation.
Remote Onboarding Challenge #4: Remote Gaps
Distributed teams may lack warmth or real-time guidance to get remote developers well-integrated. In fact, 65% of new hires struggle with having no clear contact person for questions, while 14% feel isolated during onboarding.
Tecla Recommends:
- Create a welcome package (whether virtual, physical or both!).
- Assign an onboarding buddy or onboard new hires in virtual cohorts.
- Schedule a regular weekly check-in, so your developer can ask questions as needed.
Read GitHub’s handbook for remote onboarding new-hires.
Remote Onboarding Challenge #5: No Feedback Loops
If your developer doesn’t receive structured feedback during the first month, they may feel frustrated or unsure. Just consider that 20% of new hires are confused about their daily tasks.
Make sure you have well-structured feedback loops that encourage new hires to do their best work — and stay with the company in the long run.
Tecla Recommends:
- Implement peer-to-peer feedback reviews to get your teams collaborating.
- Put 1:1s, performance reviews and team retros on the calendar.
- Celebrate achievements publicly in your virtual workplace, so your new hire feels recognized.
Get WeWorkRemotely’s remote tips for stronger feedback cycles.
Best Practices: Onboarding Remote LatAm Developers
Stat of note: Strong onboarding correlates with 2.5x revenue growth and 1.9x profit margin (Tech Funnel).
88% of new hires say their employer did a poor job with onboarding. Avoid this rule by incorporating our remote developer onboarding best practices — as curated by our experts at Tecla.
1. Implement 30/60/90-Day Plans
A whopping 60% of companies say they don’t set short-term goals for new hires. Set clear expectations and goals in manageable phases for the first 30, 60 and 90 days.
2. Assign Mentors or Buddies
Help new hires navigate culture and context faster with personalized guidance. 86% of new hires are grateful for the support of an onboarding buddy to accelerate and integrate socially.
Hear from Harvard Business Review on how onboarding can make or break new hire success.
3. Use Centralized Documentation Portals
Digitize processes to reduce paperwork and improve accessibility. Documentation portals such as DocSend or Notion allow you to share large volumes of documents in a structured and secure space.
Learn more about unlocking ROI with onboarding from Tech Funnel.
4. Send Pre-Onboarding Materials
Introduce your company culture, mission, and values before the first day. Create a preboarding process, including emails and checklists to rev up excitement and prepare your developer.
Find out how onboarding is key to company culture from SHRM Business.
5. Automate Setup and Processes
Leverage tools like GitHub templates, internal bots, and onboarding workflows. Try setting up your own internal company chatbot to answer common employee questions, or leverage AI to handle manual tasks. After all, 68% of organizations are already using AI in their hiring and onboarding processes.
Check out IBM’s onboarding automation guide for industry-specific advice.
6. Schedule Ongoing Check-Ins
Build communication into your onboarding schedule to improve retention. Get your daily stand-ups, weekly check-ins and monthly reviews on the calendar.
Delve into Gallup’s survey on why the onboarding experience is key to retention.
Onboarding Tips for U.S.–LatAm Distributed Teams
Key statistic: 37% of remote organizations identified setting up effective virtual onboarding as a top challenge (Workable).
For distributed teams who may have opposite schedules or little time zone overlap, remote developer onboarding may occur asynchronously. Here’s how to personalize onboarding remote tech talent for your company.
1. Async Video Introductions
Make the most of video tools to establish effective communication on hybrid teams. Use Loom or Snagit to record team intros, product walk-throughs, or FAQs.
2. Set Up Communication Channels Thoughtfully
Balance formal updates with informal team bonding on Slack or Teams. Don’t forget to make a casual intro on your company-wide channel, too.
3. Respect Time Zones
Connecting in real time can be challenging for distributed teams with mismatched schedules. Rely on async status updates or shared boards (ex: Trello, Jira) to avoid burnout.
4. Encourage Remote Pair Programming
Get your new developer in touch with a peer to resolve challenges, bugs and questions — while also nurturing close connections. Support collaboration and knowledge sharing with tools like Tuple or Live Share.
5. Recognize Early Wins
Reinforce confidence and team belonging through visible recognition. Try to celebrate a win early-on — even if it’s as simple as recognizing their first month at your company!
6. Establish Remote Rituals
Onboarding includes culture. Foster team connection with remote rituals such as virtual coffee chats or games.
Check out Teamland’s list of virtual games to play with your co-workers.
How Tecla Helps Companies Onboard Remote Developers Faster
“The fact that TECLA put us in front of really high-quality and fitting candidates almost immediately was outstanding. It made it possible for us to keep building our product and add capabilities to our team in a very efficient way.” (See full review)
At Tecla, we deliver high-quality developer matches from LatAm in as little as 7 days, with a median time-to-start of 6–8 weeks. Recent successes include:
- 3 weeks: Limber Health onboarded 6 developers
- 4 weeks: Wesper hired 8 engineers
- 8 weeks: Scene added 5 engineers
Our end-to-end onboarding support includes:
Pre-Vetted LatAm Talent
Fully screened developers ready for remote, async teams.
Learn more about our industry-best tech screening processes.
Faster Ramp-Up With U.S. Companies
Developers experienced in cross-border workflows, English and async practices.
Get to know the advantages of remote-ready developers.
Client Onboarding Support
Tools, templates, and post-hire check-ins to ensure success.
Understand our expert-backed end-to-end talent solutions at Tecla.
LatAm-Focused Retention Strategies
Culturally tailored programs to reduce churn and deepen relationships.
Explore the nearshore advantage of Tecla hiring solutions.
Level Up LatAm-Based Developer Onboarding With Tecla
89% of employees who underwent effective onboarding are engaged at work. A well-structured developer onboarding process is the key to rapidly integrating your new hires and improving long-term job satisfaction. Leverage our remote-friendly onboarding best practices and tips to set up frictionless onboarding and new hire outcomes.
At Tecla, we connect you with pre-vetted LatAm developers who ramp up faster — and stay longer. Contact us to accelerate your onboarding and retention strategies today.
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