Why We Believe in In-Person Onboarding at Teleport

In a world that’s increasingly remote and distributed, we made a deliberate decision at Teleport to bring our new hires together in person for their first steps with us.

It wasn’t an easy choice. It takes coordination, travel, time, money, and intentional effort. But for us, the benefits of in-person onboarding far outweigh the logistics.

Here’s why we believe face-to-face onboarding is one of the best investments we can make in our people, and how it’s helping us build stronger teams, faster.

It Starts With Connection

When we first designed our in-person onboarding program, our goal was clear: help new hires ramp up faster, feel more connected, and build trust from day one. Starting a new job remotely can feel isolating, like you’re being dropped onto an island with a laptop and a Slack login.

We wanted to flip that experience.

By bringing people together for their first few days, we create a shared starting point: a cohort of peers they can refer back to throughout their journey. They meet each other, learn together, eat together, and even compete in friendly Kahoot quizzes that reinforce what they’ve learned each day.

A Cross-Company Effort to Build Something Better

Our in-person onboarding wasn’t built in a vacuum. It was a collaborative effort across multiple departments, from People to Revenue to Engineering.

We sat down and asked:

• What’s working?
• What’s missing?
• How can we streamline this experience and make it memorable?

The result? A 3-day onboarding program structured around clear daily themes, each led by different departments across the company.

In addition, we’ve collaborated with our Senior Director of Sales Enablement to build a revenue-specific, two-day onboarding that follows the company-wide program. This ensures a well-rounded experience that supports our core goals: helping new hires ramp up faster, feel more connected, and build trust from day one.

One of the most powerful sessions is a behavior workshop led by our CEO. At Teleport, we don’t talk about values; we talk about behaviors. Because we don’t just believe in what we say, we live it.

Culture Needs More Than a Screen

We consistently hear from new hires that there’s no substitute for in-person interaction when it comes to understanding our culture. Sure, Zoom can handle intros and logistics, but it can’t replace bonding over lunch, sharing a joke between sessions, or shaking hands with the CEO.

Remote onboarding might be efficient, but it often skips over the intangible, emotional aspects of joining a company. That’s where belonging lives, and belonging is what we aim to create.

Through team dinners, picnics, icebreakers, and informal chats, new hires get to find their footing and their people. We call it “finding your tribe.”

The Impact Is Real

At Teleport we don’t just rely on gut feelings. We track the impact. Through Culture Amp surveys and onboarding debriefs, we’ve seen a clear uptick in key areas like:

• 🚀 Faster ramp-up times
• 🧠 Higher confidence
• 🤝 Stronger cross-functional connections
• 🗣️ Increased comfort approaching leadership
• 🧭 Clarity in role and expectations

And most notably, since rolling out this program, we’ve seen our lowest voluntary and involuntary attrition rates to date.

Onboarding Doesn’t End at Day 3

While our in-person onboarding program lays the foundation, we believe onboarding is a journey, not just a one-time event. That’s why we’re continuing to evolve the experience to include clear 30-, 60-, and 90-day milestones, ensuring that support and growth continue well beyond the first week.

We also pair each new hire with a New Hire Buddy as soon as they accept their offer. This early connection helps build trust, answer questions, and create a personal support system even before day one.

The Result: People Feel Seen, Supported, and Set Up for Success

From our latest onboarding survey:

“100% of respondents felt supported by their manager, felt connected to the Teleporters they started with, and felt prepared for their first day. Most importantly – they felt welcomed.”

That’s the kind of impact we want to continue investing in.

Final Thoughts

In-person onboarding isn’t about nostalgia or tradition. It’s about building community, clarity, and confidence from the very beginning. It’s a signal to our new hires that you matter, and we’re here to set you up for success.

In a remote-first world, we believe that making space for real, human connection isn’t a luxury. It’s a strategic advantage.

Thank you to Mike Battle and Alex Feune de Colombi who built this program and supported this blog post. We’re just getting started.

Ready to Join Us?

If you’re excited by the idea of working at a company that invests deeply in people, collaboration, and secure access to infrastructure, we’d love to hear from you.

👉 Explore open roles on our Careers Page and come start your journey with us.