My company provides a 24/7 onboarding voice chat, where experienced team members are always accessible for questions. This system significantly reduces onboarding time, with most questions answered within minutes and team members starting regular code contributions in days. While some people may be uneasy with this persistent voice channel, participation is voluntary. Newcomers can simply join, ask their question, and leave. The company culture prescribes an expectation that at least some seniors should be available for new people, but naturally the extroverted ones participate more often.
In my experience, the "remote work hindering junior employees" narrative hasn't held true. Admittedly, there is an initial managerial effort required to accommodate remote work. But then remote onboarding thrives. So, as you say, it's not a remote work issue, it's a cultural one. Or as I would say, it sounds like an issue with managers refusing to do their job and manage the remote company.
Wait a minute, a 24/7 voice chat with experienced team members? How is that staffed?
Are you in some sort of huge-team highly-distributed setup with offices everywhere, or does the company expect people to work 24/7? (I'm guessing somewhere in the middle, but would be curious to learn more.)
The voice chat is available 24/7 but members of offices that have someone to onboard are usually participating, which helps. If a new team member works office hours in California, someone from CA will usually be there, or someone from adjacent time zones. If someone new from Germany is there, usually someone senior from that same office will participate as well.
Most activity in the voice chat takes place on workdays, but we don't treat the channel very formally. Sometimes some people are just hanging out and others are working. I used to join it when I was gaming a lot in the past to just chat/help out. Sometimes people would play multiplayer games there after work and still answer questions for those in other time zones. There doesn't need to be a rigid structure for this, just a friendly culture and a voice chat channel.
In my experience, the "remote work hindering junior employees" narrative hasn't held true. Admittedly, there is an initial managerial effort required to accommodate remote work. But then remote onboarding thrives. So, as you say, it's not a remote work issue, it's a cultural one. Or as I would say, it sounds like an issue with managers refusing to do their job and manage the remote company.