Keep new hires warm between offer and day one

A short sequence of emails between the signed offer and day one that keeps a new hire feeling like part of the team before they've badged in once.

When to run it

The offer is signed and the start date is six weeks out. In between, the new hire hears nothing from you and plenty from everyone else — a counter-offer from their current employer, a recruiter with a shinier role. Ghosted start dates and cold-feet renegotiations cluster in exactly this silent window.

Why it works

Signing an offer is an emotional peak; the weeks after are where doubt lives. A pre-boarding sequence keeps the decision feeling made: a note from their future manager, what their first week actually looks like, the team they're joining. Each touch is small, but the cumulative effect is that by day one they've already "started" — and a counter-offer has to beat a relationship, not a PDF.

The play

1. Start the sequence at offer acceptance, anchored to the start date — every touch is timed off that date, not off the send before it.
2. Week one: a personal welcome from the hiring manager, not from no-reply@.
3. Midway: the practical stuff — first-week schedule, who they'll meet, what to bring — the email people actually save.
4. Three days out: a short "we're ready for you" with day-one logistics.
5. Exit instantly if the hire withdraws or the start date moves.

Ship it with Hogsend

ctx.sleepUntil plus the ctx.when scheduler turn "three days before the start date, at 9am their time" into one line — the waits are durable, so a six-week gap survives every deploy in between.

import { durationToMs } from "@hogsend/core";
import { days, defineJourney, hours, sendEmail } from "@hogsend/engine";

export const preBoarding = defineJourney({
  meta: {
    id: "pre-boarding-sequence",
    trigger: { event: "candidate.offer_accepted" },
    entryLimit: "once",
    suppress: hours(0),
    exitOn: [{ event: "candidate.withdrawn" }],
  },
  run: async (user, ctx) => {
    const startDate = new Date(String(user.properties.startDate));
    const daysBefore = (n: number) =>
      new Date(startDate.getTime() - durationToMs(days(n)));

    await sendEmail({
      to: user.email,
      userId: user.id,
      template: "preboarding/manager-welcome",
    });

    await ctx.sleepUntil(daysBefore(14), { label: "two-weeks-out" });
    await sendEmail({
      to: user.email,
      userId: user.id,
      template: "preboarding/first-week-guide",
    });

    await ctx.sleepUntil(daysBefore(3), { label: "three-days-out" });
    await sendEmail({
      to: user.email,
      userId: user.id,
      template: "preboarding/day-one-logistics",
    });
  },
});

The same date-anchored shape drives the event reminder sequence recipe.

How you'll know

Day-one show rate, and replies — pre-boarding emails from a real manager address get answered, and every reply is a hire who's still engaged. If you run enough volume, compare withdrawal rates before and after the sequence shipped.