Document 02 of 10

The Expectations Agreement

Your first contract of trust. Send this before they start.

The Expectations Agreement is not a legal document. It is a social and operational one. It tells your new hire that you are a serious organisation built on structure and clarity.

Most businesses send a welcome email. You send a framework. That difference is felt immediately and sets the tone for everything that follows.

Send this

Before start date

Signed by

Hire and manager

Delivered via

Email attachment

Next doc

Task Execution

Section 00

What It Is

Before your hire's official start date you send them this document. It is one to two pages. It covers working hours, response standards, the contingency plan, core commitments, and cultural standards. They read it, sign it, and return it before Day One.

This is not a formality. Every line serves a purpose. Working hours removes ambiguity about availability across time zones. Response standards set the professional bar before any work has been done. The contingency plan tells your hire that you have thought about failure scenarios and have a plan. Core commitments establish ownership of work product and confidentiality without requiring legal language. Cultural standards give your hire a vocabulary for how your team operates.

What most businesses send

A welcome email
A Slack invite
A vague start time
An assumption that the hire gets it
No written standards of any kind

What Hirevado clients send

A signed expectations framework
Explicit hours and response standards
A documented contingency plan
Written cultural standards the hire can reference
A signal that this is a serious operation

Section 01

Why It Matters

The agreement does three things that no welcome email can do.

It establishes you as the professional

Most of your hire’s previous employers sent a Slack invite and hoped for the best. You are sending a structured framework before they have even started. That contrast registers immediately and raises their own standards in response.

It removes ambiguity before it creates problems

Ambiguity is expensive in remote teams. A hire who is unclear about response times, working hours, or escalation paths will make assumptions. Those assumptions cost you time, relationships, and money. This document eliminates them before Day One.

It gives you a reference point for accountability

If a performance issue arises in week two you do not need to argue about what was expected. The agreement was signed before they started. Standards were explicit. This protects you and the hire.

If it was not written before they started you cannot hold them to it. If it was written and signed you never need to have that conversation.

Section 02

Working Hours and Time Zones

One of the most common sources of friction in global remote teams is unstated assumptions about availability. You assume your hire knows to be online at 9am your time. They assume they have flexibility. Neither assumption was stated. The result is a missed meeting in week one that sets a poor precedent.

The working hours section eliminates this. State the hire's standard working hours in their local timezone. State the required overlap with your core team. There is no such thing as over-communicating availability expectations in a remote team.

Field	What to Include	Real Example
Standard hours in their timezone	The hire's working day stated in their local time.	Standard working hours: 9:00am to 5:00pm Philippine Standard Time.
Equivalent hours in your timezone	The same hours converted to your timezone so there is no confusion.	This corresponds to 6:00pm to 2:00am Eastern Standard Time.
Required core overlap	The specific window during which both parties must be available simultaneously.	Required overlap: 9:00am to 12:00pm EST which is 10:00pm to 1:00am PST. This window is non-negotiable.
Lunch and break windows	When the hire takes breaks and for how long.	Lunch break: 30 minutes taken between 12:00pm and 2:00pm local time. Response times during this window are relaxed.
Out-of-hours expectations	Explicit statement that you do not expect responses outside working hours unless urgent.	Messages received outside working hours do not require a response until the next working day unless marked urgent.

Do the timezone conversion for your hire. Do not ask them to figure it out. Include both the local time and the equivalent in your timezone for every time reference in the agreement. One line of preparation prevents weeks of confusion.

Section 03

Response Standards

Response standards do not exist to make your hire anxious. They exist to eliminate the anxiety that comes from not knowing what is expected. A hire who knows they are expected to acknowledge a Slack message within 5 minutes does not spend their day wondering whether they are responding fast enough. The standard removes the uncertainty.

Slack / DM

5 minutes

Unless explicitly in a documented deep work block or on a live call. If unavailable, acknowledge immediately with your status and return time. Silence is a violation, not a default.

30 minutes

During working hours only. Email is for non-urgent communication. If something is urgent it does not go in email. Urgent matters go to Slack with the designated signal.

Urgent signal

Immediate

Requires immediate acknowledgment regardless of current activity. Reserve it for genuine urgency only. Overuse destroys the signal and creates alert fatigue.

Include this verbatim in the agreement

Responding to a message does not mean completing the underlying task. It means acknowledging receipt. An acceptable response to a complex request is: “Got it. Working on this. Will have an update by 3pm.” This closes the loop for the sender immediately and gives you time to complete the work without creating anxiety on either side.

In an office a colleague can see you working. In a remote team, silence is invisible. A hire working hard on a complex task who does not acknowledge messages looks identical to a hire who is ignoring them. The acknowledgment standard protects both parties.

Section 04

The Contingency Plan

You documented the hotspot requirement in Doc 01. The Expectations Agreement is where your hire signs off on it. By the time they return this document they have formally acknowledged that technical failures are their professional responsibility to manage and that the 30/60 policy is the non-negotiable response protocol.

The contingency section must be specific. Include the hire's actual backup location by name. Include their hotspot provider. Vague contingency plans are not plans. They are hopes.

The 30/60 policy: agreement language

You are required to have a mobile hotspot available and charged during all working hours. In the event of a power or internet outage: switch to your mobile hotspot immediately and continue working without interruption if possible. If full service cannot be restored within 30 minutes notify your manager with a status update covering what has failed, your current connectivity status, and your estimated restoration time. If service remains degraded at 60 minutes relocate to your confirmed backup location and notify your manager once you are back online with full service. Failure to follow this protocol is a policy violation and will be treated accordingly under the Professional Accountability System.

Your backup location

Specific name and address of a co-working space or cafe.

Your hotspot provider

Provider name and data plan.

Policy acknowledgment

Signed and dated below.

Critical

If the backup location field is blank when the agreement is signed there is no backup plan. Require specific names and addresses before accepting the signed document. A hire who cannot name their backup location has not thought through their contingency plan.

Section 05

Core Commitments

Core commitments are four operating principles that every person in the organisation adheres to. State them plainly. They should take 30 seconds to read and carry no ambiguity.

All company information is confidential

Information about clients, candidates, processes, pricing, and internal operations is confidential. It does not leave the organisation in any form, during employment and after it ends. If you are unsure whether something is confidential, treat it as if it is.

All work product is owned by the company

Anything created during working hours using company resources or on behalf of the company belongs to the company. This includes documents, databases, templates, and processes. Personal projects on personal time are not affected.

All decisions and updates are documented in writing

Verbal agreements do not exist in this organisation. If a decision is made on a call it is posted in the relevant channel afterward. If a task is assigned verbally it is confirmed in writing. This protects everyone and creates an operational record the whole team can access.

All recurring processes follow documented SOPs

If a process has an SOP, the SOP is followed. If a hire discovers a better way, they document it, flag it to their manager, and wait for the SOP to be updated before changing their approach. Individual improvisation without documentation creates invisible debt.

Section 06

Cultural Standards

Culture is not a values poster. It is the specific behaviours you enforce every day. Four standards give your hire a vocabulary and a compass. When you give feedback, reference them. When performance slips, reference them. When someone excels, name which standard they demonstrated.

Clarity

Communicate explicitly, no guesswork

Say what you mean. Ask if you are unsure. Do not assume the other person has the same context you do. In a remote team, ambiguous communication is not corrected by a hallway conversation. It compounds.

Responsiveness

Reply quickly, acknowledge messages

Speed of response is a form of respect in a remote environment. It tells the sender that their time and their question matter. Slow responses are not neutral. They create uncertainty and slow the whole team.

Ownership

Take responsibility, follow through

Own your tasks from start to finish. If something is assigned to you it is yours until it is complete or formally handed off. Do not wait to be chased. Do not let things fall through without flagging them.

Proactivity

Identify problems before they escalate

Do not wait until something is broken to raise it. If you see a potential issue, flag it early. If you need something to do your job, ask for it before the deadline. Reactive teams are slow teams.

The four standards only become culture when they are referenced consistently. In Week One scorecards, in one-on-ones, in performance reviews, name the standard. Repetition makes the vocabulary real.

Section 07

The No Second Job Policy

This is one of the most common unspoken issues in global remote hiring. A hire working a second job during your hours is not giving you what you are paying for. This policy is not about control. It is about mutual commitment. State it plainly in the agreement and walk through it verbally on the pre-start call. Do not soften it. It is a reasonable professional standard.

Include this language, and walk through it on the pre-start call

This is a full-time career position and you are being paid accordingly. The expectation is your full professional attention during working hours. Working a second job during company time is a breach of this agreement and grounds for immediate termination. What you do before or after your working hours is entirely your own business. But during your contracted hours this role has your complete focus.

What this policy protects:your hire's output quality, their ability to build genuine expertise, your investment in their training, the team's ability to rely on them during working hours, and the professional standard of the organisation as a whole.

How to handle pushback: there is no negotiation on this policy. If a hire pushes back or asks for an exception, that is a signal. A professional committed to this career does not need a side job during your hours. Address it directly and clearly before proceeding.

Section 08

How to Present It

Send the agreement by email two to three days before the start date. Do not send it the day before. The hire needs time to read it, ask questions, and return it signed before Day One. Sending it the day before creates time pressure that makes it feel like a formality rather than a framework. The covering email matters. Do not just attach the document. Frame it.

Covering email: send with the agreement attached

Hi [Name], Attached is our Expectations Agreement. This is a document every Hirevado-placed hire receives before they start. It covers your working hours, how we communicate, what to do if your internet fails, and the four standards every person on our team operates by. Please read it carefully, fill in the backup location and hotspot fields, sign it, and return it before your start date. If anything is unclear reply to this email and we will walk through it together on your pre-start call. Looking forward to having you on the team. [Manager name]

7+ days before

Ideal

Hire has time to read, ask questions, fill in backup details, and return it without pressure.

3 to 5 days before

Acceptable

Enough time if the hire is responsive. Follow up the next day if not returned.

1 to 2 days before

Too Late

Creates pressure that undermines the document's intent. Reschedule the start date if needed.

Day One

Failure

The agreement exists to set standards before they begin. Signing it on Day One removes that function entirely.

Section 09

The Pre-Start Call

The agreement is signed before this call. The call is not for reading through it together. It is for the manager to walk the hire through the most important sections, reinforce the non-negotiables, answer questions, and set the professional tone before Day One. A hire who has heard their manager explain the 30/60 policy on a call is more likely to follow it than a hire who only read about it.

Time	Topic	Description
0 to 3 min	Opening	Brief welcome and context. Explain that this call is standard for every hire and the agreement they signed is what makes the team work.
3 to 8 min	Walk through the agreement	Cover working hours, response standards, and the contingency plan. Ask the hire to confirm their backup location and hotspot. Test the hotspot if possible.
8 to 13 min	The Professional Accountability System	Explain the three-strike system, what constitutes a strike, and how documentation works. Be matter-of-fact. This is not a threat, it is transparency.
13 to 17 min	The no second job policy	State it directly using the script from Section 07. Allow questions. Do not over-explain or apologise for the policy.
17 to 20 min	Cultural standards and Day One preview	Name the four standards. Tell them what Day One looks like including the kickoff call, the first task, and what success looks like by Friday.

The hire finishes the pre-start call knowing exactly what the first week looks like. Day One is about momentum, not orientation.

Section 10

The Full Agreement Template

Critical

Every bracketed field in this template must be completed with real information specific to this hire. A template with blank fields is worse than no template. It signals that the document was not prepared with care.

The Expectations Agreement

Header

Company: [Company name]
Hire Name: [Hire full name]
Role: [Role title]
Start Date: [Start date]
Reporting To: [Manager name and title]

Working Hours

Standard Hours: [Start time] to [end time] in their timezone
Your Timezone: [Equivalent times in your timezone]
Required Overlap: [The non-negotiable overlap window]
Out-of-Hours: Messages received outside working hours do not require a response until the next working day unless marked urgent.

Response Standards

Slack / DM: Respond within 5 minutes. If unavailable acknowledge immediately with your status and return time.
Email: Respond within 30 minutes during working hours. Email is not for urgent communication.
Urgent Signal: [Define your signal such as a specific emoji, @channel, or flag]
Acknowledgment Rule: Responding means acknowledging, not completing. “Got it, working on this, update by 3pm” is a complete response.

Contingency Plan

Hotspot Requirement: A mobile hotspot must be available and charged during all working hours. This is non-negotiable.
Hotspot Provider: [Provider name and data plan]
30-Minute Protocol: If primary internet fails switch to hotspot immediately. If not restored within 30 minutes notify manager with a status update.
60-Minute Protocol: If service remains degraded at 60 minutes relocate to backup location and notify manager on restoration.
Backup Location: [Specific name and address of a co-working space or cafe with reliable internet]

Core Commitments

Confidentiality: All company information, client data, and internal processes are confidential during and after employment.
Work Product: All deliverables created during working hours using company resources are owned by the company.
Documentation: All decisions and agreements are documented in writing. Verbal agreements do not exist in this organisation.
SOPs: All recurring processes follow documented SOPs. Changes require manager approval and an SOP update before adoption.
Second Job: Working a second job during contracted hours is a breach of this agreement and grounds for immediate termination.

Cultural Standards

Clarity: Communicate explicitly, no guesswork. If you are unsure, ask.
Responsiveness: Reply quickly, acknowledge messages. Speed of response is a form of respect.
Ownership: Take responsibility, follow through. If it is assigned to you it is yours until completion or formal handoff.
Proactivity: Identify problems before they escalate. Flag issues early. Ask for what you need before the deadline.

Signatures

Hire Signature: [Hire name and date]
Manager Signature: [Manager name and date]

Section 11

Pre-Send Checklist

Complete every item before sending the agreement. A document sent incomplete undermines the standard it is meant to set.

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Document Preparation

Delivery

Pre-Start Call

The agreement signed before Day One is the clearest signal you can send that standards are not suggestions. Everything that follows is built on it.

Before Day One

Task Execution→