I'll admit, I'm in tech, so on boarding a business associate might be more difficult than what I've had to do now 5 times, but on boarding of other technical team members and even regular business unit interns isn't nearly as difficult as management seems to think it is. That is the one excuse I keep hearing about why people need to be back in the office is that “our new intern missed knowledge because he was on boarded remotely and didn't get to have those in person knowledge discussions.”
My answer to that is that the company needs to make a better on boarding process. I've brought 5 technician team members into our company who were all far away from me, and yet they got up to speed and productive in no time. Sure some one needed to let them in the door and show them around the office, but that is what we have a receptionist for….