There usually isn’t a hard and fast rule about who should be on-call. Teams often look for criteria like seniority, experience, or expertise. While those factors certainly help, they might matter less than you think.
It is often more useful to look at whether your processes are ready. When incident responses rely on memory and intuition rather than documentation, even experienced engineers can struggle. They might handle things through internal knowledge that isn’t available to everyone else. This usually works well until they go on holiday or move to a new role.
On the other hand, when systems are documented and escalation paths are clear, most people can be onboarded to on-call quite successfully. The knowledge becomes teachable. You might find that a junior engineer with access to documentation can resolve incidents faster than a senior engineer working from memory alone.
So before asking who should be on-call, it is worth asking what needs to be in place first.
So, what needs to be in place?
It helps to have a few foundations in place before you add anyone to an on-call rotation. You might want to check for:
- Documented common incidents and how to resolve them
- Clear escalation paths for when someone gets stuck
- Access to necessary systems and tools
Without these, on-call can feel like an uphill battle. But with them, you are giving your team a solid foundation to work from.
Once your processes are formalized, readiness usually comes down to three qualities. First is a willingness to take on the responsibility. On-call requires availability and accountability, and it is completely fair if not everyone wants to take that on.
Second is a basic understanding of where to find information. They don’t need to know every system inside out. It is usually enough if they know where the documentation lives and how to access logs.
Third is the ability to triage and escalate. You will likely find that most incidents don’t require deep expertise to resolve. They need someone who can assess the situation, try the documented fix, and know when to call for help.
What about new team members?
We suggest bringing new team members into rotations within their first month. One approach that works well is pairing them with a Subject Matter Expert. The new person acts as the primary responder while the expert acts as a backup. When an incident occurs, the new person gets alerted first. They triage it and try a quick fix. If they are stuck after 10 or 15 minutes, they escalate. This helps build confidence with a safety net in place.
You’ll probably find that building this foundation makes a big difference. It shifts the question from “who knows everything” to “who is willing to help.” And that usually opens up the role to a much wider group of people.