Why do you need a new hire onboarding checklist?
New hire onboarding checklists are an essential part of the employee hiring process. The goal of an onboarding process is to communicate the company’s culture, history, and mission. An HR manager uses new hire onboarding checklists for this, as well as to summarize job expectations and provide basic training.
Checklists for new hires are also common because it’s legally necessary to keep records of an employee’s W-4 and I-9 forms.
Table of contents
What every new hire onboarding checklist should include
An effective new hire onboarding checklist template needs to make sure that the onboarding process covers everything employees will need at work. Successful onboarding has 3 phases:
- Preparation
- The first day
- Continued onboarding
When you organize these steps using a checklist, you can navigate them seamlessly.
1. Preparation
Employee onboarding starts long before the first day of work. In the preparation phase (preboarding), you need to take care of all the formalities, prepare the workplace, and work out your induction plan. Preparing to welcome new hires involves:
Arranging formalities
- Making sure employment contracts are signed by both parties
- Making sure the HR department has received all necessary documents and information (e.g. income tax card, bank details, health insurance information)
- Identifying documents that still need to be submitted or brought on the first working day
Maintaining contact
- Making sure the person received all the important information about their first day of work
- Finding any additional onboarding material, such as the employee handbook, that is available to give to the new employee
- Communicating any applicable dress code
- Inviting new employees to relevant events or appointments
- Helping employees with relocation where possible
Preparing the workplace
- Ensuring new employees have easy access to the workplace
- Finding a place for the new colleague to sit
- Providing new hires with a computer
- Creating the employee’s company email address
- Applying for any other system access codes the employee might need, such as additional licenses
- Providing a screen, chair, mouse, keyboard, and office supplies
- If applicable, arranging a company telephone, car, or business cards
- Arranging any welcome gifts
Developing an onboarding plan
- Prioritizing tasks to train your new employees in
- Arranging any required internal or external training
- Assigning a team member to provide relevant knowledge
- Figuring out which colleagues from their own and other teams new hires will work with
- Setting a date for the first feedback meeting
Informing colleagues
- Making sure everyone is informed of new hires
- Assigning new hires a point of contact
- Ensuring everyone understands their role in new hire induction
2. The first day
From the beginning, your company should make a good impression. New employees should feel comfortable in the workplace. To help them feel comfortable, you need to:
Welcome them
Employee onboarding should start on time on the first day. It’s important that the employee responsible for onboarding your new hire has time to do the role properly, such as by introducing them to the rest of the team. Decide ahead of time who will pick the new employee up from reception and who will take over introductions.
Introduce them to supervisors
Team supervisors should do the first official greeting, so new employees feel valued. During the introduction:
- Ask questions to get to know the new hire better
- Establish mutual expectations
- Detail the onboarding procedure
- Communicate any current issues affecting the company and department
- Go over the company vision, mission, values, and culture
- Discuss what work with focus on
- Ask for questions from new hires
Other introductions and tour of the company
At the very least, introduce the new hire to direct colleagues on their first working day. You can follow this up with a company tour, so new hires can orient themselves to your workplace.
Familiarize new hires with the workplace
Most new employees are eager to get started, but before they can, you need to:
- Give them any welcome gifts
- Introduce them to the IT systems (e.g. laptop/PC, telephone, important programs) your company uses
- Explain any internal procedures (ex. working hours, break regulations, application for vacation, company policies, and procedures in case of illness) to them
- Explain safety regulations (escape routes, fire extinguishers, and what to do in the event of a fire)
- Give them their keys, access cards, company car, telephone, or business cards
Lunch and breaks
On the first day and throughout the first week, new co-workers should be actively integrated into the team. A good way to do that is to take lunch or breaks together.
Final meeting
At the end of the first working day, supervisors should have another conversation with the new hire. There, they can clarify:
- First impressions of the company
- Whether the company meets expectations
- Any unresolved issues
After the first day, discuss the next few weeks of onboarding if you haven’t already.
3. Further familiarization
After the first day, employee onboarding should be a more detailed breakdown of the role they will be performing. The last phase of employee onboarding will be different depending on the new hire’s role. Nevertheless, your new hire onboarding checklist should:
- Gradually introduce the duties required
- Include introductory events so employees can get to know different departments and teams
- Encourage team building by suggesting activities like team coaching
- Set performance goals for new hires to meet
- Specify the frequency of regular feedback rounds
Write a new hire onboarding checklist with workflow automation software
A good onboarding process promotes employee engagement, cooperation, and retention. As the company grows, onboarding processes are harder to manage. You can make it easier when you use Lumiform to manage employee onboarding.
The mobile app and desktop software make it easy to write new hire onboarding checklists using a custom checklist creator. As you use this checklist during onboarding, you can analyze collected data to learn how you can provide and even smoother experience.
Lumiform allows you to optimize the orientation process and create a consistent, high-quality onboarding experience by:
- Making it easy to create your own new hire checklists, or use a premade template as a starting point
- Generate real-time data whenever you use a checklist to onboard employees, so you’ll have concrete results to reference
- Use automatically created analytics reports to improve the induction process even more, and never worry about document management
- Collaborate easily between team members so everyone has access to the onboarding information they need
- Onboard employees faster by having a clear process to stick to each time
