Employee onboarding is a structured process to integrate new hires into their roles and the company. This process includes setting up workstations, introducing team processes and members, and providing necessary resources. The aim is to advance the journey to peak job performance.
Building an effective onboarding process is the best way to welcome, and retain, new employees. Effective onboarding is all about planning ahead and thinking from your new employee’s point of view. It doesn’t begin and end on your new hire’s first day with you. It starts at the beginning of your hiring process and ends when your new employee is comfortably settled into their role.
Onboarding New Hire Checklist
Here’s a planning timeline and some checklists that HR managers and hiring professionals can use to design an effective employee onboarding experience:
- During the hiring process
- During the offer stage
- 1-2 weeks before your new employee’s first day
- The day before your new hire’s first day
- On your new employee’s first day
- During your new employee’s first week
- During your new employee’s first 3 months
- During the hiring process
During The Hiring Process
Hiring and onboarding are often treated as separate. But they immerse themselves into one another in an organizational set up. New hires get their first impressions of your company during the hiring process, so your candidate experience efforts should be as thoughtful and welcoming as the rest of your onboarding efforts:
- Write a job description that gives your new hire a complete list of their responsibilities.
- Inform candidates about the structure of your hiring process and the time taken by each stage.
- Keep following up continuously and communicate with the candidates at each stage of the hiring process.
- Pay full attention to your candidates at interviews and respond to any queries they may have.
- Give your candidates complete briefing regarding reference checks and background checks.
During The Offer Stage
Choose the phone offer, if possible. Phone offers are more personal than email offers and can help you better communicate your excitement to a candidate. Keep in mind to schedule your call ahead of time, so you don’t end up catching your candidate unprepared.
After the phone offer, send an enthusiastic offer letter. Use a warm tone and mention all relevant benefit details and contact information, so you can easily address any remaining questions.
Be courteous during salary negotiations. Salary negotiations, when done badly, can be tense and confrontational. However, if done well, they can help solidify your new employee’s value on your team and build a foundation of mutual respect. So, be open and try not to make the candidates regret being their own best advocates.
Decide a start date and share it with your new hire’s team. Offer flexibilities on the start date, if possible. It’s best to understand your new employee’s need to wind up projects and give suitable notice to their current employer. After you’ve set a date, share it with your new employee’s team so they can prepare to welcome their new team mate.
Transfer your new hire’s information from your applicant tracking system to your Human Resource Information System (HRIS) or onboarding software. To avoid asking new employees to give you all their personal information again for the HRIS records, see if you can make this transfer from your ATS. This will allow you to create a streamlined transition for HR, hiring managers and new employees alike.
Seamlessly transition your offer to onboarding
Ensure a great new employee experience with our ats solution and its smooth integrations with our onboarding tools and other HRIS providers.
1-2 Weeks Before Your New Employee’s First Day
Prepare paperwork for the new hire. Consider including the following policies and forms for new employees to fill out and sign:
- An Employment Agreement.
- A Non-Disclosure Agreement.
- An Employee Invention Agreement.
- An Employee Handbook.
- IRS form W-4.
- IRS form I-9.
- A direct deposit form.
Set up your new employee’s online accounts, including:
- Company email.
- Company instant message.
- Company HRIS software.
- Company password management software (LastPass, etc.)
- Company productivity software (Asana, Jira, etc.)
- Company ATS for members of hiring teams.
Prepare your new hire’s tech, including:
- A laptop.
- A monitor.
- A phone.
- A mouse.
- A keyboard.
- A headset.
And then:
Confirm your employee’s new office phone number.
Order business cards and/or a desk nameplate for your new employee
Make arrangements for new employee ID card/building access.
Plan introductory meetings with key colleagues for the new employee’s first few weeks.
Motivate team members (especially those on the interview panel) to have conversations to your new hire and congratulate and welcome them prior to their start date. This goes a long way in establishing relationships early in the process.
Schedule a welcome lunch for your new hire’s first day.
Plan an HR onboarding meet up for your new hire’s first day.
Make arrangements for parking access, if required.
Organize your new hire’s first assignment.
Also plan any relevant internal (or external) training required for the job.
Finally, send them a welcome email informing them- what to expect. You may Include, meeting details, introduction to key team members, etc. Keep them informed about when to arrive on their first day.
The Day Before Your New Hire’s First Day
Ensure that your new employee’s desk is clean and set up their equipment and welcome kit. You may consider including the following items in your welcome kit:
- Welcome letter.
- Paperwork and HR documents for the new hire.
- Instructions for technology set up.
- Notebook provided by the Company.
- A company T-shirt.
- A company mug.
- Pens.
- Stickers.
- A copy of your company org chart.
- A copy of your new hire’s first week schedule.
And also:
Set up your new hire’s email account and forward regular team meeting invites to them.
Inform your new hire’s department through email and remind everyone of their start date.
Put your new employee’s email in relevant distribution lists and provide their team mates with their phone number.
On Your New Employee’s First Day
Ask someone to be ready to welcome the new hire when they get to the office.
Take your new hire on a complete office tour and explain to them their timetable for the first few days.
Schedule a welcome meeting with your new hire’s reporting manager. This will provide an understanding of their new team, their part and how their success is to be measured in the future.
Make a timetable for new hire paperwork.
Let the new hire go out for lunch with some of their important colleagues.
Allow the new hire to set up their new work desk, add new passwords and log in to their new accounts.
Run a formal HR onboarding meeting. This may include details about benefits enrollment, company holidays and policies, company structure & team culture. You may also review your company’s vision, mission and values. (If you have formally documented them.)
During Your New Employee’s First Week
Set a timetable for your new hire’s regular 1:1 management meetings.
Convey clear goal and performance objectives for your new hire’s first 3 months, 6 months and year.
Run over a 3-month plan for important projects they will be working on.
Arrange effective job activities that get them up and running.
Provide quick feedback on their initial work tasks and establish management expectations for their performance.
Arrange introductory meetings with all the departments, not just those the employee will work in but all departments of the company & give them a full context of different parts of your business.
Keep taking feedback on a regular basis and respond to any questions they have.
During Your New Employee’s First 3 Months
Continue to have regular 1:1 meetings.
Check in informally after every 30 days and address any concerns quickly followed by a 90 day check in to see how everything is going.
Take feedback on your onboarding process and make continuous improvements for future new hires.
