An effective onboarding program is a must-have for every HR team. When done right, new hires are engaged in their new role and are ready to get down to work from the first day. This employee on-boarding checklist will keep you organized during the process and ensure that your new hires get integrated into the workplace and its culture quickly.
Welcome Message
A new employee introduction email, Slack message, or note can go a long way in making a solid first impression when it comes to company culture, connecting the new person to the team, and setting the stage for success.
Examples:
Make sure to include the following in your message:
- Starting date, time and location.
- List of the documents they should bring.
- Schedule breakdown of their first day such as facility tours, introductions, and training.
Inform Your Current Employees
- Team members
- The new hire’s manager
Prepare for their First Day
This is a key step! You don’t want your new hire to feel like you are not ready for them.
- Setting up user accounts. Make sure they have access to all the tools and resources they need to hit the ground running.
- Setting up their workstation. This will help them feel welcome and shows the company’s readiness to receive them.
- If working remotely, make sure they have the necessary home office equipment. Consider giving a remote work stipend to make their remote work locations comfortable and productive.
The First Day Plan
- Welcome them to the company in person or if remote in an online meeting.
- Introduce the new employee to their colleagues and department.
- Provide a work tour. Focus on essentials: workstation, fire exits, entrances, restrooms, kitchen, parking.
- Equip them with the right tools. Onboarding buddy, logins and IT systems access, and company guides and rules.
- If possible, set up a welcome lunch with the new employee and their team, and have a one-to-one meeting at the end of the day to ensure the first day went well.
- Complete new hire paperwork.
- Review schedule and work hours.
- Explain compensation and benefits.
- Explain travel booking systems and expense policies as appropriate.
Pro Tip: Because of the power of first impressions, pay close attention to your delivery. For example, when presenting core company values, having a senior manager leading the discussion is far better than a training video. This will help the employee understand the importance of the topic being delivered.
First Week and Month Plan
- Make a socialization plan (ex: team lunch)
- Schedule regular one-on-one time
- Set short-term goals
- Provide employee work assignments, and set performance goals
- Check-in on employee training to ensure adequate progress
- Complete policies and procedures training
- Complete benefits enrollment
- Ensure all HR paperwork is signed and submitted
- Introduce the employee to the company culture
Pro Tip: for the first month use an engaging learning tool to introduce various corporate values and culture in bite size learning or a fun quiz game like CTrivia (because, of course), Scavify, LemonadeLXP, and Kahoot. CTrivia is a learning and engagement tool your employees will love. They will spin the wheel and get a random question from a custom developed question bank based on your training material. If a learner wants to know more about a certain category in the spin wheel, they can browse the associated “learning directory” containing PDF’s, and Video’s. They will learn, compete, and have a lot of fun.
Now Your Turn!
We hope that with this checklist, you can create an awesome onboarding program for your new hires.
Free Onboarding Guide
We have compiled a comprehensive infographic guide to onboarding – “Employee Onboarding Checklist (Infographic guide and templates)”. It includes an onboarding checklist guide, templates for welcome message, and google sheet/excel templates.