The recruiting and hiring process should give a new hire the first taste of company culture. But the employee onboarding experience is their first impression of your company from the inside. And this process can either set up new hires for long, successful careers with the organization or create bad first impressions that lead to high turnover.
An organized process is vital for success, and a new employee onboarding checklist is a great tool to solidify that process.
So, without further ado, here is a new hire onboarding checklist to use as a resource as you create and tweak and establish a process that works for your own company.
[bctt tweet=”An organized onboarding process is vital for success.” username=”@reflektive”]
Before Day One
Set a start date
Select a date that works for your office managers, HR staff, and the new employee’s manager(s). Avoid days when someone is out-of-office or swamped with meetings.
Set up a workspace with necessary equipment
Order laptops, phones, security badges, etc. ahead of time. And have a clean, designated desk or workspace ready before the new hire arrives.
Send an introductory email
Send over an orientation schedule, information about health insurance and benefits, and the employee handbook.
Provide instructions for the first day: What time to arrive, where to park, what to wear, what to bring (IDs, etc.). In addition, you may want to send over an orientation schedule, information about health insurance and benefits, and the employee handbook. An employee directory with photos, names, and titles can also be a very useful resource.
Schedule training sessions
Determine what training will be necessary for this employee’s position and who is best to administer that training. Get those meetings on the books for the first 1-4 weeks after the start date.
Choose a mentor
Ask one of your most engaging, positive employees to mentor the new hire as they acclimate to the job.
Day One
Orientation session
Cover company policies and procedures. Give the employee all necessary paperwork – payroll, insurance forms, 401K, etc. – and provide time and a quiet workspace to go through the forms. Be sure to introduce all the benefits, whether that’s 401K matching, intramural sports, or office yoga.
[bctt tweet=”Make sure your new hire has someone to eat lunch with on the first day” username=”reflektive”]
Office tour
Show the new hire around the entire office. Highlight important shared spaces – restrooms, cafeteria, conference rooms, copy machines.
Introduce the team
While you’re walking around the office, introduce your new hire to the other employees. It might be a whirlwind, but this is where that employee directory will come in handy!
Introduce the employee’s mentor
Make sure the new hire has someone to eat lunch with on the first day. Providing a budget for mentor-new employee lunches is a great perk!
Set up tech
Provide step-by-step guides on the various logins and accounts they’ll need to create, software they’ll be using, and setting up the voicemail on their phone.
Welcome meeting
Schedule a meeting with the new hire’s department or immediate team members. Identify everyone’s role and where the new team member fits in. These are the people that the new hire will be working with on a day-to-day basis, so it’s important to get them integrated into the team as quickly as possible.
Week One & Month One
Training sessions
Carry out those previously scheduled small group or one-on-one training sessions to get the new hire familiar with software, systems, and processes.
Complete paperwork
Set a due date for all those benefit and payroll forms, usually at the end of the first week. Be available to answer any questions or provide assistance in filling out paperwork.
Set goals
Introduce your company’s performance management processes.
Schedule one-on-one meetings between the new employee and their manager. Introduce your company’s performance management processes and work together to create monthly or quarterly goals so that the employee can get started on important work right away.
Check in
Follow up with the new employee at the end of their first week and first month to see how they’re acclimating. Ask for feedback on the onboarding process, so that you can adjust and improve for future new hires.