Onboarding checklist for 2024
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Updated 4:13 p.m. UTC April 17, 2024
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Onboarding a new employee is a crucial step that sets the tone for their time at your company. A positive onboarding experience can help your new employee feel settled and comfortable in their new role and team, giving both parties an opportunity to make a great first impression.
In our onboarding checklist, we’ll lay out all the important steps involved in setting up a complete onboarding for your new employee. From pre-arrival arrangements to tasks for their first days and months, we will help you provide a welcoming atmosphere, sufficient training and all the necessary information required.
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What is onboarding?
Onboarding refers to the process of integrating a new employee into your organization. It includes a range of administrative tasks like setting up logins and access, as well as:
- Basic training.
- A team welcome.
- Introductions to the company’s goals and values.
Why is onboarding important?
Onboarding isn’t just about ticking the necessary boxes so your employee can start work. Good or bad, the process will have a significant impact on your employee. A study by Glass Door and Brandon Hall Group found that organizations improved new hire retention by 82% and productivity by more than 70% with well-executed onboarding.
Successful onboarding won’t just equip your new employees with the tools and knowledge they’ll need, it will also create and maintain a welcoming atmosphere. Ensuring new employees can integrate easily with their team and the company helps you get the best from them.
2024 Onboarding checklist
Our onboarding checklist gives you a complete list of tasks that will ensure your new employee gets everything they need to assimilate into your company.
Before the employee’s first day
The onboarding process doesn’t start on their first day. Sometimes known as pre-onboarding or preboarding, here are some crucial steps to take before your employee starts working:
- Send a welcome email or packet: Sending your new hire a welcome email or packet is a great opportunity to immediately make them feel part of the team. You should confirm the details of their first day, including start date, time and location, as well as any items or documents they’ll need to bring.
- Introduce the employee to the team: Once you’ve confirmed your hire, you should also inform the rest of your team and company, if appropriate, and introduce them to the new employee. Include some background information about them and a few fun details so you can build a positive image.
- Set out their role and objectives: Communicate with their future manager or supervisor to understand their role within the team and their goals and objectives as part of that. Outline their responsibilities so they can hit the ground running when they join.
- Prepare their workspace: Setting up their workplace beforehand will help your new employee feel welcome and at home, whether it’s an office or a desk. It’s also good to get this done in advance to save time once they’ve arrived at the office. If your new hire is a virtual team member, ensure any job equipment is sent to arrive at the employee’s residence at least a week before the employee’s start date.
- Set up accounts and permissions: It’s also a good opportunity to get ahead with basic admin tasks like setting up the employee’s accounts for email, messaging and any other relevant platforms.
First day onboarding checklist
Once your employee has started, you’ll have a few things to arrange on their first day, including:
- Conducting an office tour: For office and hybrid employees, the first step once they arrive is the office tour. Here you can guide them through meeting their colleagues for the first time. You should also show them where basic necessities are, like bathrooms, equipment rooms and fire exits. It’s also worth showing off any fun areas of the office, like gaming or relaxation spaces.
- Completing their HR documents: Ensure the new employee completes all the necessary HR paperwork, including details for pay, taxes and benefits. It’s good to get this out of the way early so they can focus on getting to know their team and role.
- Conducting a welcome party: Once they’ve acclimatized to the office space, arranging a casual welcome party can give your new employee an opportunity to bond and socialize with the team. It could be a welcome lunch or even just a few nibbles in the kitchen where people can talk and introduce themselves properly.
- Completing basic training: Be sure to give your new employee access to all the relevant training materials and resources required to start working.
- Assigning a mentor: It can be helpful to assign your employee a mentor or a buddy to embed them in a less formal or official manner.
- Arranging an end-of-day catch-up: Catching up with your employee at the end of the day can give them a safe space for feedback. Try and gauge how they’re feeling so you can ensure the rest of the week goes well. It’s also a good time to set expectations about their role and performance.
First month onboarding checklist
Over the course of their first month with your company, it’s crucial to help your new employee settle in and not feel overwhelmed. Here’s a list of things to consider:
- Conducting regular catch-ups: Catching up once or twice a week gives you both a regular and safe space to inform on progress as well as address any potential issues or concerns.
- Providing guidance on platforms and software: It’s understandable that some platforms will take a bit of getting used to, so be sure to check in and provide any necessary tutorials. It’s better to spread this out over time, as it’s impossible for anyone to absorb so much information in their first week.
- Offering gentle feedback on first tasks: As it’s their first few weeks and they’ll still be learning, feedback should be relatively gentle and specific.
- Providing relationship-building opportunities: A key part of helping employees feel settled and at home is building relationships with their colleagues. Try to facilitate this with informal team catch-ups.
- Conducting progress reviews: Schedule a progress review after their first month to go over success and learnings and assign actions for further training or tutorials if necessary.
First 90 days onboarding checklist
Once your new employee has settled in, there are a few final steps to take over their first three months to finalize their onboarding and make them feel like a fully integrated team member.
- Let them take charge of their workload: After a month, your new employee should be ready to assume full control of their own projects and deadlines, so let this happen over the next few weeks. However, it’s still advisable to keep close track during this time to ensure they’re coping well with accountability.
- Regular catch-ups and feedback: Keep scheduling regular catch-ups over this time to provide feedback from superiors and peers.
- Performance review and probation review, if necessary: Carry out a full performance review after they’ve been working autonomously for a while to examine where progress has been made and whether they’ve fully settled.
- Resolving any persisting issues: If there are still any concerns that have yet to be fully resolved, it might be worth setting aside time for one-to-one help.
Adapting your onboarding process for remote employees
While many employees may be back in the office, remote working hasn’t completely disappeared. According to Buffer’s State of Remote Work report, 98% of workers who took part in the survey would like to work remotely for at least some of the week.
Another study by Upwork predicts that over a fifth of the American workforce will be working remotely by 2025 — so building an onboarding process for those working from home is a crucial adaptation. Here’s what you need to consider:
- Addressing common concerns and set expectations: All companies do remote work in their own way, and all employees will have their own preferences. It’s useful to set expectations early regarding presentation, like having their camera on or off during meetings. Try to ensure you’re both comfortable with the boundaries being set and address any concerns.
- Digitizing your employee handbook and resources: If you haven’t already, digitizing any relevant resources for your new employee is a crucial part of ensuring remote access.
- Providing necessary equipment: You may choose to provide certain equipment for your employee aside from the standard laptop, such as a monitor, adapter, keyboard and mouse or other office items. Decide whether you’ll order it for them or let them order and expense it to the company’s account.
- Creating a sense of belonging virtually: Schedule regular catch-ups to ensure your employee has substantial face time with colleagues and communication channels stay open. This has both formal and informal aspects, and balancing both will help your employees feel settled and comfortable.
- Assigning a mentor or buddy: A mentor or buddy is useful in the office, but it can really make a difference when people are working in isolation. Ensuring your employee feels connected and has a positive and constructive working relationship will benefit everyone in the long term.
Featured payroll software offers
OnPay
Monthly fee
$40 per month plus $6 per employee
Direct deposit
Yes
Rippling
Monthly fee
$35 per month + $8 per user
Direct deposit
Yes
Gusto
Monthly fee
Starting at $40 plus $6 per month per employee
Direct deposit
Yes
SurePayroll
Monthly fee
$29.99 per month plus $5 per employee
Direct deposit
Yes
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Ideally, the onboarding process should include all the necessary paperwork and a company orientation where the new employee can learn your business’s mission and values.
There should also be an informal introduction to the team to understand your company culture and a conversation to fully communicate the new employee’s role and duties. Ensure there are regular catch-ups so both the employee and employer are in sync and doing what’s expected of them.
It really depends on the company and employee, but onboarding can take at least three months for someone to really embed in a new role. This gives ample time for them to settle into routines, build relationships and take control of their own workload.
However, allowing the onboarding phase to extend in parts throughout their first six months to a year can reduce the pressure on the employee and boost retention rates.
The four phases of onboarding are:
- Pre-onboarding: The pre-onboarding phase starts once the new employee formally accepts the job offer, and involves welcoming them to the team and taking care of any initial paperwork. Your new employee may also need to finish tasks up at their old place of work and prepare for their new role.
- Welcome and orientation: This starts on the first day, where the new employee is officially introduced to the team and the company’s values and culture. It also includes final paperwork, enabling access to the company’s intranet and general systems and general admin tasks.
- Training: The work begins in the third phase, as the employee is introduced to their role and receives training specific to the tasks they’ll be set. This should be paced carefully so as to not be overwhelming — ensure they have access to all the necessary materials they may need to refer back to.
- Transition to role: Once the new employee has been equipped with what they need for the role, it’s time to transition them to a fully embedded employee. This can take varying lengths of time depending on the employee and role, but it’s good to allow up to six months or a year for them to fully transition.
The exact paperwork required can vary depending on location and industry, but generally speaking, you’ll need legal and tax forms like the W4 and I9. The W4 form is a tax document that must be completed before the employee can receive their first paycheck.
The I9 form is an employee eligibility form that verifies their right to work based on their residency status. It needs to be completed within three days, or you risk penalties and fines. It’s the employer’s responsibility to ensure this form is completed.
Lastly, you’ll also need a state withholding certificate in all states that require income tax, which is like the W-4 form but on a state-tax level.
Other documents that aren’t legally required to provide but are still important to the hiring and onboarding process include:
- Drug-testing records.
- An employee offer letter and contract.
- An employee handbook and organization chart.
- Company policy documents, such as risk management and employee consent paperwork.
- Brand guidelines.
- Emergency contact forms.
- Direct deposit forms.
- Benefits guidelines and documents, including health insurance, 401k, pensions and time-off policies.
Onboarding isn’t an easy process for everyone, and there are challenges that will always pop up. To make the process easier for the company and employee, it’s useful to keep the following in mind:
- Start early: The pre-onboarding phase gives you time to get ahead of the process and ensure everything is in place for your new employee to make a successful landing.
- Communicate: Ensure you communicate regularly and openly so any issues come to light and any opportunities to boost their confidence are taken in haste.
- Prepare the team: Make your team aware of their new colleague and the role they’ll have in the company so they can set expectations.
- Be positive: Showcase the best parts of your company and encourage your team to welcome the new employee with a positive attitude to help them acclimatize.
- Be patient: Joining a new company can be challenging even at the best of times, and hiccups are inevitable — so be patient and let your new employee know you’re there to support them.
- Review and learn: Conduct regular reviews to track the new employee’s progress and ensure it’s in line with what’s expected by management and stakeholders.
Keeping the onboarding process going beyond orientation gives your new employee more confidence that they’re able to do the role they’ve been given. Training is a crucial part of helping new employees settle in, and easing the transition into becoming a fully settled part of the team can help ensure long-term retention.
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