Download Your Free Employee Onboarding Checklist
The purpose of this simple, high-level checklist is to help guide your business plan your onboarding process. It is important to remember that the onboarding phase starts before their first day and can last over 90 days after their first day.
New employee onboarding checklist
A new hire onboarding checklist is a valuable tool for employers to utilise within their business when hiring new team members. When done well, the onboarding phase can be an opportunity for you to win the hearts and minds of your new employees. Your new starters will feel supported, included, and will often become valued team members. When done poorly, the onboarding phase can result in new starters feeling disconnected, disengaged, and unproductive.
You run the risk of your recruitment efforts proving futile, with a high number of employees who are not onboarded well, leaving before their first work anniversary. It is important to remember that the onboarding phase starts before their first day and can last over 90 days after their first day.
A new hire onboarding checklist is a valuable tool for employers to utilise within their business when hiring new team members. When done well, the onboarding phase can be an opportunity for you to win the hearts and minds of your new employees. Your new starters will feel supported, included, and will often become valued team members. When done poorly, the onboarding phase can result in new starters feeling disconnected, disengaged, and unproductive.
You run the risk of your recruitment efforts proving futile, with a high number of employees who are not onboarded well, leaving before their first work anniversary. It is important to remember that the onboarding phase starts before their first day and can last over 90 days after their first day.
Key elements of the onboarding process for new hire’s
Pre-employment elements
This stage of the process involves all necessary preparations from ensuring the candidate is a good fit, to preparing for their arrival.
First Month
This part of the process involves 1:1 meetings for new hires that involve feedback about the company and their first few days working there.
First Day
This stage of the process involves a tour of the business, work setup and introductions to teams.
First 90 Days
This stage may involve a probationary review, and provides the opportunity for managers to create a training plan to address any training gaps identified in the probationary review.
Pre-employment elements
This stage of the process involves all necessary preparations from ensuring the candidate is a good fit, to preparing for their arrival.
First Day
This stage of the process involves a tour of the business, work setup and introductions to teams.
First Month
This part of the process involves 1:1 meetings for new hires that involve feedback about the company and their first few days working there.
First 90 Days
This stage may involve a probationary review, and provides the opportunity for managers to create a training plan to address any training gaps identified in the probationary review.
Commonly asked questions about employee onboarding
On an employee's first day, should they be given tasks to complete?
A new team member should be set up to start completing some tasks in their first week. Start small, and give your new hire some tasks to begin with. The first few days should be giving them a light workload, where you run through a general plan for the first month or so.
How does employee onboarding impact company culture and other team members?
When selecting a new employee, it is important to ensure they align with your company culture. This can help build teams that connect well with one another, and work in collaboration and harmony. When hiring new employees, ensuring they will perform to the correct standard and succeed with their select skill set is vital for your current team.
How can managers ensure effective onboarding?
Managers should make use of onboarding checklist templates and other free onboarding advice. These can help managers learn how to ensure new hires feel welcome, and help new hires with standard onboarding tasks. An Onboarding process template can help managers ensure successful onboarding, such as preparing the correct onboarding documents, starting from before the commencement of employment. This includes getting employee feedback to know how your current onboarding processes have been received, as well as making a new employee announcement , designating an onboarding buddy, and ensuring documentation of company policies
What should be included in new hire orientation?
On the first week of employment, your new hire should receive training resources, training documents, a framework on the company’s culture, and the introduction to check ins. Onboarding is a continuous process, to ensure the employee successfully integrates an employer needs to make sure the onboarding process for new employees follows an onboarding template or any onboarding checklists that are approved by an HR team.
Need more help?
This checklist is designed to help employers and managers implement successful employee onboarding. All advice is general in nature, for advice specific to your situation, please get in touch with one of our HR Partners.
Our team at Employment Innovations are able to offer tailored workplace advice. If you need any assistance with payroll processing, employment contracts, Modern Awards, enterprise agreements, workplace advice or require access to our full HR document library, contact us to speak with one of our HR experts.
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