Onboarding checklist for you & your employees
Onboarding new employees is an extensive and complex process with sometimes small tasks and numerous participants. It is easy for tasks to be forgotten or lost. An onboarding checklist helps you to prepare for onboarding and not forget anything important during the induction period. To support you in onboarding your new employees, we have created a checklist that you can use as a template for your company.
What is an onboarding checklist? And what belongs on the list?
The onboarding checklist is a list of tasks that need to be completed during the onboarding process in order to ensure that colleagues are optimally trained. The items on the checklist depend on your onboarding process.
This may vary depending on the role and position of the new employee. It may also make sense to create different checklists for you and the new employees. This is because while you mainly have to take care of administrative and organizational tasks, the focus for employees is on training and getting to know the company.
Don't forget any more tasks with our free onboarding checklist!
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Onboarding checklist for all phases of onboarding
Onboarding can typically be divided into 3 phases, in each of which different challenges have to be overcome:
- Preparation phase (preboarding)
- Orientation phase
- Integration phase
In principle, the preparation phase begins with the signing of the employment contract. In the weeks or days before the official start of work, the main focus is on staying in contact with the new employees, completing initial organizational tasks and preparing for the start.
During the orientation phase, which begins on the first day of work and extends over the first few weeks, the main aim is to create a welcoming atmosphere and ensure that the new colleagues quickly integrate into the team and get to know the processes in the company and the specialist department.
In the integration phase, new employees should be further integrated into the company and gradually take on more responsibility and show initiative. Regular feedback meetings, supplemented by training courses and workshops, help them to develop professionally during this phase.
Template for onboarding checklist
1. preparation phase (preboarding)
Before the first working day
- Signing contracts and remote
- Employment contract, company and confidentiality agreements, etc.
- Compile information material and send it to new employees
- e.g. welcome folder, documents for the start, company mission statement, organizational chart
- Procedure for the first working day
- Procurement of the necessary workplace equipment
- Organize equipment for the workplace in the office and home office so that employees can start motivated right away
- Consultation with IT and head of department
- Ordering and coordinating the delivery
- Assembly of the delivery
- Set up workplace
- Organize and install access data and licenses for tools and software
- Requesting and filing the new employee's documents
- Social security number, membership certificate and tax ID
- Appoint a contact person as an "onboarding buddy"
- Inform the entire team
- Prepare and create employee profile on the intranet or company wiki
- Provide to-dos and information for all colleagues involved in onboarding
- Clarify responsibilities and areas of responsibility
- Create a personalized onboarding plan
- Organize information events on occupational safety & hygiene
- Prepare introductions to processes and projects
- Putting together training plans and courses
- Invite to appointments and onboarding meetings
- Put together a welcome package
- e.g. greeting card, company merchandise, key
2nd orientation phase
On the first working day
- Preparing the welcome and introductions
- Tour of the offices and initial briefing
- Get-to-know-you meeting within the team and with the buddy
- Welcome package handed over
- Explain the onboarding process and create transparency about expectations and work tasks
- Prepare employees for the coming weeks
- Going through internal processes and procedures
- Working hours, break regulations
- Regulations on home office & remote work
- Vacation requests
- Sick notes
- Benefits and social services,
- Security guidelines
- Conduct an expectations meeting with superiors
- Have lunch together
During the first few weeks of work
- Communicate corporate goals
- Present corporate culture and values
- Organize introductions
- In departments, products, projects and tasks
- Organize job rotations and shadowings
- Schedule meetings with colleagues to get to know each other
- Create a photo of the employee
- Conduct feedback discussions
- Clarify open questions and requests
- Obtain feedback on the onboarding process
3rd integration phase
After a few weeks/months
- Offer further training
- Further education, training and workshops
- Conduct regular feedback meetings
- e.g. after 30, 90 and 180 days
- Promote team building
- Organize team events and team lunches, also across departments