Onboarding checklist for you & your employees
Onboarding new employees is an extensive and complex process with sometimes small-scale tasks and numerous participants. Tasks can easily be forgotten or lost. An onboarding checklist helps you to prepare the onboarding and not to forget anything important during the onboarding process. To help you with the onboarding of 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 guarantee the optimal induction of colleagues. The items on the checklist depend on your onboarding process.
This can vary depending on the role and position of the new employees. It can also make sense to create different checklists for you and the new employees. While you have to take care of administrative and organisational tasks, the focus for the employees is on training and getting to know the company.
To help you get started, we have created a sample checklist for onboarding. The checklist contains the most important tasks for the individual phases of onboarding. You can use our checklist directly or use it as a template and add items that are relevant to you.
Onboarding checklist for all phases of onboarding
Onboarding can typically be divided into 3 phases, each with different challenges to overcome:
- Preparation phase (preboarding)
- Orientation phase
- Integration phase
In principle, the preparatory phase begins with the signing of the working paper. In the weeks or days before the official start of work, the main thing is to stay in contact with the new staff members, take care of the first organisational tasks and prepare for the start.
In the orientation phase, which begins with the first day of work and extends over the first few weeks, the main aim is to create a welcome atmosphere and to 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, the new employees are to be further integrated into the company and gradually take on more responsibility and show initiative. Regular feedback meetings, supplemented by training and workshops, help them to develop professionally during this phase.
Onboarding Checklist Template
1. preparation phase (preboarding)
Before the first day of work
- Sign contracts and seclude
- Employment contract, company & non-disclosure agreements, etc.
- Compile information material and send it to the new employees
- e.g. welcome folder, documents for the start, company mission statement, organisational chart
- Course of the first working day
- Procurement of the necessary workplace equipment
- Organise equipment for the workplace in the office and home office so that the employees can start directly with motivation.
- Consultation with IT and head of department
- Ordering and coordination of delivery
- Delivery assembly
- Set up workplace
- Organise and install access data and licences for tools and software
- Request and file documents of the new employee
- National insurance number, membership certificate and tax ID
- Designate a contact person as an "onboarding buddy".
- Inform the whole team
- Prepare and create employee profile on intranet or company wiki
- Provide to-dos and information for all colleagues involved in the onboarding process.
- Clarify competences and areas of responsibility
- Create a personalised onboarding plan
- Organise information events on occupational safety & hygiene
- Prepare introductions to processes and projects
- Compile training plans and trainings
- Invite to appointments and onboarding talks
- Put together a welcome package
- e.g. greeting card, company merchandise, key
2. orientation phase
On the first day of work
- Prepare welcome and introductions
- Tour of the offices and initial briefing
- Get-to-know meeting within the team and with the buddy
- Welcome package handed over
- Explain onboarding process and create transparency about expectations and work tasks
- Preparing staff for the next few weeks
- Go through internal processes and procedures
- Working hours, break regulations
- Regulations on Home Office & Remote Work
- Holiday applications
- Sick notes
- Benefits and social services,
- Security guidelines
- Conduct an expectation interview with superiors
- Luncheon together
During the first weeks of work
- Communicate corporate goals
- Present corporate culture and values
- Host introductions
- In departments, products, projects and tasks
- Organise job rotations and shadowings
- Schedule appointments with colleagues to get to know each other
- Create a photo of the employee
- Conduct feedback talks
- Clarify open questions and wishes
- 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 sessions
- e.g. after 30, 90 and 180 days
- Promote team building
- Organise team events and team lunches, also across departments