Employee Onboarding Checklist: Ultimate Guide for HR Managers [2024]

Just as you would plan and create a checklist to complete a task or project, similarly, for a successful hiring process, you must create an employee onboarding checklist and follow it. Due to the world’s rapid change after the pandemic, it is important to evaluate and update your onboarding checklist to make the process of recruiting new members to your team easier.

employee onboarding checklist

Since the structure of different teams within an organization will vary, HR managers often face difficulties creating employee onboarding checklists. To help all the HR managers out there, here we have created an ultimate checklist to follow for employee onboarding process and onboard the top talents smoothly. Let’s get started.

Why Should You Start Practicing Employee Onboarding Process? 

If you look in-depth, you will find many big companies don’t follow proper employee onboarding processes. And you will find toxicity in these kinds of workplaces, a higher rate of employee termination, and so on. On the other hand, companies practice employee onboarding checklists for the hiring process and have a higher rate of employee satisfaction & company growth. Apart from the inclusive effect of having an employee onboarding checklist for the hiring process, let’s check out the utmost benefits of maintaining it. 

🤝 No matter whether the new hire is replacing an employee who has left the organization or if a new role is being created, it takes time to integrate them into the organization. When companies use an onboarding process for new employees, their time-to-productivity ratios increase by 62%, according to a study by The Aberdeen Group.

🤝 As soon as your company starts creating employee onboarding checklists for the hiring process, any HR manager can easily follow that. That way, all company processes will be streamlined. You don’t have to create a new checklist every time.  

🤝 The productivity of an employee joining a new company can decrease if the organization does not nurture him or her right away. If this happens, a top talent becomes a burden for the organization. By using an employee onboarding checklist, an employee will know their responsibilities and it will be easier for them to give their best from the outset.

🤝 Retaining a departing employee entails a high cost, both in terms of direct recruitment and productivity loss. On the other hand, good onboarding makes new employees more likely to stay in their positions longer.

Workplace Diversity

 In fact, structured onboarding increases employee retention by 58% within three years of hire if the employee has completed it.

5 Key Goals Of Following Employee Onboarding Checklist For HR Manager

If the above points trigger you then the next step is to create an employee onboarding checklist for your organization. While creating the list you must be clear of its goals and vision. Check out the 5 key goals you have to keep in mind while creating the ultimate checklist for the employee onboarding process. 

🎯 Ensure that your employee onboarding checklist contains an ideal breakdown of responsibilities. Not only does the admin or HR manager has to do everything. It will help you focus on the most important parts of your role by minimizing your admin load.

🎯 The first day of work can be very uncomfortable for new employees, who often feel like they’re in the wrong place. They are more committed to the company when they feel like they belong, and can better focus on their work.

🎯 Adding a new employee means more administrative work for the HR manager. A fast-growing company that hires new employees every week may find that the administrative workload is quite heavy. You will strive to reduce the burden, not increase it, through unnecessary steps of employee onboarding checklists.

🎯 Onboarding checklists should be designed in a way that new employees immediately understand their responsibilities. Consequently, they will be productive more quickly and therefore contribute to business earlier. Their well-being benefits your business.

🎯 You need a consistent employee onboarding process to ensure all of the above is achieved effectively. Leaving this up to chance is not an option.

If you are missing out on the recent recruiting trends for hiring, check them out.

Here’s The Ultimate Checklist Of Employee Onboarding For HR Managers

Now is time to check out the ultimate employee onboarding checklist. We’ve designed this ultimate checklist in such a way that it is suitable for every category of organization. Moreover, HR managers will get a proper guide about what to do and how to do it. 

For better distribution of the employee onboarding process chores, we have categorized the checklist into 3 major categories. Let’s check them all.

⭐ Checklist Before The Joining Day

The tasks that must be completed before the employee joins are the most important part of the employee onboarding process. There are quite a few steps involved. We’ve listed the most important ones below. 

🟢 Send The Confirmation Email To The Employee: After the long screening and interviews, when you have found the right talent for your organization, the first step is to send the employee confirmation email. Don’t forget to mention the joining date on the confirmation letter. 

🟢 Ensure all compliance is outlined in the appointment letter: Next step is to send the new employee list of the compliance that he must provide to the organization with an appointment letter. Certificates, statements, tax papers, etc. must mention everything he needs to bring on the first day. You can also mention what type of preparations should be done before the joining date. 

🟢 Clarify The Responsibilities Before Joining: In which roll you are onboarding the new employee, what will be his/ her target- you have to clear them all as HR manager. It’s also great to give a brief about the team he is going to work for. You can share this data through emails, phones, or in person. 

🟢 Take Care Of The Logistics: When you are onboarding a new employee, he will need types of equipment, a place to seat in the office, and other additional logistic supports. List them out and keep them ready before the joining day. If your office maintains the culture to welcome employees with a hamper, then make sure that is also ready before the joining day.

💡 If you are onboarding remotely, then prepare yourselves according to that.

🟢 Notify All The Team Members About New Onboarding: It is another unavoidable step of the employee onboarding checklist. Your existing members also need preparation to get started with the new member. A before notification will also help to welcome the new member warmly. As HR manager, you can also provide the basic information of the new employee with the existing members as well. 

⭐ Checklist For The First Day Of Employee Onboarding

It is now time for the most important day, the joining day for the new employee. A simple checklist can help you make today a successful and productive one. Let’s check them out. 

employee onboarding checklist

🔵 Welcome The New Employee From HR Team: The onboarding of the new employee should start from the HR room. Then it becomes easier for the HR manager to guide the new one properly. Also, it is better to mention all the rules, regulations, benefits, etc at that moment. And, hand over the equipment.

💡 If you are onboarding remotely then make sure you have send the parcel with all necessary equipments to the employee address.

🔵 Complete The Admin Team Dependency: Not Only the HR team, the admin team also have dependencies with the new employee. It’s best practise to complement them on the joining day rather than making delays.

🔵 Introduce The New Member To Whole Team: Time To introduce the new member to the current ones in person. You Can hold a small gathering to let him/ her meet with everyone. It will be nicer if you could hold an ice-breaking session for the new employees.

💡 For remote onboarding, all members can welcome the new member through emails of any communication tool that the organization uses commonly. A virtual meeting can be scheduled for face-to-face introduction.

🔵 Assign An Current Member With The New One:  It’s quite impossible to remember all the HR manager briefings and office regulations right after hearing it. To make the first day easier for the new employee, you can assign an existing employee. How will give a tour of the office, his working place, responsibilities and so on. 

🔵 Give Brief Of The Office Culture: The next step is to give brief overview of the office culture. If you could do these on the very first day, it will be easier for the new employees to get involved with the organization.

🔵 Get Started The Training Process: After all the fun and exciting parts, comes the main part for what you have become the part of the organization, Training day! A good practice is to start the training session from the first joining day. That helps to prepare the employee faster for the production.

⭐ Checklist To Follow After 1st Week

Just after the first day of joining the employee onboarding process doesn’t end there. It has many after steps that most of the company avoids. Let’s check them now.

🟣Establish 30, 60, & 90-Day Check-In Plans: Usually the 1st week is considered as the honeymoon period of a new employee. The real work begins after that. In order to prevent your employees from becoming demotivated or lost in the middle, you need to schedule frequent check-ins. It may be every thirty days, every sixty days or every ninety days. Additionally, it will make it easier to evaluate the new employee and promote him/her. 

🟣Schedule For Employee Onboarding Feedback: These things need to be considered, whether the employee is able to cope with the new environment or whether any important steps have been left behind. Then you can schedule an employee feedback session from which you can also get suggestions on how to improve the employee onboarding checklist and hire more smoothly in the future. 

🟣Arrange Self Evaluation For The Employee: Before turning the newly hired employee to be the permanent one, you have to run self evaluation test. Thus, you can easily determine if an employee is ready to start working or needs a little time to adjust. Then you can collect their responses in a self-evaluation form for future reference.

Improve Your Hiring Process With An Onboarding Checklist

You’ll probably experience a smoother hiring process and a boost in productivity if you follow this employee onboarding checklist. Basically, checklists are created so that none of the important steps get missed. So what are you waiting for? Start following this employee onboarding checklist and streamline your hiring process. 

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Easily avoid all the hassles of manually onboarding by using a hiring solution tool to automate the onboarding processes.
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Faguni

Faguni is a tech enthusiast by heart who loves to work on diverse topics. She has a deep interest to work with new marketing strategies and different buyer persona. In free times she loves to travel and explore new peoples.

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