Free employee onboarding checklist
This free employee onboarding checklist is ready for you to download and customise to your business. All you have to do is ensure that you tick off each item that is relevant to your company.
Start early: prepare well ahead of the new joiner’s first day so that they hit the ground running.
Have a smooth and seamless employee onboarding process when you follow these steps! Don’t forget, Air can handle this for you simply in employee onboarding.
Before joining; “Preboarding”
- Set up log on details for company email address for the new employee. Encourage colleagues to start sharing key projects and knowledge by email, without overloading them, of course.
- Log in details for any other business systems or tools including laptops, shared drives and servers, software systems and social media accounts. Include chat groups, collaboration tools, and any purely social and fun things like Facebook groups. Don’t forget that some of these have a lead time to add new users.
- Dress code; and advance warning of any “dress down” or “dress up” days!
- Passwords or signing in details such as time and attendance log ins, door codes.
- Whether a key, fob or card is required.
- Car parking details if any.
- Provide details for first day – start time, travel information, office and person to report to, anything they need to bring.
- Request employment contract. You can do this in Air.
- Request proof of eligibility to work in the UK.
- Request tax status documentation.
- Request banking details for payroll.
- Ensure they are fully briefed on hours of work and any breaks.
- Company uniform, any sizes to be provided in advance.
- Any other equipment that needs to be provided or specified prior to start date.
- Make sure they have a desk, drawers, storage, and essential equipment such as basic stationery supplies and pens.
- Check if any adjustments need to be made in case the person has a disability.
- Allow them to ask questions! Provide your mobile phone number and email address to make this easy.
- If you have any other specific needs for your company, you can set these up in Air in the onboarding task flow.
- Set them up on Air, so they can meet their colleagues!
On Day One
- Assign a buddy or mentor – not always the line manager!
- Fire drill procedure, fire marshalls and exit routes.
- Layout of office, location of desk, location of toilets and kitchen. Housekeeping rules, including rubbish, recycling, where they are allowed to eat.
- Inform the rest of the company about the new starter, with full contact details, job role and location. Its a nice touch to include a little bit of personal information too! Use Air’s team directory to input and share these details simply.
- Make sure you’ve recorded their birthday so you can send them a card. Air’s calendar can streamline this for you.
- Introduce them to key colleagues on the team. Make sure you don’t overload them with lots of new names, maybe do a few each day. Ensure you include anyone working off site or part time.
- Go through the details of the induction program and training schedule you’ve put together for the new hire.
- Encourage them to ask questions.
- Don’t expect the person to work late on the first day! They will be exhausted, and need a good night’s sleep.
- Ensure they have a decent lunch break, even better if you can eat lunch with them.
In the first week
- Talk about your company culture, mission and values. If possible, have the CEO, founder or leader meet the new hire if they haven’t already, and tell the story of how the business got started.
- Explain what the company culture means and anything special that you do to celebrate it.
- Communicate your health and safety policy and carry out any essential training. For manual or shop floor roles ensure you take industry advice.
- Talk through your basic company policies and confirm that the employee has read and understood them. As a minimum, go through how to book holiday, what to do if they are sick, and how to raise a grievance. Legally you need to explain your disciplinary policy too – or tell people where they can find the details. You can find a free disciplinary policy template here and other free HR policy templates here. Show the new hire where to find additional information and who to contact should they have questions.
- Provide details of the pension scheme – and don’t forget with auto-enrolment this will be compulsory for all businesses when they reach their staging date.
- Complete any introductions, revisit key ones – people forget names!
- Tell the person about the performance management system and what they can expect. When will their first review be. What probation period are they on and how will this be assessed?
- Details for company car, mobile phone or any other business tools.
- What employee benefits do you offer? Many companies spend heaps of cash on fancy benefits but their people never use them because they are too complex or they weren’t aware they existed. Invest in explaining this and you will find take-up and employee engagement rockets.
- If you offer generous perks like childcare schemes, pet friendly workplaces, vouchers, or even a workplace nursery make sure these are well communicated and understood. This is make or break for working parents!
- Encourage them to ask questions.
- Be available and give plenty of support. Say good morning and good night. Make them a cup of tea, and don’t be “too busy” to check in regularly. Remember, this is a really important week.
Find out more about great onboarding here. And remember the process of belonging doesn’t end after week one. The next stage is induction, which can be make or break.
