So you’ve finalized your exciting new hire. You’ve been through the rough and rigorous hiring process and experienced some ups and downs. But now everything is finally falling into place.
But wait, the hiring process doesn’t stop here. There’s a connecting road ahead to onboard this new employee.
As HR leaders, you will be fully aware of how properly onboarding a new employee is key to making sure that they start off on the right foot, and to ensuring their continued success.
But first things first, what exactly is onboarding?
The definition of onboarding is “the process of incorporating a new employee into a company and familiarizing them with the company culture and policies, so they can become an effective and contributing member of the team.”
It sounds pretty simple, right? But you might be surprised to learn that Gallup found that only 12 percent of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job when it comes to onboarding new employees.
This can be considered a huge waste of a vital part of your employees’ journeys. It is a missed opportunity for your workers to form a strong understanding of the culture and ethos of your organization and to get off to the strongest start possible.
Organizations need to put a great deal of thought into how to best onboard new employees. But with so much to consider, it can be easy for things to be forgotten or important points to be overlooked.
That’s where we come in.
We have created five free employee onboarding checklist templates for various roles; these can be either used directly, or adapted and used as a jumping-off point for your own onboarding checklists.
The checklists we’ve created are for the following roles:
- Developer
- Sales team member
- Marketing team member
- Manager-level team member
- Executive-level team member
But before we jump into the templates, here are a few things that you should consider:
Timing is key
Some organizations will consider onboarding to be a task that only takes a week or less to complete. But the experts recommend that onboarding should last for at least 90 days, or even up to a year.
With this in mind, we have split each template up into four sections:
- Before start date
- First day
- First month
- First 90 days
This gives you the ability to ensure that the most important points of your new recruits’ journeys are considered and accounted for—and that your onboarding process doesn’t come to a close before your employees are fully trained and properly settled in.
The world of remote working
The modern workplace can have a number of employees who work remotely or in a hybrid environment. With this in mind, these checklists have been designed to be flexible, agile, and adaptable.
So while some of these points are only relevant to in-house workers, the rest can easily be adapted to include remote workers. For example, one-on-one meetings or introductions can be held via online video-conferencing, or employee training sessions (live on zoom or pre-recorded) can be done virtually. Perhaps the manager can take a tour of the office with the laptop while the candidate is on zoom to get a personal virtual tour.
It’s also important that you treat your remote workers with the same level of detail and care as you do for your employees who work from your office. For example, you wouldn’t leave a new employee sitting in the waiting room with just a note that says: “Welcome.” Just like you wouldn’t show them to an empty desk with no computer or tools.
So make sure that you properly greet your new remote employee via a video call, or at the very least with a strong onboarding email (for which we have the perfect onboarding email template). And make sure that any tools they need to properly do their job have arrived at wherever they are working from with plenty of time to spare.
It’s not all about the paperwork
Paperwork is important. There’s no denying that.
You need to ensure that all the t’s have been crossed and the i’s have been dotted—
but onboarding is about far more than just signing some documents.
Proper onboarding involves immersing your new recruit into the culture of your organization and making sure that they fit in and feel comfortable. It’s about making sure that they know exactly what is expected of them, and how they can reach their potential within your organization.
So by all means, place an emphasis on making sure that the legal bits are in order—but don’t make it a central theme.
<<Print these 5 onboarding checklists and start everyone off on the right foot.>>
Our top five employee onboarding checklists
1. Developer onboarding checklist template
This new employee onboarding template has been designed specifically for new developer hires. It goes through the basic steps of onboarding a new recruit into the developer position and gives an outline for you to adapt as you see fit, and pass forward to managers if needed.
2. Sales team member onboarding checklist template
The sales department is a busy and bustling place to be. This means that it can sometimes be overwhelming for new hires and things can be left by the wayside in an attempt to get them up and running straight away.
This template has been designed to make sure that each box is checked off for new sales team members. With a focus on targets and sales goals, you can be sure that your new recruit will start off on the right foot.
3. Marketing team member onboarding checklist template
Marketing is a key aspect of any business. Any new employee will have to hit the ground running in a fast-paced environment. There are many ins and outs of an organization’s marketing team, so a thorough onboarding process is vital.
4. Manager-level team member onboarding checklist template
Starting a new job at a managerial level is complicated. There are a lot of things to consider and it’s important to hit the ground running. But while there are a lot of big things that need to be done, it’s just as important to make sure the smaller ones are checked off too.
This template was designed to cover everything from the micro to the macro. It includes meetings with both the staff that will be working under the manager and the staff above them so that everyone can properly integrate and lines of communication can open up.
5. Executive-level team member onboarding checklist template
Executive onboarding can be a very complex process. There is a higher degree of financial risk if an executive-level team member isn’t trained properly, so this onboarding process has to be done correctly and to the best of your ability.
This employee onboarding template is perhaps the most open to modification, as the executive structure at each company can vary to some extent. We’ve added key elements such as forming an executive development plan as well as setting up introductory meetings with stakeholders and other key points of contact.
<<Print these 5 onboarding checklists and start everyone off on the right foot.>>
The bottom line
From the top of the company structure all the way to the bottom, every employee deserves a thorough and well-thought-out onboarding process.
With the help of an onboarding plan template, you will have access to a strong set of onboarding tools to guide your new recruits through the first three months of their new jobs.
But wait, the employee experience doesn’t stop there.
All of these templates include six-month, nine-month, and one-year progress meetings—but you and their managers should regularly check in with employees to make sure that they are happy in their roles, and have a full understanding of what is expected of them.
Meet Bob
In today’s rapidly changing employment landscape, HR leaders need to build a company culture that engages and retains both in-house and remote employees—both during the onboarding period and for the entire duration of their time at the firm—fostering comradery and commitment.
That’s why we built Bob, an modern HR platform that was designed to put people first. With Bob’s onboarding feature, you can make the best first impression with a positive and streamlined experience.
Onboarding
Provide a positive and streamlined experience for your new hires that sets the stage for employee engagement, better employee retention, and increased productivity.
- Automate onboarding workflows ensure every task and touchpoint is covered
- Preboard new hires to start their journey before day one
- Showcase the people and company culture for a great headstart
- Make it official with company-wide announcements
- Personalize the onboarding to meet the needs of the role, team, and country