New Hire Onboarding Process Template

Constructing a new hire onboarding process template is an incredibly powerful tool for companies, helping to boost employee retention and job satisfaction while reducing new hire churn. However, Sapling found that 88% of organizations don't onboard well.

You certainly don't want to form part of this percentage, which is why this new hire onboarding process template is so beneficial. This comprehensive template ensures all your bases are covered to provide your new hires a good onboarding experience, whether they're working in-person, remotely, or a little of both.

Actionable processes are encouraged to have a set timeline. That's why this employee onboarding template is structured to last for 3 months. You might find that you want a longer or shorter onboarding period. If that's the case, you can easily edit the template to your exact specifications. 

Add this template to your library, edit it (if you feel necessary), and run it whenever you welcome a new employee into your company. 

These tasks should be completed before the new hire's start date. 

It's a good idea to get your new hire's paperwork in order before their first day. Thus way, they can get right to work learning the important things rather than filling out a bunch of forms.

You can start preparing this paperwork by recording the following information in the form fields below: 

It's also important to take note of who are the people taking control of this onboarding project, as it helps with assigning responsibilities. In the form fields below, you can select who the new hire, the HR manager, and line manager are during this onboarding process. 

Once you select the team member for each role, role assignments are going to be given to the relative member for each task. 

⚡️ You could automate this step by setting up an integration with Slack 

You should let the rest of your team know that a new teammate will be arriving shortly. Sending an email is a great way to ensure they know to welcome a new face to the team. 

Add the recipients who should be informed about this new hire's arrival. These recipients should be added in the 'Cc' section of this email widget. 

When hiring a new employee you need to remember the basics - all forms must be intact and passed on to the HR department. Save copies of these vital forms using the form fields below:

If you require some examples of the necessary forms, see below.

1. Intellectual property and assignment agreement (Customizable example)
2. Non-Disclosure agreement (Customizable example)

You can also edit what paperwork you want to upload during this onboarding process by adding the workflow to your library and clicking 'Edit.' 

Great! Now that you’ve completed the employee paperwork, you can go ahead and create a company email for your new hire. 

Send an email welcoming the new employee and reminding them of the start date that was selected upon accepting the offer.

An employee handbook is an excellent way to help your new hire understand your company culture and the relevant information for their role.

If you have a handbook, you can include it into Pages and provide the link in this workflow to help provide the new employee with easy access.

Read through the employee handbook linked below.

{{form.Employee_handbook_link}}

Use the subtask list below and tick off each task once you've read the corresponding topic in the handbook: 

Prepare a list of usernames and passwords (you can use Pages to do this), then share the list with the new employee to give them time to set up their profiles. Record a link to the list with the form field below:

You can also easily manage passwords with a tool like 1Password.

In order to add the new employee to the payroll, you must first gather the following information. Feel free to edit the sub-checklist below if more or less items are required.

Then fill in a payroll form for the new hire. Record a copy of the payroll form below.

Click here for an example payroll form you can print out and use.

Assign the account manager who is responsible for approving this payroll information. 

These tasks should be completed before the new hire's first day of employment. 

The goal of this is to make the new employee feel welcomed and integrated into the existing company culture from the first day. You should take the new hire out for coffee and properly welcome them into the company. 

During this welcome coffee, you can discuss: 

The goal of this is to make the new employee feel welcomed and integrated into the existing company culture from the first day. Even if this position is on a remote basis, you want to offer this introduction to you new hire.

Many remote teams are adopting 'virtual coffee breaks' to boost collaboration and offer a more 'human experience.' This also works well during remote employee onboarding. Schedule a welcome coffee through Zoom or another online chat service. 

During this meeting you can discuss: 

Now that the welcome coffee is out the way and the new hire has gotten an introduction into the company, assigning a mentor would be an excellent step. According to ICMI:

This provides them with the opportunity to report to buddy to ask for help, which is generally more accessible than approaching a line manager.

It’s sometimes best to assign an employee who has recently undergone the onboarding process themselves, as they can provide greater insight into what to expect. 

During this meeting, the new hire should be introduced to the necessary leadership in the organisation. During the meeting, the following topics should be discussed: 

This should be a more informal meeting with other team members. In in-office cases, the best option would be after-work drinks. Otherwise, remote teams can use interactive online chat rooms to play around with and break the ice. This is a well-liked way to end an employee’s first day, as it helps create a friendly and more relaxed atmosphere. 

These tasks should be completed before the new hire's first week of employment. 

The new hire should shadow the mentor. In-person shadowing can include the new hire following their mentor around the office and seeing what roles they perform on a daily basis. It also gives the new hire a good idea of what is going to be expected of them. 

For employees working remotely, this new hire can accompany their mentor on video calls and other relevant technology where the mentor can walk the new hire through their regular day-to-day. 

Shadowing can be done for around a week (or more depending on the complexity of roles)

Pages is a great place to store information company documentation, like a reading list. This reading list should provide informational reading material that your new hires can read through to gain a better understanding of their new role, the industry they are now working in, and anything else that might be useful for them to know. 

A reading list is a great use of time when a new hire is first learning the ropes. When starting out in their new role, you might find that you have more spare time as your routine isn't yet defined. A reading list helps you use your time responsibility while learning about different company processes, information about the product, service, or industry. 

You can make your way down this list of reading material: 

{{form.Reading_list_link}}

At the end of the first week, you shouldn't expect too much from your new hire. Meet to discuss progress with milestones, how they feel they're getting to grips with the company procedure and how they are finding the job so far.

After this, you can introduce them to their mentor and discuss what role this mentor will be playing in their onboarding process. 

It is recommended to train employees bit-by-bit for around two months before giving them a seat on the phone floor with everyone else. Avoid flooding new hires with information. Just put them to the test and report on their progress. Make sure to be clear about what they did well and what needs improving.

Set another group of milestones for next week according to how this week went. Schedule the meeting using Google Calendar.

These tasks should be completed before the new hire's first month of employment

Every new hire requires training when they first begin a new role. Your training sessions should be structured and be broken down into various meetings. Schedule a recurring training session once a week that covers these different training topics. 

After the employee has been trained you need to assign them to their first task.

Beneficial onboarding projects are ones that the new hire should attempt to do independently. The projects should consist of tasks or responsibilities the new hire should encounter on a regular basis. 

Plan this project in the form field below and ensure you cover the following when detailing this assignment to the new hire:

After this new hire has completed the project, the manager responsible for the new employee should assess their performance in the form fields below: 

These tasks should be completed before the new hire's three months of employment

At this point in the onboarding process, your new hire should have the ability to conduct their work with limited supervision. They should be working independently and have the capability to handle tasks needing immediate responses. 

During the progress report, you should detail: 

We strive to offer an enjoyable employee onboarding experience, which is why your opinion matters to us. Please fill out this survey to help us ensure we're providing the best experience possible.  

Based on the employee's ability to reach milestones you have set in the past, formulate some long-term goals you would like them to work towards.

This is something you can assess during each weekly progress meeting but monitor more infrequently after the settling-in process is over.

During your final onboarding check-in after 90 days with the employee, you should explain what the structure will be in the future. This can be done in the form of a meeting. Such matters you might want to discuss are: 

• Applicant PRO - Employee Onboarding
• Carter McNamara - Roles and Responsibilities of a Supervisor
• Expert Supervisor - New Employee Orientation Checklist
• Commongood Careers - Best Practices for Employee Onboarding
• Idealist Careers - Closing the Deal: Salary And Benefits Negotiation
• Mining Man - How to Welcome a New Employee to the Team
• Berkley HR - Performance Expectations = Results + Actions & Behaviors
• HR Pulse News Desk - Why is induction so important
• Susan Heathfield - Use Mentoring to Develop Employees
• Sapling - Employee Onboarding Statistics 

• Restaurant Employee Onboarding Checklist
• Salesperson Onboarding Checklist for Startups
• Developer Onboarding Checklist for Startups
• Call Center Employee Onboarding Checklist
• Retail Employee Onboarding Checklist