The ultimate employee onboarding checklist

A new employee starting is an exciting time for your business and for the employee. Creating a good impression is the best way to boost job satisfaction early and this means a comprehensive onboarding plan. 

What’s included in the employee onboarding checklist?

New starter arriving tomorrow? Don’t panic, we’ve got you covered. Our comprehensive onboarding checklist ensures your new hire feels welcomed and prepared for their new employee journey.

Inside you’ll find:

• How to make them feel like they’re already a part of the team.
• Day 1 spent submitting IT tickets? No thanks. You’ll have all their equipment and access sorted. 
• How to make their first day memorable, for all the right reasons.
• Key areas to cover, from before your new hire arrives, to the end of the onboarding process.

Download our checklist for onboarding employees now.

Why every business needs an onboarding checklist

The numbers don’t lie. Research by Brandon Hall Group found that businesses with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%.

Who benefits from using this checklist?

• HR Professionals: If you’re running an HR team, or contributing to HR success, this new starter HR onboarding checklist could be incredibly helpful. Print out and use this HR checklist to use as your own, or use it as a base to cross-check your current new hire onboarding checklist.
• Employers: If you’re running a small to medium-sized business, you may not have a dedicated HR team to tick off every onboarding task. This onboarding process checklist is perfect for helping you easily follow along with your new hire’s journey through onboarding.
• Hiring Managers: While your HR team or employer may have hired your new direct report, direct managers will ultimately be the ones ensuring that the practical items in the onboarding plan are checked off. This onboarding checklist can help you make sure that nothing is missed as your new hire gets started.

If kept in an easy-to-access place (online or offline), this onboarding template can also help you collaborate with other employees on an onboarding process. Together, you can monitor an employee’s progress and reduce double-handling of tasks. It’s a great way to keep everything in check (literally).

Tips for getting the most from your onboarding checklist

A checklist is only as useful as the way you use it. While it sets the foundation for a smooth onboarding journey, the real value comes from tailoring it to your team, culture and work setup. If you approach it correctly, you can turn a simple list of tasks into a tool for employee engagement and long-term retention.

Assign responsibility

One of the biggest onboarding mistakes is assuming someone else will handle it. A well-structured onboarding checklist should make it clear who owns each step of the process. For HR, this typically includes issuing contracts, setting up payroll, walking through workplace policies and managing compliance requirements. The direct manager should take charge of role-specific training, clarifying performance expectations, and providing regular support throughout the employee’s early weeks. 

Finally, an onboarding buddy (where possible) plays a critical role in cultural integration, helping the new hire settle in, answering informal questions and making those early days less overwhelming.

Use it for remote, hybrid and in-office setups

Today’s workforce isn’t confined to a single environment, which means your onboarding checklist has to be flexible. For office-based employees, this might involve physical tours and face-to-face introductions. For remote or hybrid employees, consider digital alternatives: virtual office tours, structured video introductions to colleagues and clear guidance on setting up a productive home workspace. 

It’s also good to add extra communication checkpoints to help remote employees feel connected and avoid the common pitfall of isolation. Your checklist should be adaptable, so that no matter where your new hire logs in from (the kitchen table, the office desk, or anywhere in between) they receive a consistent and engaging onboarding experience.

Automate repeatable steps

The best onboarding checklists provide structure and save valuable time. Automating routine tasks means your HR team can focus on high-value activities rather than manual admin. For example, instead of HR manually creating system logins, integrate your HRIS or IT tools to handle this automatically. 

Use project management software to assign and track onboarding tasks, ensuring visibility across teams. Automated email sequences can deliver essential information at just the right time, while digital forms can capture and sync employee details directly into HR systems. 

Even simple automations, like scheduling recurring check-ins in advance, can make onboarding smoother, more consistent and less reliant on memory. If you’re looking for HR management software that can help you with automated onboarding assistance, be sure to check out Employment Hero’s HRIS.

What is an induction process?

An induction process is where the new employee does the bulk of their learning about the business and their role within it. It’s generally a learning process, where the employee is taught about the company by those inside the company (building on any information they may have learned during recruitment), and is a chance to share insider information about goals and plans to help the employee prepare ahead.

Induction can also include the sharing of information about company policies, team structure and a person’s role.

Confused about the difference between onboarding and induction? Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, we suggest that an induction plan can be considered part of the onboarding process, but onboarding is not part of an induction process. To learn why, let’s define onboarding.

What is an onboarding process?

Onboarding is a much bigger process than people realise. It includes setting an employee up in different systems, organising their equipment, introducing them to their new team members, establishing goals… The list goes on.

What else should be considered in the onboarding process?

While onboarding checklists get specific about the tasks you need to complete in onboarding, here are a few things you should consider when onboarding new employees to create a meaningful and efficient process.

1. Your company culture

Employees are more likely to invest themselves personally in a company’s success if they feel aligned with the business. It’s essential to get your new employees involved in your company’s culture on day one. The best way to do this is for new hires to spend time with employees from different areas of the business with various levels of seniority.

Likewise, implementing an onboarding buddy system ensures your new hire has someone to talk to, which is so important in the first nerve-wracking weeks of a new job.

2. Company mission, vision and goals

If you want your new starter to embody the company’s mission, vision and values, then you need to share this as part of your onboarding process and show them where the business is headed.

It’s equally important for everyone to understand their own goals and how they relate to the big picture. Communicating the goals of their role during the onboarding process will help new hires focus their efforts on achieving them.

3. Introduction to key team members

Getting to know all the new faces and personalities in a business can seem daunting at first. Your role is to help new employees settle into their new team and get to know the clients, colleagues and managers they will work with to become recognised and integrate naturally.

4. Sharing an employee handbook

Onboarding can cause a bit of information overload for your new hire. While there’s a lot to be communicated, you should also consider distributing an employee handbook with all of the relevant information you’ve shared in the onboarding and induction process.

Having access to an employee handbook can take some of the pressure of having to retain such large amounts of information, and allows a new employee to access important details in their own time.

Avoid these common onboarding checklist mistakes

Customise for each role

Not every role requires the same onboarding experience, and treating it that way can leave new hires either underprepared or overloaded with irrelevant information. For example, your marketing manager doesn’t need deep technical setup instructions, while your developer may not need a crash course in branding guidelines on day one. 

Tailor your checklist by role, department, and seniority level so each employee gets exactly what they need to succeed. The more aligned the onboarding process is to the role, the quicker employees can start contributing meaningfully.

Prioritise cultural integration

Onboarding isn’t just about teaching systems and processes, it’s also about embedding people into the culture of your business. A new employee can learn how to use the photocopier in minutes, but understanding how your team works, communicates and celebrates takes more intentional effort. 

Make space to explain traditions, team rituals, or even informal norms like how meetings typically run. These cultural cues often make the difference between someone feeling like “just another employee” and someone truly belonging.

Build in follow-ups

Assigning tasks during onboarding is only the first step. Without structured follow-ups, even the most carefully built onboarding process can become meaningless. Employees need consistent touchpoints to confirm progress, answer questions, and reinforce learning. 

For managers and HR teams, this means building in accountability through scheduled check-ins, progress tracking tools or automated reminders. 

H3: Keep improving through feedback

The onboarding process shouldn’t be a fixed routine that’s repeated without reflection. Gathering feedback from new hires is essential to refining and improving the experience over time. Ask structured questions: 

• What helped most? 
• What was missing? 
• Which parts felt unclear or overwhelming? 

Then act on the insights you collect. This not only strengthens your onboarding but also signals to employees that their voices matter from day one. Continuous improvement is key. Otherwise, you risk running the same confusing steps year after year and wondering why employees aren’t fully engaged.

How to use this checklist effectively

A checklist on its own won’t guarantee a great onboarding experience. The way you apply it matters just as much as the tasks themselves. It should give you structure, but still leave room for personalisation, flexibility and continuous improvement.

Start before day one

Onboarding doesn’t begin when the employee walks into the office, or logs onto their first Zoom call. The most effective processes begin earlier. Handle the administrative requirements in advance: contracts signed, payroll details collected, IT logins created, and equipment delivered if necessary. 

That way, the first day can focus on building connections and embedding the employee into the company culture, rather than spending hours completing forms. A new hire’s first impression sets the tone for their entire experience, make sure it’s about people, not paperwork.

Adapt it to your business context

No two businesses on board in exactly the same way. A fast-moving tech startup will prioritise speed, flexibility, and digital tools, while a traditional law firm may emphasise compliance, formal processes and mentorship. 

Use this checklist as your foundation, then layer in the elements that reflect your company’s culture, values, and role requirements. Tailoring the process makes onboarding more effective while also signalling to new hires that your business pays attention to detail and invests in their success.

Track progress and refine over time

The best onboarding processes evolve. Keep records of what works smoothly and where new hires consistently get stuck or confused. Collect feedback at multiple points, for example, after week one, at the end of the probation period and again at six months. 

Over time, these insights will highlight gaps and opportunities for improvement. Adjusting your process regularly ensures that it stays relevant, effective and aligned with changing business needs.

Download your free employee onboarding checklist

You’ve learned a lot about onboarding today, and you’re ready to go with your employee onboarding checklist, but what about your onboarding software?

Our paperless onboarding features, complete with digital employee onboarding checklist tools, can make all the difference in creating an effective onboarding process.