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New Hire Onboarding Checklist: 13 Templates to Welcome Employees

Published at Apr 04, 2024
New Hire Onboarding Checklist: 13 Templates to Welcome Employees

Human resources teams have their hands full when an influx of new hires comes into the organization.

Before these employees can make an impact, HR must adequately introduce them to the company, get them to sign the necessary documents and secure their login details and workstations.

Doing all these things to new employees and incoming ones can put a strain on HR teams, no matter how big they may be.

As a way to circumvent this issue, it’s in your team’s best interest to use an onboarding checklist.

This post discusses the value an onboarding checklist brings to your company, Visme templates you can use to get started and best practices to implement in your onboarding process.

Here’s a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit onboarding checklist templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

 

Table of Contents

 

What is an Onboarding Checklist?

An onboarding checklist is a set of tasks and procedures new hires must complete during their first days and weeks working in a company. This document is a valuable onboarding tool for HR teams and companies of all sizes.

Here’s an example of an onboarding checklist template:

Employee Onboarding Checklist Consulting
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

Why Create an Onboarding Checklist?

Below are reasons why you need to have an onboarding checklist in place:

1. Creates a consistent and more efficient process. Instead of manually introducing new hires to your company, an internal document like an onboarding checklist helps them navigate your company’s procedures and processes seamlessly without your intervention.

2. Integrates employees into an organization. You can design your onboarding checklist to run new hires through their job responsibilities and list the tools they need for their jobs. Using a checklist during onboarding presentations prevents newcomers from getting lost and unsure during their first days in your company.

3. Decrease employee turnover. An effective onboarding process addresses all concerns and questions new hires may have about your business. This gives them everything they need before they begin working and allows them to set their expectations based on what your organization is and can do.

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What Should You Include in Your Onboarding Checklist?

You must create two checklists to integrate new employees into your company correctly. Below are both lists and their contents:

Preboarding Checklist

New hires complete this checklist during their first days in the organization. It informs them what to expect from the company and vice versa. This enables both parties to be on the same page moving forward.

Below are things you must include in your preboarding checklist:

  • Send welcome email - The email should formally welcome them into the company. Aside from sharing information like location, start date and time, you must show appreciation to them as new team members to make them feel welcome.
  • Discuss job responsibilities - New hires must talk to their direct supervisors regarding their roles and tasks as part of a team or department. They should also discuss expectations and company culture to set the tone before new employees even begin working.
  • Prepare their workstations - If they’re coming in for work, the checklist should point to their workstation and where to submit other requirements. For those working remotely, you can prepare a list of things they must meet or download for seamless collaboration.

Onboarding Checklist

Once your new hires are all set up with your organization, it’s time for the actual onboarding process to begin. Below is how most companies design their process, but you can take this as inspiration and feel free to create your version:

  • First Day - Hold an introductory meeting or lunch, so they get to meet managers, executives and other employees. Assign training resources to bring new hires up to speed regarding their tasks.
  • First Week - This part should continue to enforce company values and culture among new hires. You want to arrange social activities that enable them to bond with their teammates and other employees to get better acquainted with them. Share a team hierarchy chart to help.
  • First Month - You and supervisors must provide constructive feedback regarding their work thus far to let them know if they're on the right track or not.
  • Sixth Month - Set a performance evaluation among new hires to acknowledge their achievements and areas for improvement. You can also set goals for them to complete before their first year.
  • First Year - Arrange another performance evaluation to determine whether they reached their goals six months ago or not. Then discuss their next goals after six months again for another assessment by then.

 

13 Onboarding Checklist Templates to Inspire You

If you want to create an onboarding checklist for new hires, Visme gives you tons of templates to choose from. In addition, Visme's checklist maker lets you customize every aspect of this template, including text, fonts, colors and other design elements. You'll also have access to an extensive range of features to make your checklist effective.

1. New Employee Onboarding Checklist

This checklist features standard tasks organized into three groups: preparation, onboarding day and follow-up. This template is ideal if your business requires the presence of employees on-site.

New Employee Onboarding Checklist
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

2. Remote Employee Onboarding Checklist

It's common nowadays to hire remote workers in your organization. In this case, this template is for you as it lists the basics that new remote hires must keep in mind during each phase of the onboarding process.

Remote Employee Onboarding Checklist
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

3. New Project Manager Onboarding Checklist

Hiring a project manager to work on a client is daunting due to the job scope and responsibilities involved. Onboarding your new hire to ensure they understand everything correctly, even before starting the job, is critical.

Thankfully, this template distills the most important responsibilities the new manager must do to get up to speed.

New Project Manager Onboarding Checklist
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

Simply edit the checklist template to match your onboarding process instead of starting from scratch. To ensure that you cover everything you and new hires need, add members of your HR team to help you edit and complete the checklist.

How to customize onboarding checklist template in Visme
4. New Developer Onboarding Checklist

Unlike most employees, developers are known for their technical knowledge and coding proficiency. So if your organization manages to snag one who's worth every penny, make sure never to let that person leave by having the developer go through this checklist template.

New Developer Onboarding Checklist
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

5. Technical Team Onboarding Checklist

When assembling a technical team, you want each member to click on all cylinders. This checklist template keeps everyone in line up until at least the first quarter so everybody on the team can focus more on how to contribute to their projects.

Technical Team Onboarding Checklist
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

Adding data visualization tools to your checklist (tables, graphs, widgets) also allows images to communicate your message instead of just words.

6. Marketing Team Onboarding Checklist

Marketing campaigns that generate results require everybody on the team to be on the same page. A template that acclimates them to company culture and encourages team collaboration and feedback will help your company build and launch successful campaigns.

Marketing Team Onboarding Checklist
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

7. Customer Service Representative Onboarding Checklist

Customer service representatives with company culture knowledge and communication skills as priorities help increase happy customers and get them to stay as clients. This checklist template ensures they go through your onboarding process correctly.

Customer Service Representative Onboarding Checklist
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

8. Business Analyst Onboarding Checklist

You can use this business analyst template for your onboarding checklist to be more specific with the tasks new hires must do. Identify which tasks are more critical than others, when the new employees must complete them and who is responsible for facilitating the task for new hires.

Business Analyst Onboarding Checklist
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

9. Onboarding Guide Worksheet

To help guide and get new employees acquainted with your organization during their first few days, this useful onboarding checklist tells them what they must do. It also lists other tasks for them to complete before the end of their first year.

Onboarding Guide Worksheet
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

10. Employee Onboarding Checklist

If you want to onboard new hires and lay out how they can work with the different teams in your company, this checklist is for you. It informs new employees on what to do for each department so they can get fully integrated into your organization.

Employee Onboarding Checklist
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

11. Sales Team Onboarding Checklist

Your salespeople are one of the most vital employees you'll have in your organization. For this reason, you want to get them up to speed with your sales team and processes by getting the onboarding process out of the way as quickly as possible. This checklist should help you achieve that.

Sales Team Onboarding Checklist
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

12. New Hire Onboarding Checklist

This onboarding checklist works as documentation of some sort. New hires must fill out their details and cross off the list of things they have done for each department. Once everything is accomplished, they can submit this to HR or their team manager to conclude their onboarding process.

New Hire Onboarding Checklist
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

13. Employee Onboarding Checklist Consulting

This is another simple yet effective onboarding checklist you can hand to new hires on their first day. Get them to complete everything in this list for all departments so they can proceed with working on the job you hired them for in the first place.

Employee Onboarding Checklist Consulting
Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

 

Tips for Creating Effective Onboarding Checklist

As you can see, the onboarding process for new hires never ends. Even after years under their belts, employees still must undergo performance assessments to ensure they continue to meet expectations even before joining the organization.

This is the hallmark of an onboarding checklist that works and is something that your company should match or exceed.

To help you institute this kind of process for your organization, below are tips you must follow:

Prepare the Paperwork

Paperwork is a cumbersome but necessary part of the onboarding process. So, before the new hire comes in for work, you must prepare all the documents they must fill out concerning taxes, payroll, various contracts and other employee forms.

Take this time also to give them their employee handbooks that discuss how they must conduct themselves as part of the organization and the benefits and packages they're entitled to. Alternatively you can give them a company handbook so they can grasp the company culture and expectations beforehand.

Organize a (Virtual) Office Tour

Just like new hires need to put their working boots on every time they log in to work, you need to put your best foot forward as well during the tours.

Your tour should show them around company premises and point out common areas such as break rooms, bathrooms, etc. You can even print out a map so they won't get lost in their first few days there.

For remote employees, you can present a professional video tour of the office to give them an idea of what it looks like. You can also feature people they’ll be working with virtually, so they can get acquainted with them immediately.

Throughout the tour, make sure to display your company culture and values to help them identify the type of business you’re running.

Connect Them With Mentors or Buddies

Partnering new hires with someone during the onboarding process allows them to work through the tasks on the list together. It can be a fellow new hire, so they can bond while checking boxes off their lists. You can also pair new employees with tenured team members to help them learn the company's ins and outs and integrate them into the team much faster.

For new employees that show promise, you can assign them to a mentor who will groom them to succeed in their place. The mentor will transfer the knowledge and skills they’ve accumulated through the years to the new hire, who will then do the same down the line.

Ask Them for Feedback Regarding the Onboarding

The onboarding process must adapt to the needs of new employees. The goal is to help assimilate them into the company and allow them to contribute meaningfully toward its growth.

There might be items in your checklist that need tweaking or tasks that must be added. To find out what these items are, you must ask your employees what they are.

Get them to fill out a survey regarding the onboarding process to determine which parts helped and didn't help them. This way, you can evaluate the process in your progress review and make the necessary changes.

If you built your checklist using Visme, the Dynamic Fields feature lets you update information much more accessible. As a result, you can deploy the latest checklist version faster.

how to use Visme's Dynamic Fields feature in Visme

 

Human Resources Communication Made Beautiful with Visme

As an HR manager, an onboarding checklist gives you a sign of relief. You no longer have to accommodate new hires and get them up to speed with their jobs one by one.

As crucial as onboarding is, you simply can’t do everything yourself. You need to set up a process that runs by itself without your help.

Creating onboarding checklists for new employees is a step in that direction. To create checklists that are clear and easy to understand, Visme's checklist maker is your best bet.

Learning how you can leverage our design tool for human resources without design experience will help you communicate your ideas in style with both old and new employees.

Christopher Jan Benitez is a freelance writer who specializes in digital marketing. His work has been published on SEO and affiliate marketing-specific niches like Monitor Backlinks, Niche Pursuits, Nichehacks, Web Hosting Secret Revealed, and others.

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