Onboarding checklist: 5 tips to consider + free download

Of the new employees hired last year, a staggering 81% reported feeling overwhelmed during onboarding. In addition, 42% said the information they needed was scattered across different platforms (1) — a problem that’s only becoming more common and is now known as HR software sprawl (2). This is a major concern for retention and engagement because team members who receive great onboarding are 2.6 times more likely to indicate high levels of job satisfaction (3).

 So what are companies missing in their onboarding processes? One part of the answer is simple: Organizations that want to deliver high-quality onboarding need to utilize a thorough onboarding checklist. A thoughtfully planned, input-driven new hire checklist minimizes confusion, prevents key information from getting lost, and helps set new team members up for success. But even more than that, it’s an opportunity for team leads to build a strong manager-employee relationship focused on career development — one of the biggest priorities for professionals today. 

This article discusses what an onboarding checklist is and what it should ideally contain to help you improve the new hire experience. We also provide you with a downloadable sample checklist to get you started creating your own onboarding assets. 

🛣️ A great beginning to the new hire journey

Use our downloadable checklist to make the onboarding process straightforward and stress-free. 

👉 Download the checklist

1. Glean and OnePoll, 2023
2. SHRM, 2024‍
3. Gallup, 2021

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What is an onboarding checklist?

An employee onboarding checklist outlines the steps organizations should take when introducing new team members to their workplace — the goal is to prepare them for their roles. This kind of checklist is ideal for companies that want to clarify their onboarding process flow, which is the set of tasks that recent hires complete during their first few months in a new position.‍

‍Employee onboarding checklists prevent new hires from feeling overwhelmed. Organizations should ensure that they store and maintain them somewhere easily accessible and preferably digital. That way, human resources teams, managers, and new employees can refer back to them and check off the tasks they complete as they go.‍

‍A comprehensive new hire checklist must cover every step of the onboarding process, including:

• Pre-onboarding preparation
• Orientation & paperwork
• Software, apps & tech setup
• Role expectations
• Company culture & values
• Engagement & empowerment
• Introductions & guidance for teammate relationships and networking with cross-functional colleagues‍
• Job-specific onboarding, learning and development & training

🛣 Set new employees on the right path 

Leapsome makes it easy to set onboarding and training goals, hold one-on-one meetings, and encourage ongoing career development within one easy-to-use platform.

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Why is a new hire checklist important?

“I’m a huge fan of onboarding checklists, and they’ve done a lot to make the onboarding process more efficient, effective, and engaging. One thing I love about using them is that they help me keep track of what’s been covered in previous [training] sessions, so I can make sure to touch on everything again. For example, if we covered how to schedule meetings before lunchtime, but I don’t see [employees] scheduling those meetings afterward, we’ll go over the process again in our next session.

This helps me ensure that employees get all the information they need from me and their coworkers, which makes their transition into their roles easier and less stressful.”

— Gauri Manglik, CEO and Founder at Instrumentl

Think about the way your company treats new customers or clients. Your goal is to quickly establish a trusting relationship with them and help them feel connected with your organization’s mission, vision, and products. You also want to provide them with a seamless transition and enjoyable first experience with your solution or service. You’ve likely prepared an internal checklist with those objectives in mind to simplify this experience for your sales and customer success teams. 

‍New team members deserve the same intentional, streamlined experience as new customers because they — as employees — are your most valuable resource.
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Everything an onboarding checklist should includ

As remote and hybrid work becomes the standard, businesses must make their onboarding processes repeatable and well-organized to avoid new employees feeling confused and left to navigate your tech stack and processes without a blueprint. Let’s explore how you can make your new team member checklist a resource that benefits everyone in your organization. 

1. An initial welcome before day one

Employees are looking for managers who will champion their development from day one, especially with Gen Z entering the workforce. Indeed, 62% of Gen Z employees say they want to have frequent career growth conversations with their manager — yet 46% of all employees say they lack career support from their managers.

That’s why you must start building a relationship with a new hire before they start orientation to demonstrate how much you already value them as a team member. 

In a welcome email, let the new employee know that you’re ready to answer any questions and prompt them to complete the essential paperwork and tasks you can’t leave for the first day — like signing a contract or setting up a company email address. 

Copy in the new team member’s manager, assigned mentor, and any other stakeholders they’re likely to contact during their first weeks so they can reply and send them a short welcome message as well.

Most crucially, send the new hire a schedule for their first day of onboarding, ensuring they know:

• When to report for work
• Where they need to go, whether in-person or online
• What documents to bring or prepare (like tax forms or certificates)
• Who they’re going to meet on the first day

2. Internal preparations

Consult with your people team, the new team member’s direct manager, their mentor, and your IT department to make sure you have everything you need ready for their first day. Create task lists for each department so your new hires won’t be left to their own devices — they shouldn’t waste time and energy tracking people down for usernames, passwords, essential links, or other basic information.

Before onboarding, it’s up to you and other stakeholders to:

• Ensure the new team member has signed their employment contract
• Already schedule 1:1 manager meetings in your new hire’s calendar for the first month
• Create a guide for the new employee to set up accounts for Google, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other relevant applications.

3. Tasks for the first day of onboarding 

There are many practical things to accomplish on the first day of onboarding, so it’s crucial to keep virtual and in-person meetings to a minimum. You don’t want your recent joiner to feel like you’re trying to cram everything into their first few hours.

The goal for a new hire’s first day of onboarding should be to orient them in terms of your values, mission, and way of working. By the end, they should also know what learning and training tasks they must complete before the onboarding period is over, as well as whom to contact or what resources to refer to if they get stuck.

That’s why, among other essential tasks on your checklist, you should:

• Verify your new hires have all the necessary accounts and software set up
• Introduce your company’s onboarding course and explain how they can begin working through the tasks and activities 
• Ensure they know where to find key information about your organization, like your org chart, core values, and objectives and key results (OKRs)‍

4. Introductions in person & via Slack

If you’re not sure how to make introductions that foster genuine relationships, consider these best practices:

• Share the new employee’s name, role, and professional background
• Talk about why you hired them, touching on the values they’ve already demonstrated and the projects they’ve worked on.
• Explain what responsibilities and initiatives they’ll be focusing on after onboarding
• Tag relevant team members or cross-functional colleagues in your internal chat so they’ll be prompted to introduce themselves

🔎 Don’t forget to make formal introductions between new hires and peer mentors! As someone who’s gone through the onboarding process, a peer or buddy can answer questions, provide a unique perspective on the company culture, and fill in any current gaps in your onboarding checklist

 5. Weekly manager check-ins

Managers serve an indispensable function during the onboarding process by answering questions, helping reports overcome doubts, and eventually, assisting new team members in creating personal development goals to focus on moving forward. 

As employees ramp up in their new roles and begin executing tasks and projects on their own, team leaders also closely monitor their performance to give them timely, pertinent feedback.

That’s why you should build weekly check-in meetings into your onboarding checklist, with tasks such as: 

• Leading an in-depth walkthrough of the new hire’s roles and responsibilities — especially at the end of their first month
• Creating a set of simple objectives during onboarding so the new team member learns the company’s goal-setting process
• Reviewing the organization’s competency frameworks with new direct reports and discussing development opportunities
• Conducting the new hire’s first performance review at the end of the first three months

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Your downloadable employee onboarding checklist

✅  Check “make onboarding a great experience” off your list!

Make our new hire checklist your #1 resource for creating an onboarding process that everyone appreciates. 

👉 Download the checklist

How to use Leapsome’s new hire onboarding checklist

We’ve made our downloadable new hire checklist as comprehensive as possible — but you’ll still need to determine a few things so it can effectively serve your internal teams and new hires. To make our sample onboarding plan for new employees work for you, you must:

• Tailor it to specific roles and for employees with different backgrounds — For example, you may want to create a learning path for managers that covers skills like coaching, exchanging feedback, making data-driven decisions, and conducting performance reviews.

• Set timelines and deadlines — Individual onboarding items should be carefully spaced out by the HR team to avoid overwhelm. Provide clear deadlines for a more organized onboarding that doesn’t create unnecessary stress for your People team.

• Assign ownership — Determine who will complete each task and monitor progress. At the end of each onboarding phase, HR/people ops team members should check in with task owners. 

• Continuously evaluate onboarding experience — After 90 days, prompt your new team member, managers, and stakeholders to shade feedback via an onboarding survey. You should also review training completion rates, engagement metrics, retention rates, performance scores, and goal progress after the first six months of implementing your onboarding checklist. This enables you to assess whether your new process has positively impacted the employee experience.‍

🛤️ Keep everyone on the right track

Our onboarding checklist helps you tailor the new hire experience for various roles and stakeholders.

👉 Download the checklist

Develop a seamless onboarding process with Leapsome

Since many companies are failing to provide a great onboarding experience, your organization has a clear opportunity to stand out. That’s an exciting prospect when you realize that improving onboarding can be as simple as creating and following a detailed new hire checklist. 

Onboarding is even easier when you use software like Leapsome to streamline internal collaboration, facilitate new hire training, and track results. Our integrated modules for conducting regular meetings and setting goals help stakeholders work together to design impactful new hire checklists. Then, you can use our learning and performance review tools to ensure recent joiners seamlessly adapt to their roles.

Ultimately, adding Leapsome to your tech stack won't only enhance the onboarding process. It’ll help retain top talent by improving the overall employee experience.

👣 Start new employees off on the right foot

Leapsome’s integrated platform helps you design a smooth, engaging onboarding process and leverage data to make it better as you grow.

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