Employee onboarding is the process of welcoming new employees to the organization, getting them set with the initial documentation and paperwork, and making them familiar and comfortable with their surroundings and peers. An employee onboarding checklist is a list of things the Human Resource onboarding team needs to keep in mind while preparing the process.
An SHRM study reveals that one-third of employees leave within their first six months. An effective onboarding process may help bring down this number. In this blog, we will discuss a simple but highly effective employee onboarding checklist the HR team of the organization can tick off to ensure smooth and successful onboarding. This checklist will take these specialists through a list of basic yet important pointers to remember before, during, and after the onboarding process.
Before Day 1
- Prep the new hire: The first thing in the employee onboarding checklist that needs to be done is to send a welcome email before the onboarding day. This email should contain important details, including the starting date and time, work timings, preliminary contact or reporting authority, documents needed, location, dress code, parking, and security protocols.
Day 1
- Paperwork and documentation: The following are some of the paperwork and documentation that needs to be given, filled out, and received during day 1 of onboarding.
- Offer letter
- Employment contract letter
- Tax forms
- Handbooks, policy documents
- Benefit enrollment forms
- Additional documents needed
- ID card distribution
- Getting started: Once the documentation requirements are well taken care of, it is time to ease the employees into their roles, and this starts with assigning a workstation or an office space for the employees and providing the required equipment needed to get them started.
The employee onboarding checklist should also include a well-defined process directed toward helping employees set up their emails and get access to needed software accounts, shared drives, and cloud systems.
- Orientation: Many organizations choose to offer a basic corporate training program at this stage for their new employees to let them know the company history, vision and mission, and general work culture. This is a great way to prep the employees right at the onset and help them get the right idea about the company.
These training programs are usually a mix of learning and interaction, and questions are often welcome too. Some of the senior management folks participate in these sessions and talk with the new joiners.
After Onboarding
- Training and development: In the first month after onboarding, one of the main things to focus on is identifying and scheduling training and learning sessions. Apart from the initial onboarding training, there are other necessary corporate training programs that the employees may have to finish in the first month, and the onboarding team needs to ensure this too. Two such sessions include safety training and compliance training.
- Networking: Another important point in the employee onboarding checklist is creating networking opportunities. Entering a new workplace and trying to gel in can be stressful for employees, affecting their productivity and performance in the first few months. Creating networking opportunities can help prevent the hiccups of the initial months and make the transition easy and comfortable.
- Networking can be done in the following ways.
- Formal introductions with team members and managers
- Informal lunch sessions and meetings with cross-functional teams
- One-on-one meetings with immediate managers
- Establishing goals and expectations: A significant element of an effective employee onboarding checklist is to establish goals and communicating the micro and macro expectations after giving the employee enough time to settle down. The intention of an effective onboarding process is to help employees get into the daily groove of things as quickly and as effortlessly as possible.
- Regular check-ins: This is the last point in the employee onboarding checklist. When all the above pointers in this onboarding list are done right, then the last step falls into place on its own. Regular check-ins are a joint effort, where both onboarding experts and the managers pitch in to regularly check in with the new hire and answer any questions and concerns. It is also a great idea to have a mentor or a buddy assigned to the employee so they can wade through the first few months with some help.
To Conclude
Note that that this employee onboarding checklist is a general guideline, and you can customize the checklist based on your organization’s specific needs and requirements. It would also help to ask new hires for their honest feedback on the existing onboarding process and make changes wherever necessary.
InfoPro Learning can take over your new joiner L&D needs, offering corporate training programs that help employees ease into their roles easily and confidently.