New Hire Onboarding Checklist

1. Before They Start

Confirm the basics and prepare their workspace so Day 1 isn't spent waiting for a laptop charger.

Test everything before they arrive. Their first morning shouldn't be spent waiting for someone to find a laptop charger or approve their Slack account.

2. Send a Welcome Pack

Send this before Day 1 so the new hire arrives knowing what to expect.

Include:

• Personal welcome message
• First-day schedule
• Office / remote-working information
• Company overview
• Mission and vision
• Culture Doc / ways of working
• Organisation / team structure
• Short profiles of the people they'll work with
• Relevant product information
• Useful terminology / glossary
• What to expect during their first week
• Any preparation they should complete

Keep preparation light. They shouldn't need to complete hours of unpaid homework before joining.

3. Create Their Onboarding Plan

Don't improvise onboarding after they arrive. Define role, success and learning before Day 1.

The founder/manager should be able to answer: "What does good look like after this person's first 30, 60 and 90 days?" before they start.

4. Prepare the Team

Onboarding isn't solely the manager's responsibility. Make sure the team is ready.

• Tell the team who's joining
• Explain their role and responsibilities
• Explain why you've hired them
• Tell relevant people when they're starting
• Schedule introductory meetings
• Assign an onboarding buddy / mentor if appropriate
• Make clear who owns each part of onboarding
• Ask relevant team members to make time for them

For a small startup, this can be extremely simple. The important thing is that the new hire doesn't arrive to: "Oh, you're starting today?"

5. Day One

Welcome → Context → Relationships → Clarity. Not maximum productivity.

By the end of Day 1, they should know: Why am I here? What am I responsible for? Who do I work with? What happens next?

6. First Week

Move from orientation toward contribution. Prioritise what they need to become useful.

Avoid trying to teach them everything in the first week. Prioritize information based on what they need to become useful.

7. Give Them an Early Win

Give every new hire something real but achievable that they can own early.

• First meaningful task identified
• Task has a clear outcome
• They have enough context to complete it
• They know who can help
• Work contributes to something real
• Manager reviews/gives feedback promptly

For example, don't have a software engineer spend two weeks exclusively reading documentation. Get them to ship something appropriately small. The objective is: Learn → Do → Get feedback → Build confidence → Take on more.

8. First 30 Days

By the end of Month 1, core onboarding should be complete and first meaningful work shipped.

• Core onboarding/training completed
• Required systems understood
• Key relationships established
• First meaningful work completed
• Responsibilities increasingly owned independently
• Manager has provided meaningful feedback
• Employee has had opportunities to provide feedback
• Progress against 30-day expectations reviewed

Have a dedicated onboarding check-in. Ask: What's clear? What's still confusing? What are you missing? Where do you need more support? Is anything different from what you expected when you accepted the role?

9. 60 Days

The emphasis should now move from learning → ownership.

• Increasing independence
• Meaningful responsibilities owned
• Strong working relationships established
• Performance expectations understood
• Feedback given in both directions
• Knowledge gaps identified
• Support/training adjusted where necessary
• Progress against 60-day goals reviewed

Ask: Are they becoming productive at the rate we expected? If not, determine why rather than simply assuming the hire was wrong.

10. 90 Days

By now, formal onboarding should largely be ending. Review, then establish the next phase.

11. Improve Your Onboarding Process

Every new hire should make the next onboarding better.

At the end of onboarding, ask the new hire:

• How would you rate your onboarding experience? (1–10)
• What helped you become productive fastest?
• What was confusing or missing?
• What did we spend time on that wasn't useful?
• What would you change for the next person we hire?

Update the onboarding process accordingly.