Okay, so you have a great new hire and you’re excited about getting them to work at your company. You have a wonderful work culture, fantastic benefits and you can’t wait to get them onboarded. But what does that mean? What should you include in your new employee onboarding checklist? At Click Boarding, we know a thing or two about that topic, so we’ve come up with a new employee onboarding checklist to help your new employee have their best first day. 

A Warm Welcome

Before you begin unloading the all the necessary forms on your new hires, make sure to begin your new employee onboarding checklist with a formal welcome message. The higher up the person who gives it to them, the better. Don’t talk about what they’ll have to do on the job, or everything they’ll have to get through today. Just let them know you’re excited about them being here, and to make sure they have someone to talk to in case they have any questions. This will put them at ease and make the rest of the process feel less daunting.

Make sure to add: Important email addresses, “unwritten” office etiquette and the name of their mentor team or line manager. 

A Proper Profile

A recent Aberdeen survey showed that 83% of high-performing companies begin their onboarding process before an employee’s first day. This usually means they’re having their employees fill out the forms online, and this means creating an online profile that will make that process a lot easier. When you have your new hire create an online signature as part of your new employee onboarding checklist, you centralize the online onboarding process, making the rest of it easier to do and easier to track, to boot.

Make sure to add: Small touches like letting the new hire know how much you appreciate them before they walk in the door. “We’re so excited to meet you,” from future team members can go a long way.

An Official Offer

Salary.com reports that 19% of employees said they’ve lost a job because they decided to negotiate a job offer. This can happen when either side mis-manages their communication, and you can avoid a lot of those headaches with a formal job offer, preferably one the employee can see and review as part of their new employee onboarding checklist. When both sides understand what’s on the table, they’re better able to communicate what they need from each other, leading to a happier new employee.

Make sure to add: Any benefits information (and when the new employee is eligible for benefits) along with offer letter and compensation information.

A Clear Community

Along with a formal offer, 73% of employees want to review company policies as part of their new employee onboarding checklist. This can also include a lot of the community outreach and donation efforts the new hire can take part in, such as donating a portion of their paycheck to one of the charities the company supports (or better yet, you can have the employee pick their own!) This helps make your new hire more active at your company outside of their job, and keys them into your company culture.

Make sure to add: The values that underscore why your company donates to these causes. This leads to focused employee alignment with the organizational values.

Some Faster Forms

Finally, we have those pesky forms to fill out. They may be tedious, but they don’t have to be slow, especially if you’re going paperless. And you should: if you’re in IT, especially, document printing can take up 10% of your operation costs. Paperless forms make filling out paperwork much faster, especially if you have an online profile set up (like we discussed earlier!) The faster you get through the paperwork, the more at home your new employee will feel.

Make sure to add: An option to sign electronically. 

A Fantastic First Day

One thing every new employee onboarding checklist should have is a clear schedule of what an employee’s first day should look like. This might seem trivial, but it’s a vital part of making sure everyone at your company knows what their responsibilities are when it comes to approaching new hires, and will help develop of a better sense of employee development in the long term. And when you don’t have a new employee’s onboarding planned out, it could be so disastrous that it causes 4% of your new hires to quit after the first day. Is that a chance you want to take simply because you didn’t want to create a short schedule and delegate some tasks? We didn’t think so.

Make sure to add: Breaks for the new hire to process what he or she is learning. You don’t want to burn them out!

That about covers it — your full new employee onboarding checklist. By hitting all these bases, you’re guaranteeing that your new hire will have everything filled out, know what they’re getting into, and quickly step into their role at your company.

Bio: Christine Marino

Christine is the Chief Revenue Officer of Click Boarding, LLC, a company that offers employee onboarding software and solutions. She is responsible for the sales, marketing and business development strategies. Leveraging her 18+ years of experience in the Human Capital Management space, Christine drives company growth through strategic partner relationships as well new customer acquisitions across the small to large enterprise markets.