People decide early whether they made the right move. A first week with no laptop, no plan and a manager who is “slammed” tells them the answer. This checklist works for any role, in any country, office or remote.
Most companies have room to do better. In Gallup’s research, only 12% of employees strongly agreed that their organisation does a great job of onboarding new people.
Before day one
- Paperwork sent and signed. Contract, policies and whatever your country requires for tax and the right to work, done before they arrive, not on the first morning.
- Equipment ready and tested. Laptop, phone, logins, building pass. Test the logins yourself.
- A welcome message from the manager. Start time, where to go or which link to open, what to wear, who will meet them.
- A buddy chosen. Someone who is not their manager, to answer the questions people feel silly asking.
- The first week in the calendar. Meetings booked, so they arrive to a plan, not an empty diary.
- The team told. Name, role and start date, so nobody says “sorry, who are you?”
Day one
- A real welcome. The manager is there, in person or on camera, at the start time.
- Everything works by lunch. Every login, every tool they need this week.
- The why before the how. Twenty minutes on what the company does, who it serves and where their role fits.
- Lunch or coffee with the team. Booked, not left to chance.
- A clear end to the day. A short check-in: what made sense, what did not, what tomorrow holds.
Acas, the UK’s workplace advice service, says the same: avoid too much information on the first day, and the new person should ideally meet their manager that day.
Days two and three
- Meet the people they will work with most. Short one-to-ones, booked by the manager.
- The essentials, in small pieces. The policies that matter for their job, and the training your company requires, spread out.
- A first small task. Something real they can finish this week. Finishing something early builds confidence fast.
- Buddy time. Half an hour a day for questions.
Days four and five
- Goals for the first 30, 60 and 90 days. Written down, agreed with the manager, three or four at most.
- The first task finished and noticed. Say thank you, specifically.
- An end-of-week conversation. Ask: what surprised you, what is missing, what would you change? Then fix one thing they mention.
- Next week booked. The regular one-to-one is in the calendar from here on.
If they work remotely
Everything above still applies. Remote employees miss the small things an office gives for free: overhearing how problems get solved, a colleague turning round to help, a lunch that happens without anyone booking it. So book those things on purpose.
- Ship the kit a week early, with a note saying who to call if it does not work.
- Cameras on for day one, so faces go with names.
- A daily ten-minute call with the manager or buddy for the whole first week.
- Invite them to listen in on a few real meetings, so they hear how the team works before they have to join in.
- Write things down. Where to find documents, who owns what, which channel is for what. Remote people cannot ask the person at the next desk.
Common mistakes
- Leaving it all to HR. HR can run the process. The manager makes the week.
- Too much at once. A full week of presentations teaches nothing. Mix meeting, doing and resting.
- Treating remote employees the same as office ones. Remote employees need more scheduled contact, not less. Ship the kit early.
- Stopping after day five. Onboarding runs for the first three months. The first week only starts it.
Write the checklist down once and reuse it for every new employee, adding one line each time something goes wrong. After a year it matches how your company works.
The test is simple. At the end of the week, ask the new employee whether they know what good looks like in their job, and who to ask when they are stuck. Two yeses means the week worked.