First Day Checklist

A first day new hire checklist should cover every aspect of onboarding. When one or more employees get hired, human resources representatives, team leaders and managers can use checklists to ensure that new hires have productive first days of work.

Why To Use a First Day New Hire Checklist

Employees’ first days on the job set the tone for their tenure at an enterprise. Streamlining onboarding processes can improve job satisfaction and raise retention rates. Human resources professionals can identify the paperwork, introductions and training tasks that need to take place on day one and use a document distribution platform to facilitate these processes.

Onboarding measures often look great on paper, but these practices have to translate into real-world workflows. Generating new hire checklists is the best way to ensure that managers and staff know what to do when employees report for their first days of work. Checklists help to ensure that standardized procedures are followed with each new hire and can be customized for departments or teams.

How To Prepare for a New Employee’s First Day

Early milestones in the relationship between a new employee and employer occur from the interview process through the first day on the job. Once a candidate is notified of a hiring decision, employers should start preparing to iterate the onboarding process. Here are several stages that include tasks unique to each enterprise:

• Notify a new hire: Inform new employees about hiring decisions.
• Set up a work area: Designate workspace for new hires.
• Gather onboarding materials: Give new hires all the information they need.
• Plan a new employee event: Introduce new hires to current staff.

At a minimum, an employer should communicate job start date and time, prepare employment forms and training materials and set aside working space. Scheduling events is not required, but workplaces that make an effort to be welcoming often reap the rewards of high job satisfaction and employee retention rates.

What a New Hire Can Do To Prepare

Sending out “what to expect” emails is one of the best ways to help new hires prepare for their first day of work. This document should clarify when and where they will start employment and any documents or information that they should bring to complete employment paperwork.

It is also a good idea to ask new hires for background summaries about themselves and a few fun facts to share in a workplace-wide introduction. This request prompts new employees to consider how they want to present themselves in a new work environment. Any information that they provide can then be included in an introductory email sent to current employees.

How To Select a First Day Agenda Template

A template for a new hire first day agenda can be helpful for startups and enterprises that do not have established onboarding procedures. Many different types of templates are available, but a document for a similar type of enterprise is likely to be most useful.

Some level of customization may be needed for a first day agenda that corresponds to the operations of a particular enterprise. The primary purpose of these templates is to suggest the most relevant information for first day and onboarding tasks and how to structure a document that sets forth objectives specific to an organization.

What To Include on a First Day of Work Schedule

An onboarding agenda or schedule structures expectations for an employee’s first day of work. Front-facing materials, or documents that the employee will read or fill out, should be accessible and informative. Checklists on the back-end for current HR staff, team leaders and coworkers who participate in onboarding can be more detailed. The following line items are likely to appear on an agenda presented to a new hire:

• Fill out employment paperwork: Personal information is necessary to legally hire new employees.
• Introductory tasks for new hires: New hires often appreciate being put right to work and should be encouraged to ask questions.
• Team leader meet and greets: Take the time to introduce new hires to team leaders.
• Learn about company policies: Promote compliance by covering policies sooner rather than later.

Employers should have consistent and measured expectations with regard to new employees’ first days of work. Some setup and training is likely to be necessary and may continue for days, weeks or months. Most new hires appreciate enterprises that clearly define benchmarks and regularly provide progress reports.

How To Make a New Employee Part of the Team

A comprehensive onboarding process goes beyond filling out paperwork and job-specific training. Tasking a current employee in HR or the leader of the team that a new hire will join with sending out a “what to expect” email to new employees prior to their first days of work followed by another email that introduces new hires to current employees can keep everyone apprised of the latest developments.

Written communication can only go so far in terms of building bonds between employees of an enterprise. Try to include a picture in an introductory email, as this can enable staff members to recognize, greet and personally welcome a new hire. Scheduling an event such as a luncheon or happy hour to welcome a new employee or cohort can be even more effective for team-building.

Why To Use Digital Checklists and Onboarding Materials

Most top-performing enterprises generate, process and store hiring and onboarding paperwork digitally. Paper forms often take longer to send out and receive back. If the information from these forms is still entered manually or with optical character recognition, it may be possible to reduce error rates by digitizing a hiring and onboarding workflow from end to end.

A first day new hire checklist is only useful if the steps outlined in this document correspond to relevant requirements for employment as well as the people and information new hires need to know to succeed in a position. Fluix workflow automation software is the best solution for distributing checklists, processing e-signed documents and ensuring that necessary steps are taken when onboarding new employees.