Onboarding: Meaning, Process and Checklist for New Employees

A new hire's first day is over quickly. Whether they really settle in is decided in the weeks before and after it. This guide explains what onboarding means, how the employee onboarding process works in four phases, who is responsible for what and what belongs on an onboarding checklist. It ends with a case most checklists skip: when the new hire is replacing someone who is leaving.

What is onboarding?

Onboarding is the process of bringing a new employee into an organization, from the signed offer until they can do their job on their own and feel part of the team. Wikipedia describes onboarding, also called organizational socialization, as the American term for the way new employees acquire the knowledge, skills and behaviors they need to become effective members of an organization. It notes that outside American English the same thing is often called induction.

Talya Bauer, a professor of management at Portland State University, gives a short definition in a guide for the SHRM Foundation: onboarding is the process of helping new hires adjust to the social and performance aspects of their new jobs quickly and smoothly. The UK's CIPD mostly uses the word induction and names onboarding and orientation as other terms for it. The opposite of onboarding is offboarding, the structured process when someone leaves.

The word is also used for new customers and app users. This guide is about employee onboarding.

Onboarding, orientation, training and preboarding

• Onboarding is the whole process from offer to full integration: the organization, the role, the people and the culture.
• Orientation usually means the welcome on the first day or in the first week: the tour, the paperwork, the introductions. It is part of onboarding, not all of it.
• Training on the job is the part where the new hire learns the tasks and takes them over step by step. A 30 60 90 day plan organizes this part.
• Preboarding is the first phase of onboarding: the time between the accepted offer and the first day.

The goals: the four Cs of onboarding

Bauer describes four building blocks of onboarding, known as the four Cs. They work well as a test for any onboarding checklist:

According to Bauer, almost all organizations cover compliance. Companies that stop there practice what she calls passive onboarding and tend to see onboarding as a checklist of unrelated tasks. The research cited in her guide puts about 30 percent of organizations at this level. A useful checklist therefore has items for culture and connection as well, not only for forms and equipment.

The onboarding process in 4 phases

There is no single standard model; many companies use three to five phases. Each of the four below has a clear goal, and the checklist further down follows the same order.

How long should onboarding take?

There is no fixed length. Bauer writes that research and conventional wisdom both suggest new employees get about 90 days to prove themselves in a new job. She recommends checking progress at milestones such as 30, 60, 90 and 120 days and following up for up to one year after the start date. She also stresses how early things are decided: the research she cites shows that the trajectory of a new hire's success is set as early as the first two weeks.

Employee onboarding checklist, phase by phase

Put a name and a date next to every task. "IT will handle it" only works if a specific person in IT has the job.

Before the first day (preboarding)

When you hand out a laptop, phone or keys, the free work equipment handover protocol records who received what. That also helps on the day the person leaves again.

On the first day

Bauer calls the first day the most important day on the job for a new employee. Start with people and context, then check the equipment together.

• ☐ Welcome the new hire in person and explain how the day will run. Owner: manager.
• ☐ Introduce the team, the buddy and the most important contacts. Owner: buddy.
• ☐ Check login and access to the key documents together. Owner: IT.
• ☐ Complete required training, for example on health and safety and data protection. Owner: HR.
• ☐ Talk through the role, the first tasks and what is expected. Owner: manager.
• ☐ Pick a small, real first task and explain it. Owner: manager.
• ☐ At the end of the day, collect open questions and confirm the next meeting. Owner: buddy.

In the first week

Combine explanations with real work. A simple four step routine works well:

1. Watch: an experienced colleague walks through a task using a real example.
2. Do: the new hire handles a defined part of it alone, with the expert available for questions.
3. Review: both look at the result and collect open questions.
4. Document: missing terms, storage locations or decision steps are added to the instructions.

The guide to job shadowing shows how to plan the watching part. Also set up short meetings with the people who matter for the first tasks. At the end of the week the manager asks three things: what is already clear, where is support missing and which task comes next?

Days 8 to 30

Until the end of probation

• ☐ Hold check ins at around 30, 60 and 90 days: what is working, where is support missing, what are the next goals?
• ☐ Hand over ownership of an area once the tasks run reliably.
• ☐ Ask for feedback in both directions: what helped during onboarding and what was missing?
• ☐ Hold a review meeting in good time before the probation period ends.

Who is responsible for onboarding?

Gallup reports that only 12 percent of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job of onboarding new employees. Name one person who owns the whole process, usually the hiring manager or HR.

Remote onboarding

With a remote start, much of what happens in an office by itself disappears: the quick question at the next desk, lunch with the team, seeing how others work. GitLab, which runs as an all remote company, writes in its public handbook that every new hire gets an onboarding issue template with tasks for each day, and calls assigning an onboarding buddy an essential step. For a smaller team that means: ship equipment early, test the login before day one and plan short daily video calls in the first week.

When the new hire is replacing someone

Most onboarding checklists assume the team already has all the knowledge the new hire needs. With a successor that is often not true. The most important information sits with the person who is leaving: open cases, exceptions, contacts and the reasons behind past decisions. No checklist answers those questions.

• The predecessor is still there: plan an overlap in which the new hire works alongside them, and have them write an employee handover document before their last day.
• The predecessor has already left: then the existing documents count, and so do colleagues who know parts of the job. A skills matrix shows who on the team can do which task.
• For learning the job itself: the 30 60 90 day plan for a successor is built for people who take over an existing role.

How often this happens depends on your employee turnover. Every departure means another onboarding, and every time the question is how much knowledge left with the person.

Common onboarding mistakes

• Onboarding ends after day one: the first day matters a lot, but integration takes months. Book the check ins until the end of probation from the start.
• Nobody owns it: when HR, the manager and IT each assume someone else is on it, the laptop is missing on day one.
• Only forms and equipment: without items for culture and connection, onboarding stays at Bauer's lowest level.

Conclusion

Onboarding starts with the accepted offer and ends when the new hire does the job on their own and feels part of the team. Four phases give it a structure, the four Cs check that it covers more than paperwork, and a checklist with names and dates keeps anything from falling through the cracks. When the new hire replaces a leaver, put the predecessor's handover on the list as early as possible.