When you finally find your perfect candidate, it is time to start the preparations for their onboarding. There are quite a lot of smaller and bigger tasks that need to be arranged before the candidate actually joins the company and it can be easy to forget about a few things in the rush to get ready for their joining date.
Here is our ultimate new hire checklist with things you definitely shouldn´t forget when preparing for the new employee´s arrival:
Prepare paperwork
This is probably the most boring part of the new hire checklist, but it does need to happen in order to make sure everything is legally in order. You need to make sure you have all the paperwork in place. Contractual paperwork, pension plans, health insurances and paperwork for other benefits all can be prepared beforehand.
Set-up a support system
Make sure to set-up a support system for your new hire. Think about choosing a “sponsor” who can support the new hire in the first days. A sponsor could be a bit more senior person and then you can also assign a fellow colleague as a buddy for a more informal induction.
Order equipment
There is nothing as annoying as joining a company and arriving at a place where nothing is prepared for you. No desk, no equipment, no access pass. It can make someone feel very unwelcome if they can´t really start on their first day because they don´t have a place to sit and no laptop to work with. This is something that can easily be arranged beforehand, so make sure you order all equipment (phone, laptop, any other equipment), reserve a desk and get access passes etc.
Prepare a list of job expectations & weekly goals
Another factor that can make many new hires feel useless in the first days is when they have nothing to do. It is quite difficult to strike a balance between being useful from the beginning and training on the job but it important you try to find the right combination. An eager new employee is ready to start and wants to add value. A great way to not waste these first days is preparing a list of job expectations and setting some weekly goals to make sure the new employee can have a great start.
Schedule employee shadowing
Employee shadowing is a great initiative to learn more about the company´s way of working and get an immediate deep dive into some of the projects. Through shadowing a current employee to meetings and possible events, the new hire can get an idea of how people interact with each other, how things get organized and at the same time he or she can meet a lot of new people without arranging extra meetings. Pick someone from the team that is happy to be shadowed and is eager as well to teach the new hire some things during the day.
Arrange the first day
Finally, make sure you arrange their first day. For example, make sure someone is ready to receive them and greet them at reception when they arrive. That some meetings have been scheduled in for that first day, with the new hire´s manager, HR, direct colleagues and other relevant people of the team. Arrange a lunch for that first day, there is nothing as depressing as being alone on your first day with no clue where to get some lunch. Also, prioritize the essential paperwork and check with the new hire on that first day that all their equipment is working.
What other items do you have on your new hire checklist? We would love to read your thoughts in the comments section.
