What is employee onboarding?
Also called: new hire onboarding, onboarding
Last updated
Employee onboarding is the process of welcoming a new starter and helping them become a productive, settled member of the team. It runs from the accepted offer through the first months, covering paperwork, equipment and access, introductions, training and regular check-ins, and it is shared between HR, IT, the manager and the new starter.
In more detail
Onboarding is often confused with orientation, which is a day or a week of introductions. Onboarding lasts longer: most teams plan for the first three months, and some for the first year. It usually runs in stages: preboarding before day one, the first day, the first weeks of training, and reviews at 30, 60 and 90 days.
The hard part is coordination rather than knowing what to do. Most tasks belong to someone other than HR, they hang on the start date, and they are easy to forget when nobody owns them. A shared checklist with an owner and a due date for each task is the usual fix.
Example
Before a new accountant starts, HR sends the contract and checks right-to-work documents, and IT sets up the laptop and accounts. On day one the manager welcomes them and runs through the first-week plan. Over the following weeks they shadow colleagues, complete training and meet their manager at 30, 60 and 90 days.
Onboarding in CheckFlow
In CheckFlow an onboarding template asks for the start date when each checklist starts and counts the due dates from it, before and after. Tasks are assigned to HR, IT and the manager, overdue tasks alert their owners, and the Reports Grid shows where every new starter is.
Related terms
Templates with a live demo
Each one opens as a live checklist you can try without signing up.
Run your next process as a checklist.
Build it once as a template, then run it with owners, due dates and a record of every step.
14-day free trial, no credit cardFull refund in your first 30 daysUS hosting, EU on request