Employee Onboarding Templates

Start with the Preboarding Checklist for everything between the accepted offer and day one, then hand over to the Employee Onboarding Checklist for an office or hybrid hire. If the role has a first few weeks of its own, such as a new manager, an executive, a developer or an intern, use the role-based template instead. Shift and site workers in restaurants, shops, warehouses, construction and call centres, commercial drivers and new real estate agents need training or checks signed off before they work alone, which the industry and frontline templates are built around. Contractors are not employees, so they have a template of their own.

They turn the main US and UK training rules into tasks and cite the source for each: food hygiene and allergen training for restaurants, powered truck evaluation and manual handling for warehouses, site inductions under CDM 2015 and OSHA training standards for construction, age-restricted sales for retail, call recording and card payment rules for call centres, the FMCSA driver qualification and drug and alcohol testing rules for commercial drivers, and licensing, fair housing and anti-money laundering checks for real estate agents. Each page shows when it was last reviewed. They are process templates, not legal advice, so check the rules that apply in your state, country or sector before you rely on them.

An effective employee onboarding process covers five phases: pre-start preparation (equipment ordered, accounts created, workspace ready, welcome email sent — all completed before day one), day one welcome (manager introduction, team meeting, IT setup, first-day schedule provided), first week integration (role briefing, key stakeholder meetings, HR policy walkthrough, core tools training, buddy introduction), milestone check-ins (30-day review of initial impressions and early performance, 60-day development conversation, 90-day probation review with documented assessment), and role clarity and expectations (a documented discussion of the specific responsibilities, success criteria, and performance standards for the role). Research consistently shows that structured onboarding reduces time-to-productivity, improves new hire performance, and significantly reduces first-year attrition.

Employee offboarding is a security, operational, and legal process as well as an HR one. From a security perspective: system access must be revoked on the last day (not days later), devices must be returned and wiped, and corporate data must not leave with the departing employee. From an operational perspective: knowledge must be transferred before the person leaves — not reconstructed afterwards — and ongoing projects must be formally handed over to a named successor. From a legal perspective: final pay calculations must be accurate, references must be handled per policy, and any restrictive covenant obligations must be communicated in writing. An offboarding checklist ensures every one of these steps is completed and documented, regardless of the circumstances of the departure.

An employee expectations checklist documents the specific expectations discussed and agreed between the manager and the new hire at the start of employment. It should cover: role responsibilities (the specific tasks and outputs the employee is accountable for), performance standards (what "good" looks like in this role — specific and measurable where possible), behavioural expectations (how the role is expected to be performed — communication style, collaboration, response times, attendance), goals for the first 30, 60, and 90 days, how performance will be assessed and how frequently, and the process for raising concerns or seeking support. Documenting these expectations in a structured checklist creates a shared reference point that both the employee and manager can return to during check-ins and reviews.

Every CheckFlow template is fully customisable and can be differentiated by role, department, or seniority level. A technical role onboarding process can include code environment setup, system architecture orientation, and technical access provisioning steps that a non-technical onboarding would not. A management role onboarding can include stakeholder briefing sessions, team introduction structure, and budget and authority briefing that an individual contributor onboarding would not. The core structure — pre-start, day one, first week, milestones, and expectations — remains consistent; the specific tasks within each phase are tailored to the role and context.