Last reviewed: October 2026
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Printed from checkflow.io/templates/employee-onboarding/executive-onboarding-checklist
This free executive onboarding checklist is for chairs, CEOs, company secretaries and people leads bringing in a chief officer, managing director or other senior leader who reports to the CEO or the board. It treats the first hundred days as a stakeholder programme: a briefing pack before the start date, early time with the chair and committee chairs, structured interviews with investors, key customers, regulators and staff, a written authority to act, and a 100-day plan the CEO or chair approves. When the executive will be a statutory director or a public company officer, a formalities phase adds the filings, identity checks and dealing rules. Contracts and pre-start checks belong in the Preboarding Checklist. For a team leader or department head taking on direct reports for the first time, the New Manager Onboarding Checklist is the better fit.
Most of what an executive needs to learn in the first months sits outside the organisation chart. The board has views on why the previous person left. A major customer has a complaint that never reached the leadership meeting. An investor expects a strategy update at the next results. A regulator has an open action with the executive’s name now attached. None of this arrives through a standard induction, and much of it is only shared in a conversation that someone has to arrange.
So the checklist is built around four groups of people, each with an owner who makes the introduction and a set of questions that stays the same from one interview to the next. Consistent questions make the answers comparable, which turns forty conversations into a diagnosis the executive can test with the board. The sponsor, usually the CEO for a chief officer or the chair for a CEO, owns the programme and approves the plan that comes out of it.
Seven phases from the briefing pack to a day-100 review. The director and officer formalities, and the regulator approval task, are added only when the Phase 1 answers say the executive needs them.
Shown when the executive will be a statutory director or a US public company officer. Process steps, not legal advice; the company secretary or general counsel owns them.
The plan approval halts the checklist until the CEO or chair signs it off.
Support runs alongside the whole programme and ends in a second approval, from the sponsor.
Most of the extra paperwork for a senior hire comes from holding an office rather than from being employed. A UK company director is a legal office with public filings and statutory duties. A US public company officer reports their shareholdings to the SEC within days of taking up the role. Several deadlines run from the appointment date, not the employment start date, so Phase 3 dates its tasks from the appointment. It describes the process; it is not legal advice.
| Step | United Kingdom | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Recording the appointment | Board minute, then notice to Companies House within 14 days of the person becoming a director, including a statement that their identity is verified | Board resolution under the bylaws; a public company generally files a Form 8-K within four business days when it appoints a principal executive, financial, accounting or operating officer, or a director between shareholder meetings (Items 5.02(c) and (d)) |
| Identity | Since 18 November 2025, a new director verifies their identity through GOV.UK One Login or an authorised corporate service provider and receives a Companies House personal code | Anyone filing on EDGAR has signed in with individual Login.gov credentials and multi-factor authentication since 15 September 2025 |
| Duties | Seven general duties in the Companies Act 2006, sections 171 to 177, from acting within powers to declaring interests in proposed transactions | Fiduciary duties set by the law of the state of incorporation |
| Dealing in shares | At a company within UK market abuse rules, managers’ dealings are notified within three working days, with a 30-day closed period before results | Form 3 within 10 days of becoming an officer or director, even with no holdings; later changes on Form 4; listed companies disclose their insider trading policy |
| Regulator approval | In FCA- or PRA-regulated firms, senior managers need approval before starting, plus a Statement of Responsibilities | Depends on the sector; take advice for banks, insurers and other regulated firms |
| Liability protection | A company may buy insurance for its directors; most indemnities against liability to the company itself are void | Indemnification and insurance under state law, the bylaws and an indemnification agreement |
Three of these rules have changed recently. Identity verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025, with existing directors verifying at their next confirmation statement during a 12-month transition. The FCA and PRA reforms of April 2026 changed the 12-week rule, which lets a firm cover an unforeseen or temporary senior manager vacancy, and further changes that need legislation are planned. UK market abuse law is also listed for revocation under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, as retained EU law is replaced by UK rules, so check the current text before a first dealing. Verify each point against its source before you act on it: Companies House identity verification, the FCA Senior Managers Regime and the SEC Form 3 instructions.
Two answers in Phase 1 decide what appears. A UK director gets the identity check and the Companies House notice, a US officer gets Form 3, and a senior hire who holds no office sees neither. Regulator approval appears only for a regulated senior management role.
The sponsor, company secretary, people lead and coach are picked once on the first task, and each introduction is assigned to the person who holds the relationship. Every due date counts from the start date, so the chair meeting lands in week one and the plan by day 60.
The 100-day plan and the day-100 review are approval tasks, so the checklist pauses until the CEO, chair or sponsor signs each one. Filings, the authority letter and interview themes sit on the same record, with names and timestamps for the auditors and the board.
CheckFlow’s onboarding software runs the executive programme, the preboarding and the company induction as separate checklists, each with its own owner and record.
New Manager Onboarding Checklist
Preboarding Checklist
Succession Planning Checklist
Human Resources Strategy Process Checklist
Roles, Responsibilities & Expectations Checklist
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
A manager mainly needs to take over a team and learn the people admin that comes with it. An executive has to build relationships with the board, investors, major customers and sometimes regulators, often holds a legal office with filings and duties attached, and is expected to produce a plan for the business rather than for one team. The programme is longer and has a sponsor at board level.
Plan for about 100 days of structured activity, starting before the first day with the briefing pack. The listening work usually fills the first six to eight weeks, the plan is agreed after that, and the day-100 review decides whether anything needs more time. Board relationships take longer than that, so keep the sponsor check-ins going into the second quarter.
The chair and each committee chair, every peer on the leadership team, their own direct reports and the level below, the largest customers and partners, the main investors or lenders, and any regulator the role deals with. Add front-line visits so the picture is not built only from senior views. Agree the list with the sponsor so nobody important is left out.
Since 18 November 2025 a new director has to verify their identity, through GOV.UK One Login or an authorised corporate service provider, and give the company their Companies House personal code. The company then notifies Companies House within 14 days of the appointment, with a statement that the director’s identity is verified. Directors appointed earlier verify when the company files its next confirmation statement.
The SEC’s Form 3 instructions say it must be filed within 10 days after the person becomes an officer or director, and that a person with no holdings still files and says so. Filing is on EDGAR, which now requires individual Login.gov credentials, so set up access as soon as the appointment is agreed. Later changes in holdings are reported on Form 4.
A coach often helps in the first months, because a senior leader has few people inside the business they can think aloud with. A coach is not a substitute for the sponsor, who still owns the programme and the approvals. If there is no budget for a coach, ask an experienced non-executive director or a peer from outside the reporting line to play that part.
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