The Hiring Manager’s Checklist for New Hires

How To Onboard Your New Employee Effectively: The Manager’s Checklist for New Hires

Starting a new job is exciting — but it can be stressful.

According to a 2022 study by Gallup, 44 percent of employees in the U.S. feel stressed at work every day. A new employee might feel much more anxious due to uncertainties about their new workplace, colleagues and job role.

As a hiring manager, how can you make sure your new hire doesn’t go through a stressful experience? By creating an excellent onboarding plan. That will lower your new employee’s anxiety and help them settle into the team.

But that’s easier said than done. While most organizations understand the importance of onboarding, only 12 percent of employees feel their company does a great job at it.

As a hiring manager, you need to make sure your onboarding program doesn’t fall flat. Creating a manager’s checklist for new hires will help you track onboarding activities and ensure the program’s success.

Let’s take a look at the benefits of an onboarding checklist and what to include in it.

TL;DR: Manager’s checklist for new hires

Here’s what you’ll learn:

Why do you need a new hire onboarding checklist?‍
Manager checklist for new hires.
How Scribe helps you improve your onboarding process.‍
Final thoughts: The hiring manager’s checklist for new hires.

Why do you need a new hire onboarding checklist?

New hire onboarding isn’t easy for a hiring manager, especially if there are many new employees. Guiding each new hire through the onboarding process can be challenging.

The new hire onboarding checklist is a blueprint that helps you streamline this process. It lists every item in your onboarding program along with their schedules.

Creating an employee onboarding checklist has many benefits.

It ensures you don’t miss any crucial onboarding steps.
It guarantees a consistent onboarding UX (user experience) for each new employee.
Makes it easy to schedule knowledge-sharing sessions.
It gives new employees clarity on their onboarding plan.

Here are the major items you need to include in your manager’s checklist for new hires.

Manager checklist for new hires

Connect with the new hire before their first day.
Prepare for the new hire’s first day.
Ensure the new hire has a smooth first day.
Help the new hire feel welcome within the team.
Schedule organizational and role-specific training.
Assign meaningful work and set goals.
Offer continuous feedback.
Seek feedback from the new hire.

Manager’s new hire onboarding checklist.

Here are a few role-specific checklists to help you create customized onboarding checklists:

1. Connect with the new hire before their first day

You don’t need to wait for the employee’s first day to start the onboarding process — 47 percent of organizations begin the onboarding process right after a person accepts the job offer.

Connecting with new employees soon after they accept the offer will make them feel valued.

Here are a few tasks you should include in the preboarding process.

Send a welcome email or package.
Create a welcome card or video including all the team members.
Make sure your new hire completes any necessary paperwork and background checks.
Give them the agenda for their first week.
Send them the employee handbook, if applicable.
Tell them where and with whom to report on their first day.
Communicate your organization’s policies, like work hours and dress code.

Prepare for the new hire’s first day

It’s crucial to prepare for the new hire

The first day might be stressful for your new employee. For a hiring manager, it’s an excellent opportunity to create a great first impression.

Plan the day one orientation by coordinating with other teams. For example:

Human resources — benefits, policies.
Finance — payroll process, expense reporting.
IT — how to set up various accounts.

Be sure to have your team welcome the new employee. Before the new hire arrives, email your team introducing them. It’s also a great idea to plan an informal meeting or team lunch.

Planning a remote employee’s first day needs a bit more effort. Make sure they have access to the online collaboration tools your workplace uses. You’ll also need to send them any necessary hardware like a computer and monitor.

Ensure the new hire has a smooth first day

A new employee’s first day is a significant milestone in their onboarding journey. Here are a few checklist items to tick off before they begin the scheduled orientation sessions.

Set up the new employee’s workspace with all essential equipment and office supplies.
Give them an office tour and show them the restrooms, break area and emergency exits.
Brief the employee about the plan for the day.
Give them a copy of the employee onboarding checklist.
Provide a list of contacts if the new employee has any quick questions.

It’s also crucial to keep track of the orientation sessions and ensure each goes according to plan. And it’s a great idea to have a one-on-one meeting with the new hire at the end of their first day.

If the new employee is working from a remote location, consider doing a virtual office tour and an online orientation session. And be sure they can reach you over the phone or other channels in case they’re facing any technical difficulties.

Help the new hire feel welcome within the team

Be sure to welcome the employee to their new work environment.

Feeling part of the team can lower the new employee’s anxiety and improve their productivity. A hiring manager is a bridge between a new hire and the team. Encourage your team members to welcome and make the new employee feel comfortable.

Here are a few things you can do to ensure that.

Send an email to your team announcing the new employee’s start date.
Introduce the employee to the team on their first day.
Assign them an onboarding buddy or mentor.
Organize team-building activities like a team lunch.

For remote employees, set up a virtual team meeting to introduce them to the team. Arrange a one-on-one meeting between the onboarding buddy/mentor and the new hire.

Schedule organizational & role-specific training

Organizational and job-specific training is crucial for onboarding.‍

New employee orientation only introduces them to the organization. As a hiring manager, you need to create a comprehensive training plan that includes organizational and job-specific training.

Organizational training should include:

Company culture, mission and vision.
Company policies and processes.
Compliance training — information security, data privacy and workplace safety.

Job-specific training is another significant part of the onboarding process. If your organization doesn’t have a standard training program, then you should design one.

Here are a few things to include.

A detailed description of the employee’s roles and responsibilities.
Training on project-specific tools and technologies.
Introduction to the team’s policies and processes.
One-on-one with the mentor or onboarding buddy.

You can divide the training program into modules for the first month, two months and 90 days. For example, a 30-60-90 onboarding plan can be very helpful.

Arranging effective training sessions might be challenging for remote teams. You need to give the employee extra time to grasp the concepts and encourage them to ask questions. You can also share offline learning material like how-to guides, Confluence pages and tutorials.

📌 ‎Learn more about how to create Confluence templates or use Confluence for documentation.

Assign meaningful work & set goals

Assigning meaningful work and setting goals is essential for onboarding

Training sessions during the onboarding program get an employee ramped up to start working. But they still need hands-on experience to build their confidence. That’s why it’s important to assign meaningful work from the start.

New employees might feel nervous about performing well in their new role. As the hiring manager, creating a well-defined work plan and setting realistic goals will help them overcome that anxiety.

You can:

Assign meaningful tasks and set performance goals.
Define metrics to measure employee performance.
Discuss the tasks with employees.
Ensure the employee has the essential tools to perform their tasks.
Encourage them to seek help from mentors/colleagues.

If they’re a remote employee, consider holding regular virtual stand-up meetings to resolve any roadblocks they may face.

Offer continuous feedback

It’s not enough to just assign tasks and set goals. Regular performance reviews will help you understand if the employee is progressing as expected in their new job role.

Your feedback will help the new employee know how they’re doing and if they need to change anything. For the first few months, arrange regular one-on-one sessions to:

Find out if the new employee is having any difficulties.
Assess how they’re progressing at work.
Adjust goals and milestones based on their progress.
Determine if the employee’s career development plan is on track.

It might not be easy for remote employees to approach their managers. So you need to offer multiple communication channels for them to check in with you. It will also help if you set a specific time for remote new hires to ask questions and seek feedback.

Seek feedback from the new hire

Onboarding isn’t a one-way program. You need to seek feedback from your employee about their onboarding experience. That makes them feel valued and their feedback will help you improve the process.

You can ask for their input during one-on-one meetings or create a survey or new hire questionnaire to collect feedback.

It’s helpful to have a checklist for the new hire’s onboarding. But it might be challenging to keep track of onboarding when you have a busy schedule and multiple new hires.

That’s where Scribe comes in — it helps you create effective onboarding resources and streamline your onboarding process.

⚡ ‎Try Scribe's free Onboarding Guide Maker to build effective onboarding guides for new employees in minutes!

How Scribe helps you improve your onboarding process

Scribe is a knowledge-sharing tool that will help make new employee onboarding much easier. With Scribe, you can:

Quickly create onboarding resources.
Help mentors and onboarding buddies share tips and tricks.
Easily create tool or process demonstrations.

It’s simple to download and start using Scribe. You just need to follow these steps.

Sign up for the free Basic Plan (on any browser) or check out Scribe Pro (any browser or desktop).
Download the Scribe Chrome extension, Edge add-on, or desktop recorder.
Record your processes and Scribe converts them into step-by-step guides.
Collect all the workflows and documents in Scribe Pages.

Scribe Pages makes it easy for you to create and follow a new hire checklist.

Let’s see how you can make a comprehensive onboarding checklist using Scribe Pages.

How to create a manager’s checklist for new hires using Scribe Pages

There are many ways to create your new hire checklist. You can use a document or spreadsheet to record and track the checklist. But you might not be able to include all the related documents and information you need if you follow that format.

Scribe Pages is a feature-rich option for creating your new hire onboarding checklists and offers several perks. You can:

Include documents relevant to each step in the checklist.
Embed Scribes and video tutorials along with your checklist.
Easily share your onboarding checklist with others.
Format your checklist with headers, text blocks and bullet lists.

Here’s a Scribe Page that you can use as a template for your onboarding checklist.

Final thoughts: The hiring manager’s checklist for new hires

Onboarding multiple employees while juggling their work can be challenging. You have to check off many tasks to do that successfully.

Introduce the employee to the team.
Schedule organizational and job-related training.
Assign meaningful work and goals.
Provide continuous feedback.

Creating a manager’s checklist for new hires will ensure you don’t miss any of those vital onboarding steps.

Scribe empowers you to create step-by-step guides to onboard new employees — and you can create a Page to record your checklist.

Want to create great onboarding resources quickly? Check out Scribe today.

Save 20+ hours a month explaining, training & answering quick questions. Send a Scribe instead.

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