New hire first day checklist
Give new hires a warm welcome on their first day at work to set the tone for a successful collaboration. Both your HR team and hiring manager should be well-prepared for your new hire’s arrival to make them feel comfortable and help them quickly adjust to their role.
The following checklists will help you kick off a positive onboarding experience for your new hires:
HR team: tasks to do on a new hire’s first day
- Prepare your new hire’s workstation before they arrive. Consider decorating their desk with:
- Your employee handbook
- An onboarding kit or a welcome gift
- A welcome letter from their manager or the CEO
- An agenda for their first day
- A nameplate or employee ID
- A set of business cards
- Necessary office equipment, including a computer and a phone
- Make sure someone from your team enthusiastically greets your new hire when they arrive and walks them to their desk. This person could be:
- A member of the HR team (e.g the recruiter that new hires already know)
- Your office manager
- New hire’s manager
- Give new hires a tour of your office.
- Help new hires fill out HR paperwork:
- Provide digital or physical copies of forms
- Explain terms of agreement (e.g. on health insurance and benefits documents)
- Answer any questions your new hires may have
- Present your key company policies.
- At the end of the day, check back with new hires to learn how their first day went. Ask them:
- How did your first day go?
- What do you think of the company and your team?
- Do you need any clarity on our policies?
- Do you have everything you need? (e.g. hardware, stationery, etc)
- How has the first day lined up with your expectations of the job?
- Do you have any questions?
Hiring manager: tasks to do on a new hire’s first day
- Introduce your new hire to your team members in-person and to the company via email or company messaging software.
- Make sure your new hire’s computer station is up and running. Check whether the IT team has:
- Set up new hire’s accounts (e.g. email)
- Installed software and applications, including anti-virus systems
- Shared necessary manuals
- Run a role-specific training. Train new hires on:
- Their main responsibilities
- The team structure (names, roles, duties and organizational chart)
- Job-specific tools
- The team’s objectives
- Schedule meetings for your new hire with team leaders they will collaborate with.
- Assign first tasks to your new hire. Make sure to:
- Offer guidance, as needed
- Provide resources that your new hire is likely to use (e.g. reports, spreadsheets and glossaries)
- Clarify questions that may arise
- Assign your new hire a work buddy to help them adjust to their new workplace.
- Invite your new hire to a group lunch to help them get to know other employees.
- Give your new hire an overview of the first week and the first month on the job.
- Make sure to set aside time for new hires to ask any questions they might have.