Employee Onboarding Checklist Template for a Small Business (Day −10 to Day 90)
A checklist with owners and relative dates, not a list of good intentions. Copy it, attach it to the new-starter record, and let the dates move when the start date does.
Onboarding checklists are everywhere and mostly useless, because they are lists of tasks without owners or dates. The version below has both: every item names who does it and when, relative to the start date, so that moving the start date moves everything. Adapt the items; keep the structure.
Before day one
- Day −15 · HR — Offer letter and contract generated from the new-starter record; sent for e-signature. Signed copy files to the record.
- Day −12 · HR — Right-to-work / identity documents requested via a file-request link; verified on receipt.
- Day −10 · HR → IT — Equipment and accounts ordered. (A rule on the start date emails IT the list.)
- Day −7 · Manager — Buddy assigned; first-week plan drafted.
- Day −5 · HR — Bank and emergency-contact details requested via file request; payroll notified.
- Day −3 · HR — Welcome message with day-one logistics (time, place, who to ask for, what to bring).
- Day −1 · IT — Accounts live, equipment configured, 2FA enrolment ready.
Week one
- Day 1 · Manager — Welcome, workspace, introductions, the first-week plan walked through.
- Day 1 · HR — Policies acknowledged (e-signature), security induction, 2FA set up on every system.
- Day 2 · Buddy — Tools tour: where the records live, how a matter is opened, where to ask.
- Day 3 · Manager — First real task assigned, with a clear definition of done.
- Day 5 · Manager — End-of-week check-in: what was confusing, what is missing.
Month one
- Day 14 · HR — Payroll confirmation: first payslip correct.
- Day 21 · Manager — Objectives for the probation period agreed and written on the record.
- Day 30 · Manager — One-month review; written note on the record.
To day 90
- Day 60 · Manager — Mid-probation check-in; any concerns raised in writing now, not at day 89.
- Day 80 · HR → Manager — Probation decision requested: confirm, extend, or end. (A rule asks; the answer is recorded.)
- Day 90 · HR — Outcome letter generated and sent; record updated.
Why relative dates matter
Start dates move. When they do, a checklist with fixed dates is wrong in twenty places; a checklist with relative dates is right everywhere. Attach the list to the new-starter's record as tasks with offsets from the start-date field, and a change to that one field reschedules the lot. The structure — the new starter as a case, the tasks owned by roles, the documents generated and signed from it — is described in onboarding a new employee.
The mirror image
Offboarding is the same list run backwards from the leaving date: return equipment, revoke accounts (day 0, not day 3), final pay, reference policy, and the retention date set on the file. See how long to keep HR records after an employee leaves.
