The Ultimate Guide to Employee Onboarding for Startups

You can of-course use any other checklist tool you like. But the idea is the same: Have a comprehensive view of current tasks to complete, as well as upcoming ones. In Trello, it’s pretty satisfying to drag and drop cards to the Done section, and you can also tag colleagues in the comments if you have questions directly within the platform. We’ve also divided the boards into four general sections, as you’ll see below.

1. Before The Employee’s First Day At Work

You’ll be surprised by how many managers and founders fail to consider this step. But helping employees prepare in their own time before they start at work, is a tremendous boost to their confidence and a great aid for smooth integration.

It’s the whole strategy behind Twitter’s Yes to Desk policy, where they follow the process from hiring new staff all the way to giving them their desk next to their future colleagues.

Ideally, you’ll give them at least a few weeks to review everything, but if you’re super strapped for time, a couple of days will have to be enough. Just don’t overload the newcomers with info and expect them to process everything within the first few days.

Here’s the info you should hand them:

• Introduce the onboarding process itself
• Give useful, relevant resources (employee handbook, NDA)
• List necessary paperwork (social security number, ID photocopies etc..)

From your side of things, this is also a good time to ensure their workstation is prepped and ready to go:

• Find and equip the workstation
• Create logins for all your software
• Create email account
• Discuss who will be the mentor for your buddy system (more on that later)

2. For the First Day At Work

How would you like to be welcomed at a new company? Ideally, warmly. You want to feel at home right away. This is why tons of tech companies are really outdoing themselves with welcome tours, orientation, dedicating time with the higher executives, and even gift bags.

You don’t have to go all-in, but the bare minimum should include:

• Practical information like where to park and where to get coffee
• A basic tour of the premises
• Introduction to key colleagues
• Ensuring the employee has some time alone (useful to get up to speed with the systems at their own pace, and to remove some of the pressure).

Meanwhile, back at the office, here’s what you should have in place:

• Let everyone know the new recruit is coming
• Free up time for a tour and a meet and greet
• Ensure  a “buddy” is ready
• Prepare 1st-week work plan and plan 1:1 time for first-week review

The so-called Buddy System that we keep mentioning is a tried and tested technique in the tech world used by companies like Percolate and Quora. In short, one employee from the team becomes a “big brother/sister” to answer any questions and ease the recruit into the company’s life.

This will come in handy for the first week and month review, as you’ll see below.

3. For the First Week At Work

Ok, it’s been one week and now it’s time to ensure everything is going smoothly. It’s also the perfect time to iron out issues that often result from being new and maybe a bit lost and confused. At this stage, it’s not so much about the quality of the work, but more about the integration process. Use the following as a checklist:

• One on one to discuss the onboarding process
• Review the buddy system and offer the option to switch
• Double-check employee has mastered all the key tools
• Create training plan
• Plan a social activity – now’s a great time to break out that list of team building activities, or organize a team dinner/drink

As Erik Falk Hansen of AvantGarde Search puts it: “Even if the new employee isn’t clear on their exact tasks, it’s still very easy to make a simple training plan. This will help employees who shape their position to quickly get up to speed on important company info, get necessary introductions and meetings, and set expectations and goals to be able to take ownership of their new role.”

An interesting thing Facebook does, is to allow new developers to push some of their code very early in the onboarding process. Can you imagine that? The lines they write in their first few days will go live in front of hundreds of millions of people. This seems to be an awesome strategy for their self-esteem, engagement and long-term commitment.

4. First Month Review

After one month, it should be safe to say the employee should feel right at home. Any technical questions should be out of the way. At this stage, it’s more about productivity, efficiency, and the quality of the work:

• Move on from the buddy system to more general meetings
• Check integration/communications issues with the whole team
• Review work quality and offer constructive criticism
• Set targets and goals for the next 30 days
• Offer additional material if needed to patch information gaps

Don’t dismiss any personal issues that may have arisen with work culture, wellbeing, colleagues etc. One interesting point made by Thomas Lahntaler, of Groundwork AS, is to remain available, but also vulnerable as an employer.

“Being the new guy at a new company is a very vulnerable position to be in,” Thomas says.“By making sure you are not afraid to show vulnerability back, you can establish trust right from the start.”

Remote Onboarding Checklist