Employee Onboarding Step by Step – New Employee Onboarding Plan (Example, Schedule, Checklist)

Employee onboarding is a planned process of introducing a new person to the company – from the moment the contract is signed until they do their job independently and with confidence. Good onboarding has a concrete plan: a task list, deadlines, responsible people and clear criteria that tell you the onboarding has worked. Below you will find a ready-made, step-by-step onboarding plan for a new employee, a sample schedule, a checklist for HR and managers, and tips on turning it all into a repeatable onboarding path.

If you are still getting the terminology straight, start with the article What is onboarding?. Here we focus on practice.

Why employee onboarding needs a plan

In many companies, onboarding a new employee looks much the same: the laptop arrives on day three, the manager happens to be on vacation, and the new hire reads procedures because “there are no tasks for them yet”. Nobody has bad intentions – nobody simply owns the process.

An onboarding plan solves this problem because it answers three questions:

• What needs to happen – tasks, training, meetings, documents.
• When – on which day or in which week.
• Who is responsible – HR, the manager, the buddy, IT, the employee.

Such a plan can be prepared once and then reused for further hires in the same role. As a result, the quality of onboarding does not depend on whether the manager happens to be having a good week.

The new employee onboarding process in 6 steps

The new employee onboarding process may look different depending on the industry, but its backbone is almost always the same.

1. Define the goal of onboarding. What should the new person be able to do after 30, 60 and 90 days? Write it down as measurable outcomes, for example “independently handles customer tickets in category A”.
2. Prepare preboarding. Paperwork, equipment, access and a welcome message before the first day. We describe the details in the article on preboarding and the first day at work.
3. Appoint the onboarding team. The manager, a buddy, possibly a mentor or trainer, and someone from HR. Everyone should know which tasks they are responsible for.
4. Draw up the schedule. Day by day for the first week, then week by week until the end of the onboarding period.
5. Plan checkpoints. Short conversations after the first week and after 30, 60 and 90 days, plus surveys and knowledge tests.
6. Collect feedback and improve the plan. Every onboarding is material for improving the template for the next person.

Sample onboarding schedule for a new employee

The table below is an onboarding plan for a new employee – an example for an office role. Treat it as a starting point and adapt it to your company.

The 30-60-90 day plan – how to draw it up

The 30-60-90 day plan is a simplified version of the schedule that is easy to discuss with the new employee at the first meeting. Each stage has a different goal:

• The first 30 days – learning. The employee gets to know the company, the people, the tools and the procedures. Success means completed training, knowledge of the rules and the first tasks done.
• Days 31–60 – contributing. The employee does more and more tasks independently, while the buddy and manager move from the role of instructor to that of consultant.
• Days 61–90 – independence. The employee handles the full scope of duties, has their own goals and can suggest improvements.

For each stage, write down 3–5 concrete outcomes. Avoid generalities such as “knows the product”. Better: “can present the three main packages to a customer and answer the most common questions”.

The new employee onboarding form – what it should contain

A new employee onboarding form is a document (paper or electronic) that records the course of onboarding. It works as a checklist and as confirmation that the employee has completed the required training. A good form contains:

• the employee's details, job title, department and start date;
• the names of the manager, the buddy and, if applicable, the mentor;
• a list of mandatory training (e.g. OHS, GDPR, procedures) with dates and confirmation of completion;
• a list of equipment handed over and access granted;
• onboarding tasks assigned to the stages of the schedule;
• knowledge test results or an assessment of practical skills;
• notes from check-in conversations (e.g. after 30, 60 and 90 days);
• signatures or confirmations from the employee and the manager.

A paper form is easily lost and hard to analyze. An electronic version lets you see progress in real time and compare onboarding across departments.

The buddy at work – the role and rules of a buddy program

A buddy is an experienced colleague who is the new person's first point of contact during the first weeks. They are not a manager and they do not evaluate – they help, explain and show “how we do things here”. A buddy program is one of the simplest ways to make employee onboarding more human.

What the buddy is responsible for

• Shows the new person around the company and introduces the people they will work with.
• Answers questions that are hard to take to the boss (“where do I order pens?”, “how do I report a fault?”).
• Shows the tools and the informal rules of working in the team.
• Holds short, regular conversations – even daily in the first week.
• Tells the manager if something in the process is not working.

Training a new employee by a colleague

Often it is the buddy or another experienced employee who delivers the job-specific training. It is a good solution, provided they have the time, the materials and a clear scope. A few rules:

• Build onboarding time into their duties – do not add it “after hours”.
• Give them a ready list of topics to cover so that nothing is missed.
• Use the pattern: show – do together – let them do it alone – review.
• Check the results with a short knowledge test or a practical task.
• Recognize the buddy's role, for example in the performance review.

Onboarding checklist for HR and managers

The checklist below sorts out the division of responsibilities. You can copy it and adapt it to your own procedure.

HR checklist

• A complete set of documents and formalities before the first day.
• A welcome message with practical information (time, place, contact person).
• Organizing the mandatory OHS induction training before the employee starts work.
• Mandatory training: GDPR, regulations, internal policies.
• Providing information about benefits, vacation rules and time tracking.
• Surveys after week 1 and after 30 and 90 days.
• Analyzing how onboarding went and updating the template.

Manager checklist

• Ordering equipment and access well in advance.
• Choosing a buddy and discussing their role with them.
• Blocking time in the calendar for the first day and for check-in meetings.
• Presenting the goals of the role and the 30-60-90 day plan.
• Assigning tasks of increasing difficulty.
• Regular feedback – not only at the end of the probation period.
• Evaluating the onboarding and setting further development goals.

Want this checklist as an automated path? In the OnBoardMe onboarding platform you assign tasks for HR, the manager and the buddy once, and the system reminds everyone of the next steps. Book a demo and see how it works.

Employee onboarding – examples from different industries

The backbone of the plan is shared, but the emphasis changes depending on the role. A few examples:

Onboarding production employees

In production, safety is the priority. Day one is OHS induction training, job-specific instruction, collecting work clothes and protective equipment, and learning the traffic rules on the shop floor. In the first week, the employee works under the supervision of an experienced operator and learns the machine instructions and quality standards. For example, after two weeks they might take a knowledge test on safety procedures, and after a month a practical assessment at their workstation. With shift work, it helps if training materials are also available on a phone.

Salespeople and field employees

Here the key things are product knowledge, customer conversation standards and sales tools. Part of the training can be delivered through e-learning, because salespeople rarely sit in the office. A good element of the plan is a few customer meetings together with an experienced salesperson, and only then the first independent visits.

Office employees and specialists

A greater emphasis on procedures, systems and cooperation between departments. For example, in a compensation law firm, a new person in the claims department goes through training in procedures and documentation, and their manager sees the test results in real time.

What does it look like in practice? Campter, a compensation law firm that onboards its claims and sales employees in OnBoardMe, sums it up like this: “we have up-to-date results of their training, everything online”.

How to turn an onboarding plan into an onboarding path in OnBoardMe

A plan in a spreadsheet works as long as you onboard one person per quarter. With several roles, many departments and turnover, it is hard to keep track of deadlines and check who has done what. That is when it is worth moving new employee onboarding to a tool that runs the process for you. Here is how it looks in the OnBoardMe onboarding system:

1. A path template for a role. You move the schedule from the table into a daily or weekly template. You reuse a path once prepared for further roles and only change what is specific.
2. Tasks for the whole onboarding team. You assign each task to a specific role: the employee, the buddy, the manager, or a coach or mentor. You can use a ready-made library of tasks, messages and documents.
3. Preboarding. Before day one, the employee receives a welcome message, materials about the company and the team, the schedule and a document checklist, and can join short online meetings.
4. Training and tests. E-learning courses and quizzes (e.g. GDPR, OHS, procedures, products), knowledge tests and forms, including ones with a digital signature – in practice, your electronic onboarding form.
5. Automations and notifications. The system launches the next tasks by itself, sends notifications and alerts and, at planned moments, surveys.
6. Progress reports. You see task progress and the engagement of the employee, the manager, the buddy and the mentor. You know right away where the onboarding has stalled.
7. Feedback. Rating-scale and open-ended surveys from the whole onboarding team help you improve the template after every onboarding.

The paths work not only in the office – OnBoardMe also works well for field employees, production staff and outsourcing companies. You will find the full list of capabilities on the OnBoardMe features page.

The most common mistakes when onboarding a new employee

• No preparation before day one – without equipment and access, the first week is wasted.
• Too much information at once – three days of presentations is not onboarding. Spread the knowledge over time.
• No process owner – if everyone is responsible for onboarding, nobody is.
• No check-in conversations – problems only surface at the review after the probation period or at resignation.
• A one-off plan – a template that nobody improves quickly goes out of date.

Well-run employee onboarding is one of the foundations of retention. You can read more about how to keep people in the company in the article on employee retention and turnover.

Summary

Effective employee onboarding is not a wish list but a plan with deadlines, roles and checkpoints: preboarding, a well-organized first day, an intensive first week with a buddy, and a 30-60-90 day plan that ends with an evaluation. If you want such a plan to work repeatably for every role – with automated tasks, training and progress reports – check out the OnBoardMe onboarding platform.

Frequently asked questions

How long should onboarding of a new employee last?

The most common period is around 90 days, although the intensive part of onboarding falls in the first week and the first month. For specialist or management roles the process can take longer. Clear goals for each stage matter more than the length.

What is the difference between an onboarding plan and an onboarding checklist?

An onboarding plan describes what should happen, when and who is responsible. An onboarding checklist, or onboarding record, is used to note that tasks and training have been completed, together with confirmations and notes from conversations. In an online tool, both functions can be combined in a single path.

Who should be a new employee's buddy?

Ideally an experienced person from the same team who knows the day-to-day work well and has the time and willingness to help. The buddy should not be the direct manager, because their role is to support, not to evaluate.

What should the first day of onboarding include?

A welcome from the manager, mandatory health and safety (OHS) induction training, equipment handover and access checks, an introduction to the team and a meeting with the buddy. It is worth finishing the day with a short conversation about goals for the first week.

What does onboarding look like for production employees?

It starts with OHS training, job-specific instruction and the issue of protective equipment. The employee then works under the supervision of an experienced operator, learns the machine instructions and quality standards, and their knowledge is checked with a test and a practical assessment.

Can employee onboarding be done online?

Yes, a large part of the process – preboarding, e-learning courses, knowledge tests, surveys and task reminders – can be run online. Team meetings and hands-on training at the workstation are still best planned on site.