CheckRun
hr onboarding

New Hire Checklist

A new hire checklist for managers and HR teams. Covers pre-start preparation through the first 30 days — so every new employee gets a consistent start.

4 sections 27 items

Checklist preview

Before the Start Date 7 items
  • Offer letter accepted and start date confirmed
  • IT notified to prepare equipment and accounts
  • Workspace or remote setup arranged
  • Welcome message sent to the new hire
  • Onboarding schedule prepared
  • Buddy or onboarding contact assigned
  • Team notified of the new hire's arrival
First Day 7 items
  • New hire greeted and introduced to the team
  • Equipment ready and accounts accessible
  • Office tour or remote tools walkthrough completed
  • HR paperwork completed and filed
  • Payroll and benefits enrollment initiated
  • Company policies and handbook reviewed
  • First-day agenda communicated
First Week 7 items
  • Role expectations and goals explained
  • Key team members and cross-functional contacts met
  • Core systems and tools access confirmed
  • First assignment given
  • 1-on-1 with direct manager held
  • Required compliance training started
  • Questions and feedback session completed
First 30 Days 6 items
  • All required training completed
  • 30-day check-in meeting held
  • Performance expectations reviewed and agreed
  • Any outstanding access or setup issues resolved
  • New hire integrated into team workflows
  • Onboarding closed in HR system

A new hire checklist makes sure every employee starts on the right foot — with the right tools, the right information, and a clear understanding of what’s expected. Without one, critical steps get missed, managers improvise differently each time, and new employees feel unsupported in their first days.

This checklist is manager-facing: it tracks what the company needs to do for the new hire, not what the new hire needs to do themselves. It runs from pre-start preparation through the first 30 days.

Who uses this new hire checklist

Hiring managers preparing for a new team member. HR coordinators running new employee onboarding across multiple departments. People Ops teams standardizing the new hire orientation process. Team leads at fast-growing companies where onboarding consistency matters.

How to run it

Open CheckRun in your browser when a new hire’s start date is confirmed. Start a run, work through pre-start items as you prepare, then continue through day one, week one, and the 30-day check-in. Each section maps to a phase — you don’t need to complete the whole checklist in one sitting.

Each run saves with a timestamp, so you have a record of every new hire’s onboarding completion.

Adapting this new employee checklist

  • Add a role-specific section for technical hires: dev environment setup, repo access, architecture overview
  • Add a “Culture & Values” section if your new hire orientation checklist includes structured culture onboarding
  • Split into separate checklists for HR, IT, and the hiring manager if your process has clear ownership boundaries
  • Add a “90-day” section for senior hires where the ramp-up period is longer

The difference between a new hire checklist and an onboarding checklist

A new hire checklist focuses on the operational setup: accounts, equipment, paperwork, introductions. An onboarding checklist is broader — it includes the new hire’s own tasks, role ramp-up, and integration into the team. In practice, most teams use them together: this checklist for the company’s side, a separate one for the new employee’s side.

  • Onboarding Checklist — the broader employee onboarding process covering all four phases from pre-arrival to 30-day check-in
  • Offboarding Checklist — mirrors this template for the exit: access revocation, equipment return, knowledge transfer, HR closure
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