A new hire decides in their first weeks whether they made the right choice. In a small business, onboarding is often improvised. A simple checklist makes those weeks feel planned, and gets them useful sooner.
Before day one
- Send the contract and the paperwork your country requires.
- Set up email, logins and the tools they will use.
- Prepare their desk or equipment, or ship it if they work remotely.
- Tell the team who is joining, when, and what they will do.
- Send a short welcome note: start time, where to go, who to ask for.
Nothing says "we were not ready for you" like spending the first morning waiting for a password.
Day one
- Welcome them in person, and have lunch or a coffee together.
- Introduce them to the people they will work with.
- Walk through how the business works: what you sell, to whom, and how money comes in.
- Set up and test every tool and login.
- Give them one small, real task they can finish today.
A finished task on day one feels better than a day of reading.
The first week
- Shadow the work they will do: calls, orders, client meetings.
- Read the documents that matter: your process notes, policies and templates.
- Meet each person they will work with, one to one.
- End the week with a short check-in: what is clear, what is not.
The first 30, 60 and 90 days
- By day 30: they know the basics and do routine tasks with help.
- By day 60: they do routine tasks on their own.
- By day 90: they own a clear part of the work, and you review how it is going together.
Write two or three goals for each stage, so both of you know what good looks like.
A template
Name: ______ Start date: ______ Onboarding owner: ______
Before day one: contract signed, paperwork done, accounts created, equipment ready, team told, welcome note sent.
Day one: welcome and lunch, introductions, how the business works, tools tested, first small task done.
Week one: shadowing, key documents read, one-to-one meetings, end-of-week check-in.
Day 30 goals: ______
Day 60 goals: ______
Day 90 review: ______
Write down how things are done
Onboarding is hardest when everything lives in the owner's head. Every question a new hire asks is a sign that something should be written down. Start with your most common tasks, using a simple SOP template.
Check in weekly at first, then less often. Regular, honest conversations matter more than any document. There is help with those in how to give feedback to an employee.