First off, you’re not alone—lots of business owners, and even some HR teams, wing it when it comes to onboarding. When life and work get busy, it’s easy to let details fall through the cracks. But that first week matters more than you think. A clear, repeatable onboarding process helps new hires feel confident, engaged, and ready to contribute.
Here’s a simple blueprint you can follow:
Step 1: Prepare Before Day One of Onboarding
- Send a welcome email that includes start time, dress code, and where to go/log in.
- Provide clear directions to fill out all new-hire paperwork digitally, before day one.
- Set up their equipment, email account, and access to any necessary systems.
- For in-person teams, stock their work area with everything they need—laptop, sticky notes, pens, monitors—and everything they didn’t know they needed—company swag and a stock pile of their favorite snacks (which you asked for in their onboarding paperwork).
- For remote teams, send new hires a welcome box with sticky notes, branded pens and notepads. Don’t forget to sneak in some company swag and those snacks!
- Let your team know someone new is starting and encourage them to say hi.
Step 2: Make Day One Friendly and Focused
- Greet them personally and show them to their work area.
- Walk them through what their first day/week will look like.
- Take them on a tour of the physical space, giving introductions as you go.
- Assign a buddy or point person they can go to with questions.
- If possible, schedule a team lunch the first day (or at least in the first week)
- For remote teams, have an email waiting in their inbox at the start of the day with their onboarding schedule and any other relevant information about their first few days/weeks.
- Also for remote teams, be sure to have lots of Zoom calls between new hires and managers and new hires and their team. Facilitating introductions in this way allows for quick acclimation.
Step 3: Share the Basics During Onboarding
- Though they will have already reviewed and signed the employee handbook and policies in their onboarding paperwork before day one, it’s a good practice to review basic details and leave room for questions.
- Explain work hours, time tracking, communication norms, and how to request time off.
- Walk through their role and how success will be measured.
Step 4: Set Them Up for Success
- Schedule training or shadowing sessions over the first two weeks.
- Check in at the end of week one to answer questions and clarify anything.
- At the end of 30 days, schedule a quick check-in to give feedback and ask how it’s going.
- Do the same for day 60 and day 90.
That’s it—now you know all the basics to successfully onboard employees as your company grows. We recommend customizing this list to fit your company’s unique framework and needs.
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Still sound like a lot? If you’d rather not DIY this, we can help! We create custom onboarding plans, with all the associated documents, policies, systems, and templates, for companies.
Just reach out to us—we’d love to help! Email us at team@copperquailconsulting.com, call us 602-512-5849, or schedule a quick Zoom call with us.
