Employee Onboarding Process Template

Laura Parker
Mar 2024

Embarking on the journey of welcoming new hires into your organization’s fold is akin to setting the foundation for a thriving and engaged workforce. At the heart of this critical transition lies the employee onboarding process, a blueprint for success that ensures every new member starts their journey on the right foot. This process is not just about filling out forms or checking boxes; it’s about crafting an experience that aligns with your company’s ethos, values, and aspirations. In an era where the first impressions of a company can significantly impact employee retention and satisfaction, having a structured onboarding process is indispensable. By leveraging a well-thought-out template, companies can streamline hiring, foster a positive work culture from day one, and set new hires on a path to productivity and success.

Business onboarding concept, Business team analyzing income and using laptop computer with onbaording icon on virtual screen background, Organizational, socialization.

How do I create an employee onboarding form

Creating an employee onboarding form is a foundational step in crafting an engaging and efficient start for your new hires. Leveraging beSlick’s forms feature, this process becomes not only easier but also more aligned with your company’s commitment to streamlining processes and ensuring a welcoming experience for every new team member. 

How to utilize beSlick’s capabilities to design an impactful onboarding form:

  • Leverage beSlick’s Template Library: Begin by exploring beSlick’s pre-designed templates. Select an employee onboarding process template that closely matches your needs and customize it to reflect your company’s unique culture and requirements.
  • Incorporate Essential Information Seamlessly: Utilize beSlick’s forms feature to gather all necessary personal, professional, and legal information from new hires. The platform’s intuitive design ensures you don’t miss any crucial details, making this step both comprehensive and straightforward.
  • Embed Your Company Culture: Enhance the form with elements that introduce the company’s values, mission, and ethos right from the start. Use beSlick to add welcome videos, messages from leadership, or an overview of company milestones to build a connection from day one.
  • Customize for Clarity and Engagement: With beSlick, customize your form to ensure clarity and ease of completion. Its drag-and-drop interface allows you to design a form that’s not only functional but also visually appealing, making the onboarding experience memorable and engaging.
  • Tailor to Role-Specific Needs: beSlick’s flexibility allows for the inclusion of sections tailored to the specific role or department of the new hire. This could be links to job-specific training materials or departmental introductions, ensuring a personalized onboarding journey.
  • Facilitate Continuous Improvement with Feedback: Incorporate a feedback section within your onboarding form using beSlick’s forms feature. This aligns with the ethos of capturing deviations and suggestions, allowing your business to continually refine and improve its onboarding process.

By utilizing beSlick’s forms feature to create your employee onboarding form, you’re not just simplifying the administrative part of onboarding. You’re also ensuring that every new hire feels welcomed, valued, and equipped with the resources they need to start their journey on a positive note.

How do I create an onboarding plan in Excel

Designing an onboarding plan in Excel offers a structured, flexible approach to mapping out the journey new hires will embark upon in their initial days and weeks at your company. Excel’s versatile features enable the creation of a comprehensive onboarding schedule that can be easily adapted and updated. When integrating this approach with beSlick’s process management capabilities, businesses can enhance the onboarding experience even further. 

How to craft an effective onboarding plan using Excel, complemented by beSlick’s dynamic tools:

  1. Start with a Template: Utilize an employee onboarding template excel file as your foundation. This can either be a basic spreadsheet you create or a pre-designed template from Excel’s vast library. The template should include key milestones, training sessions, and meet-and-greets that every new hire should experience.
  2. Customize Your Plan: Tailor your Excel plan to fit the specific needs of your organization and the roles of new hires. Include columns for dates, activities, responsible parties, and status updates. This customization ensures that your onboarding plan is both actionable and aligned with your company’s goals.
  3. Integrate beSlick’s Workflow Features: Import your Excel onboarding plan into beSlick to leverage its workflow capabilities. This allows for the assignment of tasks to team members, setting dynamic due dates, and tracking progress in real-time. By doing so, you ensure that no step in the onboarding process is overlooked, enhancing efficiency and accountability.
  4. Use Excel’s Analytical Tools for Continuous Improvement: Excel’s analytical features, such as pivot tables and charts, can be used to assess the effectiveness of your onboarding process. Identify trends, gather feedback, and make data-driven decisions to refine and improve your strategy.
  5. Maintain Flexibility and Scalability: As your business grows, your onboarding needs will evolve. Excel’s scalability, combined with beSlick’s adaptability, ensures that your onboarding plan can grow and change with your organization, making it easier to onboard multiple employees simultaneously or adjust to new business strategies.

By combining the organizational power of Excel with beSlick’s process execution and workflow management features, you create a robust, efficient onboarding plan that not only saves time but also enhances the new hire experience. This approach aligns with the ethos of reducing mistakes, increasing visibility, and ensuring that changes are implemented quickly and effectively.

successful onboarding on notepad and various business papers on brown background. Brown glasses and magnifier with notepad.

How do you write onboarding in Word

Crafting an onboarding document in Word allows for the creation of a personalized and detailed guide for new hires, outlining everything they need to know as they begin their journey with your company. When combined with beSlick’s platform, the result is a comprehensive, engaging onboarding experience that reflects your company’s values and process efficiency ethos. 

How to create an effective onboarding document in Word, enhanced by beSlick’s capabilities:

  1. Utilize a Structured Template: Start with a free employee onboarding template word document. This template should serve as a baseline, containing sections for welcome messages, company policies, role-specific training, and more. Customize this template to align with your brand and the unique aspects of your company culture.
  2. Incorporate Engaging Content: Use Word to add engaging content such as images, charts, and hyperlinks to external resources. This could include links to beSlick’s platform where new hires can find interactive process flowcharts or complete tasks related to their onboarding.
  3. Embed Interactive Features: Leverage Word’s capabilities to include interactive elements like checklists or quizzes that new hires can complete. This interactive approach keeps engagement high and reinforces learning.
  4. Link to beSlick for Process Execution: Within your Word document, include direct links to beSlick for sections that involve process execution. This ensures that new hires understand not only what their onboarding process involves but also where and how they can engage with tasks, track their progress, and provide feedback.
  5. Ensure Easy Access and Navigation: Make sure your Word document is easy to navigate by using clear headings, a table of contents, and bookmarks. The easier it is for new hires to find the information they need, the smoother their onboarding experience will be.
  6. Facilitate Continuous Improvement: End the document with a link to a feedback form on beSlick, encouraging new hires to provide input on their onboarding experience. This aligns with the ethos of capturing deviations and leveraging feedback for process improvement.

By thoughtfully combining Word’s document creation capabilities with beSlick’s process management features, companies can deliver an onboarding experience that not only educates and engages new hires but also seamlessly integrates them into the company’s workflows and culture.

How do you organize the onboarding process

Organizing the onboarding process effectively is essential for welcoming new hires into your organization smoothly and efficiently. This is where strategies like Bauer onboarding come into play, emphasizing a structured yet flexible approach to integrating new team members. Combining such methodologies with beSlick’s advanced features can revolutionize the way companies onboard their employees. 

How to organize your onboarding process with a nod to the bauer method and beSlick’s innovative platform:

  1. Outline Clear Onboarding Goals: Begin with defining what success looks like for your onboarding process. Goals should encompass both logistical elements (like completing necessary paperwork) and cultural integration, reflecting the comprehensive approach of bauer onboarding.
  2. Break Down the Process into Key Phases: Segmenting the onboarding into distinct stages—such as pre-boarding, the first day, the first week, and the first 90 days—mirrors the bauer method’s emphasis on a phased approach, facilitating a more digestible and engaging experience for new hires.
  3. Utilize beSlick’s Flowchart for Visual Planning: Apply beSlick’s flowchart feature to visually outline the onboarding process. This step is crucial for both planning purposes and for communicating the sequence of events and expectations with new employees, in line with bauer onboarding principles.
  4. Assign Roles and Responsibilities Clearly: Leveraging beSlick, assign specific tasks and responsibilities to team members involved in the onboarding process. This ensures each step is accounted for and progresses smoothly, a key aspect of the bauer onboarding strategy.
  5. Embed Training and Development Early On: Incorporate training sessions and development opportunities from the outset. beSlick’s platform can host training materials and track new hires’ progress, aligning with bauer onboarding’s focus on continuous learning and development.
  6. Implement a Feedback Mechanism with beSlick: Use beSlick’s forms feature to collect feedback from new hires throughout their onboarding journey. This continuous feedback loop is in harmony with the bauer onboarding ethos, which advocates for adaptability based on participant input.
  7. Regularly Review and Refine the Process: Onboarding should evolve based on feedback and changing business needs. Utilize insights gained through beSlick to refine your bauer onboarding process, ensuring it remains effective and responsive to both company and employee needs.

By aligning Bauer onboarding techniques with beSlick’s comprehensive platform, organizations can ensure a thorough, engaging onboarding experience. This blend of structure and flexibility reduces errors, cuts costs, and enhances overall service quality by preparing employees effectively from day one.

How do you structure an employee onboarding

Structuring an effective onboarding process for new employees requires a strategic blend of operational efficiency and personal touchpoints to ensure a warm welcome and a smooth transition into the company. By leveraging the capabilities of beSlick, organizations can create a structured yet flexible onboarding framework that caters to the unique needs of each new hire while maintaining the core objectives of the onboarding program. 

A step-by-step guide to structuring an employee onboarding process that aligns with beSlick’s ethos and enhances the new employee experience:

  1. Establish Clear Onboarding Goals: Define what your onboarding process aims to achieve, including administrative compliance, cultural assimilation, and role-specific training. Setting clear objectives ensures that the onboarding process supports both the company’s and the new employee’s success.
  2. Develop a Timeline: Create a detailed timeline for the onboarding process, typically spanning from the offer acceptance through the first 90 days. Use beSlick to visualize this timeline through dynamic flowcharts, making it easy for everyone involved to stay on track.
  3. Personalize the Experience: Customize the onboarding process to address the specific needs and backgrounds of new hires. With beSlick, you can create personalized onboarding plans that integrate the employee’s role, department, and individual learning pace.
  4. Incorporate Key Components: Ensure your onboarding structure includes essential elements such as welcome sessions, HR paperwork, training modules, team introductions, and regular check-ins. Utilize beSlick to assign tasks, track completion, and facilitate interactions, streamlining these components effectively.
  5. Leverage Interactive Tools: Engage new employees with interactive tools and resources available on beSlick, such as training videos, quizzes, and process flowcharts. These resources can make the learning process more engaging and effective.
  6. Implement Feedback Loops: Integrate regular feedback sessions within the onboarding structure to capture new hires’ insights and experiences. beSlick’s forms feature allows for easy collection and analysis of feedback, ensuring continuous improvement of the onboarding process.
  7. Review and Adjust Regularly: Onboarding is an evolving process. Regularly review the effectiveness of your onboarding structure with beSlick’s analytics tools, making adjustments based on feedback, new technologies, or changes in company policy.

By following these steps and utilizing beSlick’s comprehensive features, organizations can structure an employee onboarding process that not only meets operational needs but also fosters a welcoming and productive environment for new hires. This approach leads to enhanced job satisfaction, faster time to productivity, and stronger alignment with company culture and values.

Photo of wavy curly charming fascinating gorgeous girlfriend smiling toothily showing you three fingers sign isolated over turquoise vivid color background

What are the three 3 phases of employee onboarding

Understanding the three phases of employee onboarding is crucial for creating a comprehensive onboarding manual for new employees. This manual, enhanced by the capabilities of beSlick, outlines a structured approach to integrating new hires into your organization, ensuring they are well-prepared, engaged, and aligned with company values from their first day.

The three key phases include:

  1. Pre-boarding (Before the First Day): The journey begins once a candidate accepts the job offer, initiating the pre-boarding phase. This stage is critical for setting expectations and building excitement. By utilizing beSlick, organizations can streamline pre-boarding, sending welcome packets, essential company information, and completing necessary paperwork through the platform. This ensures a seamless transition to the first day, encapsulated within the onboarding manual for new employees.
  2. Orientation (The First Day to the First Week): Orientation is designed to welcome the new employee to the company, introducing them to their team and the broader organization. It’s a time to immerse them in the company culture, values, and operational norms. beSlick’s platform can facilitate the organization of orientation sessions, mentor assignments, and access to training materials, as detailed in the onboarding manual for new employees.
  3. Integration (The First Month and Beyond): The final phase focuses on integrating the new employee into their specific role and the company at large. This involves more detailed role-specific training, goal setting, and beginning work on actual projects. beSlick supports this phase by allowing for the tracking of progress, task assignment, and feedback provision. The onboarding manual for new employees serves as a guide through this critical phase, ensuring the new hire’s successful assimilation into the company.

Crafting an onboarding manual for new employees that outlines these three phases, supported by beSlick’s features, enables organizations to execute a more effective and engaging onboarding process. This structured approach not only makes the onboarding experience enriching but also drives higher job satisfaction, performance, and retention.

What should an onboarding plan look like

An effective onboarding plan, as detailed in an onboarding manual for new employees, is essential for integrating new hires into your organization successfully. This plan, coupled with a new hire checklist for managers, ensures a comprehensive approach to welcoming, educating, and assimilating new team members. Supported by beSlick’s platform, the onboarding plan should be engaging, detailed, and adaptable to individual needs, ensuring every new employee feels valued from day one. Here’s an enhanced overview of an inclusive onboarding plan, incorporating a new hire checklist for managers:

  1. Welcome and Introduction: Begin with a heartfelt welcome to make new hires feel appreciated and excited. This includes personalized messages, company merchandise, and an orientation to the company culture, all of which can be tracked and managed through beSlick.
  2. Administrative Setup: Utilize the new hire checklist for managers on beSlick to ensure all logistical aspects, like IT setup and HR documentation, are completed efficiently. This ensures new employees are equipped with necessary tools and information without feeling overwhelmed.
  3. Role-Specific Training: Outline a training schedule tailored to the new hire’s position. beSlick allows managers to create, assign, and monitor custom training plans, ensuring each employee receives relevant, role-specific guidance.
  4. Meet and Greet Sessions: Organize meetings with key team members and mentors using beSlick, enhancing the new hire’s network and sense of belonging within the company. This can be part of the new hire checklist for managers, ensuring no crucial introduction is missed.
  5. Performance Objectives and Expectations: The new hire checklist for managers should include setting clear, measurable goals for new employees. beSlick’s task management features facilitate the setting, tracking, and reviewing of these objectives, promoting clear communication and alignment from the start.
  6. Feedback and Support Mechanisms: Incorporate regular check-ins and feedback sessions to address any questions or concerns, using beSlick’s forms feature for gathering insights. This feedback is vital for the continuous improvement of the onboarding process.
  7. Continuous Learning and Development Opportunities: Highlight ongoing opportunities for professional growth within the company. beSlick can manage and track participation in these programs, demonstrating the company’s investment in employee development.

By incorporating a new hire checklist for managers into the onboarding plan, as outlined in an onboarding manual for new employees, organizations can ensure a thorough and supportive transition for new hires. This approach, powered by beSlick, not only enhances employee satisfaction but also accelerates their productivity and integration into the company culture.

What is included in new hire onboarding

Effective employee onboarding is a comprehensive process that equips new hires with the necessary tools, information, and connections to thrive in their new roles. Central to this process is the employee onboarding checklist, a structured guide that ensures every critical step is covered. Utilizing beSlick’s platform, organizations can optimize and personalize the onboarding experience for each new employee. 

Here’s what should be included in an employee onboarding checklist:

  1. Pre-Onboarding Communications: Essential initial steps involve sending welcome emails, an overview of the first day, and preliminary paperwork. beSlick’s automation streamlines these communications, providing a warm and efficient welcome.
  2. Welcome Package: A curated welcome package can include company swag, a personalized letter, and an employee handbook. Tracking these packages through beSlick ensures every new hire receives a tangible sign of appreciation from day one.
  3. Orientation Sessions: Orientation covers the company’s history, culture, policies, and the employee’s role within the organization. With beSlick, scheduling and tracking these informative sessions are simplified, guaranteeing a comprehensive introduction.
  4. Training and Development: Role-specific training and broader organizational learning are vital. beSlick enables the creation of customized training plans and monitors progress, ensuring new hires are well-prepared for their duties.
  5. Mentorship Programs: Assigning mentors or buddies offers new hires a reliable source of support and guidance. beSlick helps facilitate these valuable connections, enhancing the onboarding experience.
  6. Performance Goals: Setting clear expectations through measurable goals and scheduling feedback sessions are crucial steps in the employee onboarding checklist. beSlick’s tools aid in establishing these objectives and collecting ongoing feedback.
  7. Feedback Mechanisms: Opportunities for new hires to share their onboarding experiences and suggestions for improvement are essential for refining the process. beSlick’s feedback features enable easy gathering and analysis of this vital input.

Incorporating these components into an employee onboarding checklist, supported by beSlick’s features, ensures a thorough and engaging onboarding journey. This approach not only enriches the employee experience but also fosters long-term engagement and success within the company.

Woman clerk sitting holding note paper sticker with welcome aboard phrase. Business concept.

As we’ve explored, an effective employee onboarding process is not just a checklist of tasks to be completed; it’s a foundational element that sets the tone for an employee’s journey within your organization. By integrating beSlick’s comprehensive platform into your onboarding process, you can ensure that this critical phase is not only efficient and thorough but also engaging and personalized for each new hire.

The employee onboarding template serves as a roadmap, guiding managers through each step of the process to ensure no detail is overlooked. From pre-onboarding communications to setting performance goals and gathering feedback, beSlick’s capabilities enhance every aspect, making it simpler to welcome, integrate, and empower new employees. This structured yet flexible approach reduces mistakes, enhances visibility, and ultimately, contributes to a positive, productive workplace culture.

Take the first step towards transforming your employee onboarding process today. Download our free employee onboarding template to get started and watch our five-minute demo video to see how beSlick can further streamline and improve your onboarding experience. With the right tools and a thoughtful approach, you can ensure that every new hire feels welcomed, valued, and ready to contribute from their very first day.

Need a better way to track team tasks & workflow?
Need a better way to track team tasks & workflow?

, Author of The Dirty Word and CEO at beSlick

Alister Esam is a successful entrepreneur and investor, having bootstrapped his fintech software business eShare to international status operating in over 40 countries and servicing 20,000 board directors, before successfully exiting to a multibillion-dollar organisation in 2018. He now invests in a variety of startups and on a global mission to make work, work.