Onboarding for human resources

Pre-boarding and compliance template

This checklist covers the essential operational steps required between contract execution and an employee's start date. It ensures all tax, identity, hardware, and legal requirements are fulfilled so they're fully prepared for day 1.

Use this template to onboard your employees

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Pre-boarding and compliance

This checklist covers the essential operational steps required between contract execution and your official start date. It ensures all tax, identity, hardware, and legal requirements are fulfilled so you are fully prepared for day 1.

No due date

Link tasks to actions, such as completing forms or booking meetings

Documentation and identity verification

Critical tasks to satisfy local labor laws, verify employment eligibility, and set up your payroll profiles.

Complete tax verification forms

Please complete your W-4, I-9, or regional equivalent forms so we can legally process your payroll.

No due date

Provide banking details

Let us know your banking details.

No due date Complete form

Verify your identity

Provide a scan of your passport, driver's license, or national ID as required by our compliance team.

Initiate background check

Start the standard background check processing utilizing the information provided by the new hire.

No due date Team member

Tasks can be for the employees being onboarded, or for the team

Legal agreements and policy acknowledgments

Review and sign the required legal and HR documents to secure company information and align with our policies.

Sign the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

Carefully read and electronically sign our standard Non-Disclosure Agreement.

Acknowledge the employee handbook

Review the company employee handbook and sign the acknowledgment form to confirm you understand our core policies.

No due date

Equipment and software provisioning

Getting your workstation and digital environment set up and ready to go before your start date.

Select hardware preferences

Choose your preferred laptop, monitor, and peripherals from the provided equipment catalog.

No due date

Order and ship hardware

Approve the hardware request and ensure the laptop and monitor are shipped to the employee's provided address.

No due date Team member

Provision core software credentials

Create automated accounts for Slack, company email, and the HRIS platform.

No due date Team member

Send Day 1 login instructions

Send external login instructions and temporary passwords to the employee's personal email address.

No due date Team member

Click the button below to edit or add tasks, add due dates, and much more...

Free plan • No credit card needed

Customize this template

Or build your own

How to use this template

Three simple steps to onboard employees

Step 1

Grab this template

Step 2

Send to employees

Only needs an email address. Or add an open invite link to your existing welcome emails.

Step 3

Employees complete tasks

  • Email reminders keep things moving
  • Ask questions or clarify with comments
  • Summary page shows everything you need to know

Free plan • No credit card needed

Customize this template

Or build your own

Loved by 4,500+ happy users

The perfect way to onboard employees

Your brand (even the emails)
Instantly know what's been done
Shows employees what to do
Chases up while you sleep
Everything lives in one place

Free plan • No credit card needed

Customize this template

Or build your own

Easy to use — high adoption

There are no passwords, the UI is clean and simple, it's easy to ask questions, and they can invite others to help. We're obsessed with useability.

HubSpot ready

  • Start new onboarding plans inside HubSpot
  • Adds events to the timeline
  • Updates custom fields
  • Attaches photos and documents
Don't use HubSpot? No problem, it works great without it too.

White label (including emails)

Every interaction, from invite through to the task page, showcases your brand.

Does the chasing up

Never send a "checking in" email again.
We'll make sure tasks always get done, on time.

Helps you improve

We'll ask employees to rate their onboarding experience.

  • Helps you to constantly improve your processes
  • Make sure your team are delivering exceptional service

Free plan • No credit card needed

Customize this template

Or build your own

Handles complex onboarding too

With advanced features like calculated due dates, sequential tasks, internal team tasks, a powerful dashboard, and more.

Frequently asked questions

How can I use this template?

Just click Customize this template above and we'll take you through a couple of simple steps to create an Onthen account and copy the pre-boarding and compliance template into it.

Once that's done we'll take you straight into the template editor where you can customize it to your exact needs (there's bound to be a few things you'll do differently).

Finally, once it's ready you can use it to create individual checklists (we call them 'plans') for each of your employees. Just type their email address and we'll do the rest. As they move through the tasks, you'll see their progress in the dashboard.

Who is this pre-boarding and compliance checklist for?

If you run a team that needs to onboard employees then the pre-boarding and compliance template is a perfect starting point.

You'll first be able to tailor the template to your team's needs, by editing, removing or adding tasks to suit your onboarding process. When it's perfect, onthen has all the tools you need to easily invite employees to it and make sure all the tasks get done, on time.

How do employees use it?

First you'll invite employees to the checklist. You can either send an invite manually, through our HubSpot integration, or by using an invite link that lets anyone with the link create a new checklist.

Your employees won't need to create an account or a password, they'll simply access it with a 6-digit code we'll send to their email.

It's really easy to use and there's nothing to navigate, it's a simple single page checklist that looks pretty much like you see above.

If any task gets forgotten about, we'll send email reminders to nudge your employees to complete everything.

Free plan • No credit card needed

Customize this template

Or build your own

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