The New Hire Onboarding Checklist for Teams of 10 to 150

Most onboarding checklists assume you have an HR team running them. This one doesn't. It's built for the reality at a 10 to 150 person company: onboarding is one part of someone's job, not their whole job, and it needs to work whether that person has ten minutes or an hour to spend on it this week.

No email gate, no download link, it's below. Copy it into whatever you already use (a doc, a project tool, or turn it into a trackable course, more on that at the end).

Before Day 1

• Send an offer confirmation with start date, time, and location (or remote login details)
• Order equipment (laptop, phone, any role-specific tools) with enough lead time to arrive before start date
• Set up accounts: email, core tools, any role-specific software
• Assign a buddy or point-of-contact who isn't the new hire's manager
• Prepare the physical or virtual workspace
• Draft a first-week schedule so day one isn't improvised
• Add the new hire to relevant team channels/distribution lists (without granting access to anything sensitive yet)

Day 1

• Welcome and introduce to the immediate team
• Walk through practical logistics: hours, breaks, how time off works, who to ask when something's unclear
• Confirm all accounts and equipment actually work, don't assume
• Review role expectations and how success will be measured in the first 90 days
• Assign first real (small) task, not just reading material, so day one includes doing something
• Schedule a check-in for end of week one

Week 1

• Complete required compliance or policy training (safety, code of conduct, anything legally or contractually required)
• Introduce to cross-functional contacts they'll actually work with, not the whole company
• Walk through the tools and systems specific to their role in more depth
• Clarify communication norms: response times, meeting culture, how decisions get made
• Check in: what's confusing so far? What's missing?

30 Days

• Review progress against the first 90-day expectations set on day one
• Confirm they've completed all required training modules
• Ask directly: what's still unclear about the role or the company?
• Manager check-in focused on early wins and blockers, not just task completion

60 Days

• Expand scope: are they ready for more ownership on any part of the role?
• Solicit feedback on the onboarding process itself while it's still fresh in memory
• Confirm any role-specific certifications or training renewals are on the calendar

90 Days

• Formal check-in against original role expectations
• Confirm training records and completions are documented somewhere retrievable, not just remembered
• Decide together on goals for the next quarter
• Ask again: what would you change about how you were onboarded? (Use it to improve the next hire's experience)

Turn this into something trackable

A checklist in a doc works until you're hiring several people a month and nobody's sure which new hire is actually on step 6 versus step 12. If you're at that point, the next move is usually to replace the shared folder and spreadsheet with something that auto-enrolls each new hire into the right training and tracks completion without anyone chasing it manually.

You can turn this exact checklist into a structured onboarding course in a few minutes: describe it to the AI course assistant, or paste this list in directly, and get a structured draft to refine. See our step-by-step guide to creating a course with AI. Start free, no credit card, covers up to 10 users.

For the bigger picture on why this matters for companies without a dedicated L&D function, see the LMS for teams without an L&D department.

FAQ

Is this checklist specific to any industry?

No, it's built to be general enough for most office, retail, or service-based small businesses. Add role-specific or regulatory training items (safety certifications, licensing requirements) on top of this general structure.

Do I need special software to use this checklist?

No. Copy it into a doc, a project management tool, or a spreadsheet to start. If you're managing onboarding for more than a handful of new hires at once, a trackable course with auto-enrollment saves the manual chasing that a static doc requires.

How long should onboarding actually take?

This checklist runs through 90 days deliberately. The first week matters most for early impression and logistics, but retention and role clarity are usually decided in the first quarter, not the first week.

Can I customize this for my company?

Yes, that's the intent. Add, remove, or reorder items to match your actual process; this is a starting structure, not a rigid requirement.