Free new employee onboarding process flow (printable flowchart)
New employee onboarding process flow
A free, printable companion to How to onboard a new starter so they’re earning their keep sooner without you standing over them. Use one sheet per new starter. Work down the five stages, give each one an owner, and sign it off when its end point is reached. No sign-up needed.
| New starter | Role | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Start date | Manager |
1. Before day one
Done when: ready for them
- Contract sent, and your legal checks done
- Payroll set up
- Equipment ordered, logins created and tested
- Buddy chosen, with time for them
- First week planned
- Handbook or welcome pack sent to read before they arrive
- Told where to go, what time, who will meet them and what to bring
Owner:
Signed off:
Date:
2. The first day
Done when: welcomed and safe
- Met and welcomed, ideally by you
- Shown around and introduced to the people they will work with
- Safety: emergency procedures, first aid and any hazards in the job
- Rules on customer information explained
- What doing the job well looks like here
- Not told everything: keep it to the essentials
Owner:
Signed off:
Date:
3. The first week
Done when: knows how things work
- How the business works and where their job fits in
- Key policies, including the quality policy, read and signed as understood
- The quality objectives that apply to their job
- What happens when work is not done the way the procedures say
- Required training started
- Written procedures for their tasks
- Goals agreed for the first three months
Owner:
Signed off:
Date:
4. The first month
Done when: trained and signed off
- Trained task by task
- Each task signed off only once someone competent has watched them do the real job
- One-to-ones every week or two
Owner:
Signed off:
Date:
5. End of the trial period
Done when: confirmed in the job
- Final review against the goals agreed in the first week
- Outcome confirmed in writing
- Asked: “What do you wish we’d told you sooner?”
Owner:
Signed off:
Date:
Take it further
Plain Standards: plain-English ISO templates and unaccredited remote certification, built by a company director of over 30 years.
- Onboarding Checklist: every onboarding task already listed, with who does it, when it is due, a sign-off and a worked example. plainstandards.com/products/employee-onboarding-checklist
- Skills Matrix Template: see what each new starter can do once trained, with a training plan and training record in one document. plainstandards.com/products/skills-matrix-template
- SOP Template: write each job down once, so every new starter learns it the same way. plainstandards.com/products/sop-template
- The ISO 9001:2026 Certification-Ready System: every procedure, form and register your business needs for ISO 9001, with unaccredited remote certification when you are ready. plainstandards.com/products/iso-9001-certification-ready-system
More free guides and worksheets at plainstandards.com