New hire checklist template

Congratulations—your prospect signed your offer letter and you’re officially through the hiring process and going to have a new team member! Now, the next step is to prepare all the tasks you need to complete so they can start their new job off on the right foot. The best way to do this is with a new hire checklist template.

What is a new hire checklist template?

A new hire checklist template is a reusable template that helps managers keep track of all the tasks they need to complete to successfully onboard a new employee. This ensures that any new employee is set up for success before their first day on the job. 

What’s the difference between a new hire checklist template and an employee onboarding template?

At first glance, a new hire checklist template and an employee onboarding template seem like the same thing. But it’s actually a little more nuanced. A new hire checklist template focuses on all the preparation work a manager needs to complete before a new employee starts. This includes things like prepping new equipment, setting up meetings, and coordinating meetings with HR. 

Employee onboarding templates are used to guide new employees through their onboarding process. A great employee onboarding template includes things like the employee handbook, information about their first day of work, and what employees should expect for their 30-60-90 day plan. 

Why should you use a new hire checklist template?

New hire onboarding has a lot of moving parts—and it can be overwhelming to keep track of everything you need to do before your new employee starts. A new hire checklist template helps streamline the onboarding experience for both in-office and remote employees by enabling you to view upcoming onboarding tasks at-a-glance. What’s more, effective onboarding can actually improve employee satisfaction and retention—so using one can set you up for success well beyond your employee’s first day.

What’s included in a new hire checklist template?

A good new employee checklist template should include a comprehensive list of pre-boarding tasks—aka all the tasks you need to accomplish between the time your new hire accepts your job offer and the new hire’s first day. Common pre-boarding tasks include:

• Preparation tasks, such as assigning equipment requests to IT and human resources, sending welcome emails, and ensuring background checks are complete.

• Sending (and receiving) new hire paperwork, like I-9 documents, tax withholding forms, and company policy acknowledgements.

• Emailing an overview of what the new hire can expect on day one, including any first day check-ins, a brief schedule, and what to know about their workspace (if they’re in-office).

• Sending an overview of what the new hire can expect in their first week and first month, including milestones you expect them to hit and any performance review timelines.

• Giving the new hire any information about the company’s official onboarding program, including formal onboarding training.

• Sending any additional useful information, like an overview of the company culture and expectations of their new role.

How to use a new hire checklist template

The easiest way to create a new hire checklist is to start with Asana’s free template. With Asana, you can add cross-functional collaborators like HR and IT to new hire templates, to ensure every task is completed before your new hire starts. 

From there, you can tailor your templates to fit the needs of specific roles—or create several different types of new hire templates for different departments. This helps you save time in the long run, because you don’t have to think of the tasks you should complete every time you onboard a new individual to your team. 

Integrated features

• List View. List View is a grid-style view that makes it easy to see all of your project’s information at a glance. Like a to-do list or a spreadsheet, List View displays all of your tasks at once so you can not only see task titles and due dates, but also view any relevant custom fields like Priority, Status, or more. Unlock effortless collaboration by giving your entire team visibility into who’s doing what by when.

• Automation. Automate manual work so your team spends less time on the busy work and more time on the tasks you hired them for. Rules in Asana function on a basis of triggers and actions—essentially “when X happens, do Y.” Use Rules to automatically assign work, adjust due dates, set custom fields, notify stakeholders, and more. From ad hoc automations to entire workflows, Rules gives your team time back for skilled and strategic work.

• Dependencies. Mark a task as waiting on another task with task dependencies. Know when your work is blocking someone else’s work, so you can prioritize accordingly. Teams with collaborative workflows can easily see what tasks they’re waiting on from others, and know when to get started on their portion of work. When the first task is completed, the assignee will be notified that they can get started on their dependent task. Or, if the task your work is dependent on is rescheduled, Asana will notify you—letting you know if you need to adjust your dependent due date as well. 

• Start dates. Sometimes you don’t just need to track when a to-do is due—you also need to know when you should start working on it. Start times and dates give your team members a clear sense of how long each task should take to complete. Use start dates to set, track, and manage work to align your team's objectives and prevent dependencies from falling through the cracks. 

Recommended apps

• Google Workplace. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.

• Microsoft Teams. With the Microsoft Teams + Asana integration, you can search for and share the information you need without leaving Teams. Easily connect your Teams conversations to actionable items in Asana. Plus, create, assign, and view tasks during a Teams Meeting without needing to switch to your browser.

• Slack. Turn ideas, work requests, and action items from Slack into trackable tasks and comments in Asana. Go from quick questions and action items to tasks with assignees and due dates. Easily capture work so requests and to-dos don’t get lost in Slack. 

• Zoom. Asana and Zoom are partnering up to help teams have more purposeful and focused meetings. The Zoom + Asana integration makes it easy to prepare for meetings, hold actionable conversations, and access information once the call is over. Meetings begin in Asana, where shared meeting agendas provide visibility and context about what will be discussed. During the meeting, team members can quickly create tasks within Zoom, so details and action items don’t get lost. And once the meeting is over, the Zoom + Asana integration pulls meeting transcripts and recordings into Asana, so all collaborators and stakeholders can review the meeting as needed.

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