Employee Onboarding Checklist (Excel / Google Sheets)

🔍 How do I use the new employee onboarding checklist in Excel? 

When you download the Excel template for our new employee onboarding checklist, review the entire document to get familiar with what’s included. 

The Excel checklist is entirely customizable to your new employee onboarding needs. Add any company-specific onboarding tasks or expand on the ones included here. 

When new hires confirm their start date, add their name and start date in rows 1 and 2. The template is designed to group new hires beginning on the same day if needed. 

As you complete tasks for each hire, check them off in the interactive checkboxes. When you’ve completed the same task for an entire group of hires, check the General Readiness box.

Here are some best practices for using the new employee onboarding checklist:

• 👤 Make it your own. Add or remove tasks, include extra resources, and update the style to reflect your company branding. It will make your job easier and feel more adapted to exactly what your company needs. 

• 🖐 Keep it handy. Create a shortcut or bookmark for your checklist so you can review it regularly as you prepare for new hires. Make it easy for the entire People Ops team to access the onboarding checklist template as needed. 

• ⚙️ Automate the checklist. Use a tool like Zavvy to automate your onboarding checklist and onboard new hires more efficiently. 

Once you’ve completed your onboarding checklist for new hires, make sure you have a plan for transitioning them into your ongoing employee development programs. 

⚙️ Automate your onboarding checklist with Zavvy

Zavvy is an employee enablement platform that helps you automatically guide workers through onboarding, training, and development. You can set up reminders or introductions, ask for feedback, and check in regularly with new hires, all in a single platform. With an automated onboarding journey, new hires get productive faster and feel more engaged in their work. 

❓ FAQs

How do I create an onboarding checklist in Excel?

To make an onboarding checklist in Excel, start by brainstorming a list of all the tasks you need to complete for each new hire. Organize these tasks by the phase of the onboarding process and put them in a logical order. 

Next, compile any resources and tools you need to complete the tasks in your onboarding checklist. Include these in a column next to each task. 

Finally, use checkboxes, color coding, or conditional formatting to track your progress through the onboarding template. 

Why should I use Excel for my onboarding checklist template? 

Excel works well for an onboarding checklist template. You can customize any cell to track and organize your new hire data. There are also plenty of tools for visualizing your progress on the onboarding checklist. 

What phases should my new employee onboarding template cover? 

Your new employee onboarding template should cover everything that happens from the moment your new hire accepts the offer through the end of their first 90 days. Generally, the phases of onboarding are: 

• Preparation
• Preboarding
• Day 1
• Week 1
• First 30 Days
• First 60 Days
• First 90 Days

Download the onboarding checklist template to see what tasks belong to each phase. 

How do I print an onboarding checklist in Excel? 

To print your new employee onboarding checklist in Excel, follow these steps: 

1. Highlight the rows and columns you’d like to print
2. Click Page Layout > Print Area > Set Print Area

3. Click File > Print
4. Check the print preview to make sure your onboarding checklist is appropriately formatted. 
5. Send the checklist to the printer.