A simple onboarding checklist for your first employee
The first week decides how quickly a new person settles in, and often whether they stay. A practical checklist for small businesses.
By Yeem Team ·
Hiring someone is only half the job. How you welcome them in their first days shapes how quickly they become useful, how confident they feel and whether they stay. In a small business, there is rarely an HR team to handle this, so it falls to you.
Good onboarding does not need to be complicated or expensive. It needs to be planned.
Before the first day
- Send a welcome message a few days before, with the start time, the address, who to ask for and what to bring.
- Prepare the paperwork. Have the offer letter, any agreement and the forms you need ready, so the first morning is not spent on paperwork alone.
- Set up the tools. A laptop or phone if needed, email or messaging accounts, and access to any software they will use. Nothing slows a new person down like waiting three days for a login.
- Tell the team. Let everyone know who is joining, when and what they will do.
- Plan the first week. Write down what they will do each day. Even a simple list makes a huge difference.
Day one
The goal of the first day is for the new person to feel welcome and to understand what is expected, not to learn everything at once.
- Greet them yourself, on time
- Show them around: where they sit, where things are kept, who sits where
- Introduce them to everyone they will work with
- Explain how the business works in plain words: who your customers are, what you sell and how money comes in
- Go through the role: what they are responsible for and what a good first month looks like
- Have lunch together if you can
Keep the day light. A new person absorbs only a fraction of what they hear on day one.
Assign a buddy
Pair the new person with someone on the team who can answer everyday questions: how to request leave, where to find a file, who to ask about a customer. In a very small team, this may be you. Having a named person to ask removes a lot of anxiety.
The first week
- Give them a real, small task to complete in the first few days, something they can finish and feel good about
- Let them watch experienced team members at work, such as sitting in on calls or meetings
- Explain the tools and processes they will use daily, step by step
- Share any written guides you have. If you have none, ask the new person to note questions as they go; their list becomes the start of your guide for the next hire
Be clear about expectations
Explain working hours, how to request leave, how you communicate, how quickly you expect replies, and how performance will be discussed. Things that seem obvious to you may not be obvious to someone new, especially if this is their first job.
Check in often
Set short check-ins at the end of the first week, then every week for the first month. Ask simple questions:
- What has gone well?
- What has been confusing?
- Is there anything you need that you do not have?
Listen carefully. New people notice problems that long-time team members have stopped seeing.
The 30-day review
After a month, sit down for a longer conversation. Share what is going well and what to improve, agree on goals for the next two months and ask for their honest feedback on the onboarding itself. Use what you learn to make it better for the next person.
Why it matters
Replacing someone who leaves early costs time, money and energy, and in a small team, it can set you back for months. A clear, friendly first few weeks is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to build a team that stays and does good work.