A first-week onboarding checklist for a new teammate
A new teammate's first week sets how fast they become useful. A day-by-day checklist for them and the person who hired them, with a template to copy.
Most onboarding fails quietly. The new person spends the first days waiting for access, reading documents nobody keeps up to date and guessing who to ask. By Friday they've been polite and busy, and haven't done anything that matters yet.
A good first week has one aim: by the end of it, the new teammate has finished one real piece of work, knows who to ask for what and knows how the team decides things. The checklist below is built around that.
Before day one
Most first-week problems are solved before the person arrives. The manager owns this list.
- Set up every account they need: email, chat, the task tool, shared drives and any client tools. Test each login yourself if you can.
- Pick a buddy who isn't their manager: someone they can ask small questions without feeling they're interrupting.
- Choose their first real task. Small enough to finish in two or three days, real enough that someone will use the result.
- Write a short welcome note: what the first week looks like, who they'll meet and what their first task is.
- Block time in your own calendar for a daily check-in. Fifteen minutes is enough.
Day one: people, access, one small win
- Start with a conversation, not a document. Explain what the team does, who it does it for and what good work looks like here.
- Check every account works. Fix anything broken before lunch.
- Introduce them to the people they'll work with most, in person or by video, with one line on what each person can help with.
- Point them to the few documents that matter, and say which ones are out of date.
- End the day with something small and finished: a fixed typo on the website, a filed task, a reply to a real message.
Days two and three: watch, then do
- Shadow a real meeting or client call, then talk it over afterwards: why things were said, what was decided, what happens next.
- Start the first real task, with an owner (them), a date and a person to review it.
- Learn the team's habits by using them: how tasks are written, where notes go, how handoffs work, when people are expected to reply.
- Keep a running list of questions, and go through it with the buddy at the end of each day.
Days four and five: finish and review
- Finish the first task and get it reviewed. The review is part of the work: it's how they learn what the team means by good.
- Take part in the weekly team routine, like a review, a planning session or a client update, as a participant, not a guest.
- Write a short note on what was confusing this week. It's the most useful onboarding feedback you'll get, because it's fresh.
- Agree on next week's work with the manager: two or three tasks, with dates.
First-week checklist: [name], starting [date] Before day one (manager) [ ] Accounts set up and tested [ ] Buddy chosen: [name] [ ] First task chosen: [task] [ ] Welcome note sent [ ] Daily check-ins in the calendar Day one [ ] Team, clients and what good work looks like [ ] Every login works [ ] Introductions: [names] [ ] Key documents: [links] [ ] One small thing finished Days two and three [ ] Shadowed: [meeting or call] [ ] First task started (due [date], reviewer [name]) [ ] Team habits: tasks, notes, handoffs, replies Days four and five [ ] First task finished and reviewed [ ] Took part in [team routine] [ ] Note on what was confusing [ ] Next week agreed: [tasks]
The Friday conversation
End the week with half an hour between the new teammate and their manager. Keep it to four questions, and write down the answers:
- What was the most useful thing this week?
- What was confusing or slower than it should have been?
- Who has been most helpful, and is there anyone you haven't met but should?
- What do you want to work on next week?
The second answer is gold. Fix one thing from it before the next person joins, and your onboarding gets better every time someone new starts.
Mistakes to avoid
- A week of reading. Nobody remembers documents they read before they had a reason to.
- A first task that's either trivial or enormous. Aim for something finished in days, used by someone and reviewed properly.
- No buddy. New people ask their manager fewer questions than they need to, because they don't want to look lost.
- Waiting for access. Every hour spent waiting for a login is an hour of a new person feeling unwelcome.
Copy the checklist, fill in the brackets before day one and share it with the new teammate. Knowing what the week looks like is the first thing that makes a new job feel manageable.