Onboarding Documents for New Hires (What to Include)

Ready to Publish

Excerpt

What are onboarding documents?

Employee onboarding documents are all the paperwork that helps you integrate new hires into the company.

When you hire new employees, they step into a sea of ambiguity. Even exceptional talents who clearly understand their roles would need help understanding your company’s processes, behavioral policies, emergency procedures, reporting structure, etc.

Onboarding helps you drag new employees from the sea of ambiguity into your company’s forward-going ship. Onboarding documentation are the lifebuoys you use to pull new employees from the sea of ambiguity and uncertainty.

When new employees first join your company, you should give them onboarding documents to review and sign.

The onboarding documents range from government forms to documents specific to employees’ roles and the company.

These documents help ensure compliance and provide employees with all the information they need to succeed in their new roles.

What documents are required for onboarding new hires?

The onboarding process of integrating new hires into your company involves a lot of documentation.

The different onboarding documentation serves a range of purposes. The government requires some for compliance purposes. Others are specific to the company, helping to outline the company’s policies, mission statement, procedures, structure, etc.

Others are specific to the job, helping to clarify the employee’s contract, responsibilities, expectations, etc.

Onboarding documents can be widely divided into four categories, listed below.

1. Legal & tax documents for onboarding

Legal and tax onboarding documents are those required by the government (federal or state government). These documents are absolutely necessary. This is because without completing them, your company would be breaking the law or be liable to fines and penalties.

Some important legal & tax onboarding documents (for employers in the U.S.) include:

W-4 form

One of the many documents that a new employee in the U.S. need to fill is the W-4 form (Employee Withholding Certificate).

The government requires that employees complete the W-4 form to help employers know how much to withhold from their paychecks as federal income taxes.

Employers are required to withhold federal income tax from their employee’s paychecks and send this to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service).

The W-4 form is a critical part of onboarding documentation. Knowing how much income tax to withhold helps with payroll processing.

Importantly, the form enables you to comply with government regulations. The IRS may request these forms for taxation purposes. So, you should keep copies on file for at least four years.

State Withholding Certificate

Except you live in one of the nine U.S. states that do not collect income taxes, the law requires you to make your employees complete a State Withholding Certificate.

The form helps you (as an employer) know how much you should withhold from employees’ paychecks for state taxes.

I-9 form

Form I-9 is an Employment Eligibility Verification form that the law requires all employees in the U.S. to complete. The Form I-9 verifies the identity and employment authorization of employees.

Employers must review the proof of identity and employment authorization that the employee supplies, then record the information in their section of the I-9 Form.

Employers must then keep the employment eligibility form for a period of time as authorized government officers may request it.

Drug testing policy

In some countries, new hires in some industries are required to undergo specific drug tests.

If your company requires drug testing, your drug testing policy should be an important part of your onboarding documentation. You should provide the Drug Test Consent Form.

You should also provide documentation specifying your policy, such as conditions under which you will drug screen, how you will keep drug testing records, etc.

2. Company-specific onboarding documents

Company-specific onboarding documents open up the company to new employees. These documents help the new hires understand your company inside out so they can thrive in their new roles.

Some important company-specific onboarding documents are:

Employee handbook

An employee handbook is a document that provides new employees with information about your company’s history, values, mission, policies, procedures, etc. Thus, it is one of the most important non-mandatory onboarding documents for new hires.

The main function of an employee handbook is to help a new employee learn about the company. It also covers virtually all employee expectations that are not role-specific.

From the company’s history to its mission, policies, and rules, the employee handbook would have all the information a new employee needs to know about the company.

A best practice is to have employees provide a written and signed acknowledgment stating that they have received and understand the employee handbook.

You should save the acknowledgment in the employee’s file to provide evidence in the future that the employee was made aware of company policies and rules.

Risk management policy

While employee handbooks are all-encompassing, they often do not include the company’s risk management policy. However, every new employee needs to understand how the company responds to specific risk situations.

Employers need to include their risk management policy in onboarding documentation. The risk management policy equips new hires with organizational-approved response strategies for specific risk situations.

Company calendar

The company calendar is a list of planned events for a company over a period of time. This document keeps everyone organized as it reminds everyone of important events in your company.

Events in company calendars often include meetings, official breaks, official travels, etc.

This helps new hires do their jobs better, as they’ll know when they’re expected to work, take time-offs, attend company-wide meetings, attend official trips, etc.

Organizational chart

You should provide every new employee with your organizational chart to help them understand the structure of your company.

The organizational chart visually represents your company’s internal structure. It shows how your departments are organized, highlighting the company's reporting relationship.

With your organizational chart, your new hires will understand who reports to whom in the company. This tells shows them who they should contact in different situations.

Non-compete & non-disclosure agreements

Many organizations have non-compete or non-disclosure policies, as these agreements protect your company when employees leave.

A non-compete agreement prevents departing employees from competing with you or working for a competitor for a specific number of years.

The non-disclosure agreement prevents employees from revealing sensitive information when they leave your organization.

During onboarding, you should inform new hires of any policy that prevents departing employees from taking trade secrets, intellectual property, clientele, and business connections to the competition.

Provide new employees with forms clearly stating these policies. Also, the new employees should sign these forms to show that they understand and consent to these agreements.

Emergency contact form

Employers should collect emergency contact information from new employees by having them complete an emergency contact form.

Accidents happen in the workplace. In the event of any unfortunate emergency event, you (as an employer) should know who to call. So you should maintain records of your employees’ emergency contacts.

New workers provide this information using the emergency contact form. Necessary data fields in the onboarding emergency contact form include the emergency contact’s name, address, phone number, email address, and relationship to the employee.

3. Job-specific onboarding documents

Job-specific onboarding documents help new employees understand the job better. These documents ensure that you (the employer) and the new employee are on the same page regarding what is expected of them.

Some important job-specific document for onboarding new employees are:

Employment offer letter

An employment offer letter is an essential onboarding document because it provides specific information about the role.

Offer letters typically include the following information:

Job title

Job description

Start date

Work schedule (expected working hours)

Direct manager (reporting structure)

Starting salary

Employee benefits

Employment contingencies (such as a background check, drug screening, etc.)

An onboarding best practice is to have employees sign and return the offer letter after reviewing it.

Signing the document is an official acceptance of the offer and its stated terms. Then you can keep the signed offer letters with other employee documents in the employees’ file for future reference.

Employment contract form

While the employment offer letter is a brief overview of the role, the employment contract provides a more detailed description of roles, responsibilities, payments, and benefits.

Employment contracts spell out what is expected of a new hire in their role, making it an essential onboarding document.

Process and procedure manuals

One way to ensure that new hires thrive in their role is to provide them with specific instructions for completing their tasks.

Process and procedure manuals establish the step-by-step processes and guidelines for completing tasks. Thus, these documents are important in the onboarding process.

Create Splainy visual step-by-step guides for your onboarding process. The procedure manuals help every employee know the processes to follow in completing tasks, ensuring consistency and compliance across the company.

4. Payroll & benefits forms

Payroll and benefits documents help employees understand how they will be paid and other company benefits they can take advantage of.

Some important payroll and benefits documents for onboarding new employees are:

Direct deposit form

Many organizations prefer paying employees using direct deposits, as this payment option is faster and safer than paper checks or cash.

If your company pays employees using direct deposits, you need to collect employees’ bank account information for payroll processing. Having the direct deposit form in your onboarding documentation will help you collect your new employee’s bank account number.

Time-off policy

Onboarding paperwork should also include documents detailing your company’s time-off policy.

The time-off policy spells out all the paid and unpaid leave options that your company provides and the general rules of your policy.

It helps employees know how many days they can take off while still getting paid, whether time off rollover is allowed, how to request time off, etc.

Paid time off is an incentive that boosts productivity. So, offering time off and providing the policy document during onboarding positions every new hire to succeed.

Health insurance plan documents

87% of employees value health benefits like health insurance. So, it’s not surprising that many organizations offer employees health insurance.

If you’re among the companies that offer its employees health insurance, your onboarding paperwork should include all documents relating to the insurance plan.

The documentation should spell out election options, employees’ responsibility in administering the plan, insurance coverage, etc. Employees can ask questions and get clarity on the insurance plan.

Pension and retirement documents

Employees want to know what will become of them after giving their productive years to a company. For this reason, a company should have retirement policies and provide employees with the policy documents during onboarding.

The documents should spell out retirement benefits offered by the company, eligibility criteria, etc.

How to write onboarding documents

Onboarding documentation should help new employees understand the company, their roles, and what’s expected of them.

For your onboarding documentation to hit its mark, you should take note of the following when writing them:

Onboarding documents should have actionable tasks. When possible, have employees sign the documents or provide written acknowledgment of having received, reviewed, and understood the document.

Provide a glossary of company jargon. If you include company jargon in the documents, help the new staff understand these terms faster with an explanatory “glossary of terms.”

Assign one or two existing employees to help the new staff. New staff learns the ropes faster if they have someone to guide them.

Consider creating and using an onboarding checklist. The checklist outlines the key steps you need to take in the onboarding process and the important documents you need to include in your onboarding paperwork. Using an onboarding checklist ensures you don’t miss anything when onboarding employees.

Use a document management system. Using a document management system (DMS) helps you automate most parts of the onboarding process. It allows you to use a computerized system to store, share, and manage onboarding documents.

How to streamline new hire paperwork during onboarding

The hiring and onboarding process comes with a lot of paperwork, and companies can be overwhelmed with the new hire paperwork.

However, you can simplify the paperwork required for onboarding employees using the following steps:

Complete new hire paperwork beforehand. Inundating new employees with a massive stack of documents on the first day sends the wrong message. Instead, draft the necessary paperwork days beforehand and have the employees sign them.

Know federal, state, and local labor regulations. If you do not know the relevant rules, you cannot follow them. Knowledge of applicable laws will help you provide the pertinent paperwork for your onboarding process.

Store employment paperwork in a centralized location. If you have new hire paperwork all over the place, they are more difficult to track and manage. However, centralizing onboarding paperwork allows you to keep documents in one place for easy retrieval.

Digitize and automate new hire documentation. Most organizations have already digitized the employment application process. Go a step further by digitizing onboarding forms. Also, make agreements available for e-signing. Build workflows to automatically send documents to the new staff at different times in the onboarding journey.

Takeaway

Onboarding gives your newly acquired talents the information they need to succeed in their new roles. Effective onboarding depends on the quality of onboarding documentation.

Onboarding documentation includes legal and tax forms (like the W-4 form and I-9 form), company-specific documents (like employee handbook and non-competes), job-specific documents (like an employment offer letter and procedure manuals), and payroll & benefits forms (like direct deposit form and retirement benefits documents).

New hire paperwork can be overwhelming, but there are different ways to streamline the process, including using a document management system to digitize and automate documentation.

When looking for a document management system to handle your entire onboarding process, Splainy can help you. Splainy is an automation software excellent for automating most onboarding documentation.

Ready to streamline onboarding and empower your new staff with the information to succeed in their roles? Digitize and automate onboarding documentation using Splainy.