Author
Discover the top 10 onboarding documents that can help you streamline your hiring process and ensure a smooth transition for new employees.
- What are onboarding documents?
- What is the function of an onboarding document?
- Required Documents for Onboarding
- How to initiate a promising approach to create onboarding documents?
- Onboarding Document Template
When a business or organization hires a new employee, it signifies that person is now officially a part of the workforce. This also pertains to the need that the onboarding process be started before the employee may formally be added to the company’s inventory of current human resources.
An enterprise is always excited to get a new employee. However, a lot of documentation is required.
New recruits are required to examine and sign many onboarding documents as part of the onboarding process. These onboarding documents include anything from official forms to records particular to your company. Regardless of their intended use, it’s crucial to ensure new recruits respond to these papers as soon as they begin working for your business.
In this blog, we’ll explain what onboarding documents are and which forms you should provide new recruits when they enter your organization. Additionally, we will discuss onboarding document writing techniques and provide a viable solution for onboarding document templates. This might serve as a checklist for you as you direct your new recruits toward excellence.
What are onboarding documents?
The process of incorporating new recruits into the organization is known as employee onboarding. In contrast, orientation focuses more on directing new hires to the break room and the locations of other departments.
When done well, onboarding makes new workers feel included and at home, which promotes employee satisfaction and raises employee engagement. Effective onboarding also promotes lower turnover, more employee morale, and improved output.
The caliber of onboarding documents you provide new hires on their first day of employment with you is a significant aspect of the physical or virtual onboarding process. When a new employee joins your organization, they must examine and sign these contracts.
These documents include anything from official filings to information unique to their position and your company. In addition to meeting legal obligations, the proper onboarding document will aid new recruits in integrating into your corporate culture and setting them up for success.
What is the function of an onboarding document?
Documents used for onboarding serve many diverse purposes. Some are required to obtain crucial data from a new hire. Others are made to adequately educate new employees about certain procedures and provide them the option to enroll in specific perks.
If feasible, it’s preferable to have workers study and sign these contracts on their first day, regardless of their intentions. Even while the documentation may not be very thrilling, it’s ideal to complete these processes as soon as possible to lay a solid basis for new recruits.
Required Documents for Onboarding
You must provide new recruits a variety of onboarding process documents as they first start working for your organization. Some are mandated by law, while others are related to the rules and practices of your business. There are even more that are pertinent to the position a person will have.
However, they may generally be divided into the following four groups of Human resource onboarding forms:
- Legal documents
- Documents pertaining to a job
- Documents unique to the organization
- Payroll stubs and benefit statements
Now let us analyze them.
The Ten Essential Onboarding Documents For Fresh Recruits Are Listed Below Let’s begin with the legal paperwork.
- Employment application form
The first formal document needed to onboard new personnel is the employment application form. Even though this form might seem apparent, it’s important to keep it on hand so that you have access to information like your employment history, qualifications, and personal details in case any problems arise in the future.
Having this onboarding document might assist you demonstrate that you adhered to any legal duties because many states have requirements for the inclusion of specified statements in job application forms.
This form should be signed by brand-new workers in order to confirm all the details and give permission for a background check. It’s also crucial to remember that this form must be sent even if the applicant has previously sent in a CV. Then, together with any comments or other information recorded throughout the recruiting process, you can keep hold of this document for a full year.
- W-4 Tax form
A W-4 form must be the first document your new recruits sign. All new recruits in the United States must submit this tax form. It is used by the IRS to estimate how much money should be deducted from each paycheck as taxes. This is available for immediate download from the IRS website. Before being paid for the first time, all new employees must submit the W-4 forms.
Employees must additionally submit a State Withholding Certificate, providing they live in one of the nine states sans income tax. This really is necessary so that, wherever applicable, tax deductions may be remitted.
- Form 16 (Applicable for India)
The types of official documents needed to submit taxes both in India and the US are very similar. The Form 16 is the basic form needed to submit your IT return if you are a regular employee in India. The W-2 form fulfills the similar purpose in the American tax system.
The Indian taxation system offers ITR-2 and ITR-4 forms for different kinds of earnings. The 1099 forms used in the American taxation system include the 1099-R for annuity, the 1099-G for jobless benefits, and the 1099-MISC for other income earned.
- Offer Letter
Let’s now discuss the optional but potentially crucial onboarding documents regarding new recruits. Your letter of employment is the first of them. This is your formal employment offer and should include the following details:
- Job title
- Job description
- Starting date
- Initial salary
- Eligibility for benefits
- Direct manager
- To formally accept the employment and the conditions set forth in the letter, the candidate must sign a duplicate of that as well.
- Contract of employment
An employment contract should be given to new recruits in addition to the letter of offer. This is a formal contract that outlines their obligations.
Any one of the following can be included in an employment contract:
- General duties of the post
- Salary or wage
- Employment tenure
- Perks
- Non-disclosure and non-compete clauses
- You might like: Corporate Identity: Boost Your Business Dominance By - Creating One With Crove
- Essential Contact Details
A paper seeking emergency contact details for at least two people who you could call in the case of an accident or catastrophe should also be included. Seeking names, contact information, and mailing addresses is a good idea.
- Employee Manual
The next stage is to provide staff members access to all the onboarding documents and materials they will require to comprehend and accept your corporation’s policies and protocols. This should be covered in an employee manual and covers things like the dress code, rules, and business philosophy.
Your company’s corporate mission contents should also be included in your employee manual. This comprises your objectives, your main purpose, and the steps you want to take to get there (strategic plan). By sector, this could change.
To avoid confusion later on, be sure to offer comprehensive information regarding your company’s vacation policy. This covers how to seek paid time off, vacation time, sick days, jury service, etc.
Employees are required to sign an acceptance form, which serves as written confirmation that they understand and agree to abide by all of your rules and procedures.
- Benefits and Payroll
The final crucial document you must provide in your welcoming kit for onboarding paperwork relates to payroll and entitlements.
To start, you must gather the necessary information in order to pay your new hires. For instance, if your business provides direct deposit as a method of paying employees, you must give new workers a direct deposit form. The best approach to make sure new hires are paid on time with their first paycheck is to use this paper to collect banking information for transferring funds.
For the purpose of introducing new hires to any supplementary compensation plans that may be available to them, you should also think about providing a benefits booklet. Among other perks, this can include health insurance, chances for professional promotion, or retirement programmes.
- Organizational Structure
Additionally, you want new recruits to know right once how your business is organized and how they fit in. Presenting them with a copy of your organizational chart is the most effective approach to do this. An organizational chart is a visual representation of a company’s inner structure that shows the relationships, functions, and obligations of each employee within the organization. They will better comprehend who answers to them and who they report thanks to this.
- Lab tests for drugs
You must give workers a copy of the corporation’s drug screening policy, regardless of whether the employer intends to test job candidates for drugs before hiring them or continue testing them after they start working there. Additionally, you should keep a copy of every result obtained for at least a year, but certain rules may extend this requirement.
How to initiate a promising approach to create onboarding documents?
One of the first perceptions a new employee will have of your business is through your onboarding papers. For this reason, it’s critical to have a well-structured onboarding document procedure. It will make it easier for new hires to comprehend what is expected of them and how they fit into the bigger picture of your business. Additionally, it will make them feel welcome and valued from the beginning. In other words, it will get them off to a productive employee lifetime and continue to do so until they complete your ultimate offboarding procedure.
When you create your onboarding document process and produce your onboarding documentation, there are a few hiring best practices you should keep in mind.
- First, the employee should be required to sign, read, and complete a variety of actionable activities as part of the onboarding process. Make an effort to make it as engaging as you can.
- Second, be sure to provide paperwork outlining the culture and standards of your organization.
- Include any team-specific materials that your potential employee might require as well.
- Include a who’s who cheat sheet and a glossary of corporate lingo to aid new recruits in settling in.
- By assigning your new recruit a buddy—a more seasoned team member who can show them the ropes—you may help make the difficult onboarding process more manageable.
- Consider handling the complete onboarding process with a document management solution like Crove. With documentation software like Crove, you may save a lot of money while also streamlining, automating, and improving processes as a whole.
- The most essential thing to remember is to make sure you design and implement an onboarding process document checklist to guarantee that all new hires receive a welcome package with the necessary documentation.
Onboarding Document Template
Let’s wrap up by talking about how crucial it is to use an onboarding document process to ensure that your welcome kits have all the necessary information. This will serve as a roadmap for new hires and speed up their integration into your business and responsibilities.
Your new recruit onboarding document process should include the following details in addition to the documents we’ve already covered:
- Orientation for new employees
- Introduction to the principles, mission, and culture of the firm
- Employee’s job description
- Check-in dates
- Goals
- Training
- Meetings with coworkers or managers
You may refer to the parts of this post described above to establish a faultless onboarding document process, and make sure that each document we suggested is included in the playlist for onboarding documents. This strategy will guarantee that every single crucial onboarding process document is easily accessible anytime you want to welcome a new employee into your company.
Crove; The best document automation software for creating onboarding process documents!.
Crove is a smart document automation software that consists of various utilities that will help you in the best way to create flawless onboarding documents for your organization. Crove’s strong software contains A.I powered innovations to get you the most out of your documentation requirements. By using it, you can effortlessly improve your document processing times and ensure that every legal or non-legal paper is made in the perfect way.
Also, at Crove, you can choose from several onboarding documents that we have made to help you out with your documentation requirements. By using the smart templates of Crove, you choose excellence and clarity in your onboarding process documents.