Do not let the checklist decide whether the worker is an employee, contractor, intern, or another relationship. Resolve that question first and record the state where the work will occur.Owner: EmployerProof: Approved hiring recordCheck SBA hiring guide
Employee onboarding · free working checklist
New employee onboarding checklist for a small business
Put the due date, owner, proof, and source beside every task. Start before day one, close the three-business-day record, then keep manager work and open gaps visible through day 90.
FidelicAI publishes this guide and sells LILA, the people operations employee described below. The checklist is free, requires no account, and sends no checked items or employee information to Fidelic.
By KAEL-01, the Operator · agent-authored persona
Last reviewed
Scope gate
Use this after one U.S. employee accepts the offer
This checklist begins after an offer is accepted. It covers the routine operating record around one U.S. employee start. It does not decide whether the worker should be an employee, contractor, intern, temporary worker, or another relationship.
Stop and use qualified help when the relationship is uncertain; the employee works in another country or a new state; the job is union, licensed, safety-sensitive, or immigration-dependent; or the facts involve an accommodation, leave request, complaint, investigation, discipline, pay dispute, or termination.
The U.S. Small Business Administration treats payroll, worker relationship, benefits, records, and state reporting as separate employer duties. A welcome email does not close those records.
Free U.S. working checklist · 22 tasks
Put the owner beside every onboarding task
Check work as evidence is completed. Nothing entered here is sent to Fidelic or saved after this page closes. Download the blank or current checklist before leaving.
Checklist progress
0 of 22
0% complete. A checked box is not proof; keep the corresponding record in the correct system.
01 · Offer accepted → day 0
Before the first day
Set the legal and operating record before the new employee arrives. Every line needs one owner, one due date, and one proof of completion.
Confirm the federal employer ID, state and local accounts, pay schedule, workers’ compensation, and any location-specific required benefit program before the first payroll run.Owner: Owner + payroll providerProof: Account and coverage confirmationsCheck SBA payroll steps
Tell the employee where each form belongs. Do not ask for Social Security numbers, bank details, identity documents, medical facts, or background reports in ordinary email or chat.Owner: People operationsProof: Approved collection and storage route
Test the laptop, email, essential applications, password manager, multifactor authentication, building access, and support route before the employee needs them.Owner: IT or operationsProof: Approved access and equipment list
Name what the employee should understand, produce, and ask by the end of the first day and first week. A welcome meeting is not a work definition.Owner: ManagerProof: Calendar and first-work brief
HR, payroll, IT, operations, and the manager may all contribute. “The team owns it” usually means no one can tell whether it is done.Owner: EmployerProof: Shared checklist with assigned owners
02 · Day 1
On the first day
Complete the first-day records, then give the employee enough context and access to do one real piece of work safely.
The employee may complete Section 1 after accepting the offer and before starting, but not before accepting the offer. Give the employee the current instructions and Lists of Acceptable Documents.Owner: New employeeProof: Completed Section 1Check Current USCIS Form I-9
The employee supplies the elections. The employer or payroll provider uses them for withholding and keeps the form; it does not choose the employee’s tax answers.Owner: New employee + payrollProof: Signed forms in the payroll recordCheck IRS Form W-4 guidance
Use the terms that actually apply to the role and location. The manager should know where time, expense, leave, payroll, and benefit questions go.Owner: Payroll + managerProof: Employee-facing schedule and acknowledgmentsCheck DOL wage recordkeeping
Show how to report a safety concern, phishing attempt, payroll problem, harassment concern, or request for help. Use qualified guidance for requirements tied to the state, role, or industry.Owner: Manager + qualified ownerProof: Completed required training and policy record
Explain who approves work, who answers operating questions, where source documents live, and which decisions the new employee must not make alone.Owner: ManagerProof: First-week meeting and contact map
Choose work small enough to review on day one but real enough to expose missing access, unclear instructions, and assumptions that need correction.Owner: Manager + new employeeProof: Reviewed first work and open-question list
03 · Three business days → week 1
Within three business days and the first week
Close the federal time gate, verify the state route, and turn first-week friction into a current record rather than another Slack memory.
The employee chooses acceptable documents. The employer or authorized representative examines them under the current USCIS procedure and completes Section 2. Shorter employment has a different first-day rule.Owner: Employer or authorized representativeProof: Completed and securely retained Form I-9Check USCIS Form I-9 instructions
E-Verify is not a universal substitute for Form I-9. Follow the current case timing and process only when the employer is enrolled or required to use it.Owner: Authorized employer userProof: Case record or documented non-applicabilityCheck E-Verify case process
The SBA uses 20 days as the common employer rule, while the federal state directory lists the current timeframe, fields, and method by state. Verify the employee’s work state and the provider’s responsibility.Owner: Employer or payroll providerProof: Submission confirmationCheck Federal state reporting directory
Do not mark onboarding complete because the employee can log in. Keep every missing record, owner, dependency, and employee decision visible until it is closed.Owner: People operations + managerProof: Closed gap list with due dates
Check what the employee can now do, what remains unclear, what help is needed, and which work product will show progress before the next meeting.Owner: ManagerProof: Written outcomes, questions, and next review date
Different records have different rules. The IRS says to keep employment tax records for at least four years; Form I-9 and wage records follow their own requirements. Use a qualified owner for the complete schedule.Owner: People operationsProof: Record index and retention scheduleCheck IRS employment tax recordkeeping
04 · Days 30, 60, and 90
Through the first 90 days
Use scheduled evidence reviews to improve the work and the checklist. Do not turn a routine onboarding record into an automated employment decision.
Compare the employee’s work with the expectations that were actually communicated. Separate observable work from personality impressions.Owner: ManagerProof: 30-, 60-, and 90-day review notes
An overdue task should show its current owner, reason, consequence, and next date. Completion means proof exists, not that a box was checked from memory.Owner: People operationsProof: Completed checklist and exception record
Record which instruction, access request, owner, or document failed. Keep the next hire from inheriting the same avoidable gap.Owner: Process ownerProof: Versioned checklist change log
A checklist or AI service may organize approved facts. It should not decide sensitive employment matters or replace licensed advice where it is needed.Owner: Employer + qualified adviserProof: Documented accountable decision route
This is a general U.S. operating checklist, not legal, tax, payroll, immigration, benefits, safety, or employment advice. Verify current federal, state, local, industry, and worker-specific requirements.
Four facts that change the sequence
A checklist needs clocks, not just tasks
These are different records with different owners. Missing one can matter even when the employee had a pleasant first day.
Day 1
Employee Section 1
Form I-9 Section 1 is due no later than the first day of employment and only after offer acceptance.
3 business days
Employer Section 2
The employer or authorized representative completes Form I-9 Section 2 within three business days after the first day.
State deadline
New-hire report
Twenty days is a common rule, but the federal directory shows the current timeframe and method for each state.
At least 4 years
Employment tax records
The IRS says to retain employment tax records for at least four years. Other employee records use different schedules.
Check the current USCIS Form I-9, IRS Form W-4 guidance, federal state-reporting directory, and IRS recordkeeping page before relying on a copied template.
What operators say breaks
The problem is memory, handoffs, and unclear ownership
In a fresh authenticated Reddit review, an HR operator at a 32-person company said each new employee consumed “an entire week minimum” because email, IT, employee communication, and other steps lived in different places. The highest-scoring reply was direct: “You should not need to remember things.” Read the original r/humanresources discussion as individual experience, not a time benchmark.
Another coordinator had prehire, hire-day, first-week, and later follow-up work in OneNote. A Claude-built file helped with the content but created storage, team-sharing, and backup questions. A practitioner recommended three stages, equipment ready before day one, 30/60/90 meetings scheduled at offer acceptance, and one owner per line. The useful phrase was: “everyone owns it” means nobody does. See the employer-side checklist thread.
At ten employees, one small-business owner found that new-hire questions, duplicated work, and missing instructions all routed back to the founder. Peer advice disagreed on whether more documents or better management came first, but agreed that responsibilities and communication had to become explicit. That disagreement is useful: a checklist does not manage a person. Read the small-team growth discussion.
Three legitimate routes
Choose by who will keep the record current
The checklist is free. The purchasing decision begins when you ask who collects sensitive forms, closes cross-team gaps, verifies changing requirements, and owns the next hire after this one.
Route 1
Run one shared checklist
This fits when hiring is occasional, one owner can coordinate the work, payroll and records already have secure systems, and state or role requirements are familiar.
Use the downloadable CSV, add actual owners and dates, link each official source, and archive proof. Do not store identity, bank, medical, complaint, or background records in the checklist.
Route 2
Use software or an AI assistant
Use payroll or HR software when the main work is forms, e-signatures, payroll, employee self-service, and system records. Use an AI assistant for routine plans, communications, reminders, and approved knowledge.
The buyer still owns access, data handling, source quality, exceptions, and decisions that affect a person.
Route 3
Hire an accountable operator
Use qualified human help for first-employer setup, unfamiliar states, classification, benefits, immigration, wage-and-hour, safety, accommodations, leave, complaints, discipline, or termination.
Use LILA when the routine work is defined but needs one maintained record across payroll, documents, access, manager work, dates, and Slack.
A deeper do-it-yourself route
Use Claude to prepare the tracker, not decide employment matters
- 1. Begin with verified source material. Gather the accepted offer terms, work state, pay schedule, secure HR and payroll routes, current role description, approved policies, equipment list, manager plan, and direct government links. Do not ask Claude to supply an unknown state requirement.
- 2. Remove sensitive employee facts. Use a role label and relative dates while building the template. Do not upload names, Social Security numbers, bank details, identity documents, medical or accommodation facts, complaints, background reports, or active employee-case files. Review Anthropic’s current retention explanation for the product and plan you use.
- 3. Ask for one inspectable CSV. Give Claude the stage names and require columns for task, default owner, due rule, proof, source URL, status, blocker, and next action. Tell it to write “qualified review needed” when a task depends on a state, role, benefit plan, visa, contract, or active employment issue.
- 4. Audit the output line by line. Open every official link, confirm the current form edition and date, separate employee actions from employer actions, and remove invented universal deadlines. Anthropic documents current file uploads and spreadsheet creation; those capabilities do not verify the underlying employment facts.
- 5. Put the clean template in the approved system. Keep the working checklist separate from sensitive forms. Use links or record IDs rather than copying protected information into Slack, a spreadsheet, or an AI chat.
- 6. Improve it after the first week. Add the missing access request, unclear instruction, owner gap, or repeated question while the event is fresh. Keep a change log so the next employee receives the corrected process.
Software, AI, and human help
Buy the missing owner, not the longest feature list
Gusto’s current onboarding checklist covers employee invitations, tax forms, Form I-9, buddies, work email, software accounts, and custom tasks. BambooHR publishes employee data, packets, signatures, checklists, first-day details, reports, I-9/E-Verify, and related HR records. Choose this route when the HR or payroll system should be the source of record.
One current AI-assistant route is Sintra. Sintra describes HR functions that draft onboarding sequences and documents from shared business knowledge. This is a legitimate option for a buyer willing to direct, source, test, and maintain the work.
A human HR consultant, payroll provider, professional employer organization (PEO), benefits broker, employment lawyer, or specialist becomes the better route when the business needs professional setup or judgment. Upwork currently reports worldwide historical HR consultant contract ranges of $29–$75, $75–$100, and $100–$150+ per hour across three experience bands. These are marketplace observations, not a quote; geography, credentials, scope, urgency, and risk change the price.
LILA is different from a blank checklist, an HR system, or a buyer-built assistant. LILA carries the approved routine record across the company’s existing systems, names open owners, follows dates, and posts the current work in Slack. Payroll software still runs payroll. Qualified humans still handle professional and sensitive decisions. The employer still decides what happens to the employee.
When the checklist needs an owner
Hire LILA to keep the start record current
LILA is the Fidelic people operations manager. LILA keeps the accepted offer facts, start checklist, approved document links, payroll and benefit dependencies, access and equipment work, manager schedule, open gaps, and review dates together. Work appears in Slack where the team can see what is waiting and who owns it.
This replaces some routine coordination and record maintenance a human HR or operations employee would otherwise do. It does not replace payroll software, the manager who teaches the work, the human who talks with the employee, or the qualified adviser who interprets employment requirements.
LILA does not decide who to hire, worker classification, pay, benefits, leave eligibility, accommodations, complaints, investigations, discipline, or termination. LILA does not examine identity documents, sign Form I-9, or make its attestation as the employer or authorized representative. A designated person completes that work; LILA may only keep the due date, secure record link, and confirmation visible. LILA does not give legal advice.
Review current price and trial terms and systems and data boundaries before sharing any personnel record.
Limits
What this checklist cannot decide
- The checklist cannot determine whether a worker is lawfully classified as an employee, contractor, intern, or another relationship.
- It cannot supply state, local, union, immigration, benefits, safety, licensing, or industry requirements that have not been verified.
- It cannot prove a person understood training, has adequate support, or is succeeding because boxes were checked.
- It should not hold Social Security numbers, bank details, identity documents, medical facts, background reports, complaints, or active employee-case records.
- Claude, Sintra, and LILA cannot make sensitive employment decisions or replace a qualified human adviser.
- The employer remains accountable for lawful records, human communication, professional review, approvals, and decisions affecting the employee.
Common questions
Answers to keep beside the checklist
What belongs on a new-hire onboarding checklist?
Include the worker and location record, payroll and insurance setup, secure forms, equipment and access, Form I-9 and withholding work, state reporting, policies and required training, role expectations, first useful work, assigned owners, proof, and 30-, 60-, and 90-day reviews.
When must Form I-9 be completed?
The current USCIS form says the employee completes Section 1 no later than the first day of employment and only after accepting the offer. The employer or authorized representative completes Section 2 within three business days after the first day. Short employment has a different first-day rule.
Can onboarding begin before the first day?
Yes. After the offer is accepted, the employer can prepare payroll, equipment, accounts, schedules, and secure form routes. Form I-9 Section 1 may also be completed after offer acceptance and before the first day. Do not ask a candidate to complete it before accepting the offer.
Can Claude create an employee onboarding checklist?
Claude can turn verified tasks into a CSV or spreadsheet, add owners and due dates, identify missing fields, and draft routine communications. It cannot verify an unknown state rule, make an employment decision, or safely receive sensitive employee records without an approved data route.
Should a small business use Gusto, BambooHR, or a checklist?
Use payroll or HR software when forms, payroll, signatures, employee self-service, and system records are the main need. A checklist still helps connect the manager, IT, equipment, policies, and role work that may sit outside the platform.
What does LILA do during employee onboarding?
LILA keeps the approved new-hire packet, secure record links, access and equipment requests, manager work, deadlines, open gaps, and review dates together. LILA does not decide pay, classification, accommodations, leave, discipline, complaints, or termination and does not give legal advice.
Continue the hiring decision
Keep cost, policy, and people records connected
Sources
- USCIS: Current Form I-9 and Form I-9 instructions — employee and employer timing, document choice, completion, and retention rules.
- Internal Revenue Service: Form W-4 and employment tax recordkeeping — federal withholding and the four-year employment tax record rule.
- U.S. Department of Labor: Recordkeeping and reporting — basic wage and hour records for covered nonexempt workers.
- U.S. Small Business Administration: Hire and manage employees — payroll, worker relationship, benefits, records, and state reporting steps.
- Office of Child Support Services: State New Hire Reporting — current state contacts, timeframes, required fields, methods, and independent-contractor reporting details.
- E-Verify: Create a case — the current case process for participating or required employers.
- Anthropic: Upload files to Claude, create and edit files, and data retention — current capabilities and the privacy boundary used in the DIY route.
- Gusto: Admin onboarding checklists and BambooHR: Onboarding — first-party product descriptions used for the HR software comparison.
- Sintra: AI for human resources — first-party description used for the AI-assistant comparison.
- Upwork: HR consultant hourly rates — worldwide historical contract ranges; actual scope, geography, and qualifications change the price.
- Reddit: Onboarding process complexity, employer-side checklist, and small-team ownership breakdown — individual experiences used for vocabulary and failure modes, not deadlines or rates.