How to write an onboarding plan for a new starter's first weeks

Someone's starting in a couple of weeks and you've realised there's no actual plan, just a folder of documents someone made years ago and a vague memory of what you did for the last person. That's fine, and it's a very common place to be. The good news is a proper onboarding plan isn't complicated, it just needs to be a sequence with names attached to it, not a pile of stuff dumped on day one.

That's really the whole trick. Not more content, just better pacing, and someone responsible for each bit.

Induction or onboarding: what you are planning

People argue about the difference, but ACAS actually treats them as the same thing: "An induction is the process of welcoming someone to an organisation or role. It's sometimes called 'onboarding'." In practice, though, most workplaces use "induction" for the first few days, the admin and welcome bit, and "onboarding" for the whole settling-in stretch, which might run to three months or beyond. You don't need to resolve this argument. Just know what you mean when you use either word, and make sure your new starter does too.

Worth knowing as well: there's no legal requirement to have an induction at all. So nobody's going to fine you for winging it. But winging it is how a new starter ends up in month two feeling like nobody had a plan for them. Which, let's be honest, nobody had.

One more thing before we get into the structure. As ACAS puts it, "An induction is not the same thing as a probation period. But the two things might happen at the same time." Keep them mentally separate even when they run alongside each other. More on that later.

Before day one

This is the bit that gets skipped most often. ACAS is clear: "You should send the new worker important information before their first day." That's not just being nice, it's removing a whole category of first-morning panic.

So: confirm the start time, the place, and who's meeting them. Send something practical, not a novel, just enough to know what to expect and where to go. A short welcome pack works better than a link dump. Get their equipment and log-ins sorted before they arrive, not scrambled together while they sit there with nothing to do. Tell the team someone's starting (sounds obvious, isn't always done). And pick a buddy now, not on day three when you suddenly remember.

Keep the reading light at this stage. You're setting the scene, not testing them.

Day one

Welcome them properly. Do the essential admin, the health and safety basics, make sure they can actually get into the building and the systems they need. Introduce them to you and to their buddy. Give them one small real task, something that feels like actual work, not a "watch this video" exercise.

What you don't do is dump everything on them at once. ACAS says it plainly: "Avoid giving too much information on the first day." There's a reason for that, and it's not just kindness, it's that nobody retains a folder of policies read cold on a Monday morning.

One thing on day one isn't optional: "The employer must provide the principal statement on the first day of employment", so have the written statement ready even if everything else feels flexible. There's a separate guide to what it must include.

Week one

Now they meet the wider team, the people they'll actually need, not just the org chart names. Explain how the role fits into what the team's trying to do, because context matters more than most managers think it does. Give them their first proper piece of work, with support close by, and check in daily. Short is fine. You're not doing a performance review, you're just asking "how's it going, anything unclear?"

This is also where the buddy earns their keep. Someone the new starter can ask the small, slightly embarrassing questions to without feeling like they're bothering the boss.

The first month

By now you want objectives written down, agreed between you both, not just implied. Job-specific training happens here, shadowing too, if that's relevant to the role. And this is the point to introduce the policies that actually matter to them: absence, expenses, IT use, data protection, whatever applies. Not as a document dump, in context, when it's relevant to something they're actually doing.

Keep the one-to-ones weekly through this stretch. It's not forever, just enough to catch problems before they compound.

ACAS frames the whole point of an induction plan as a way to "spread out activities so the worker is not overwhelmed". Month one is where that principle gets tested the hardest, because there's a temptation to think "right, they've settled in, let's give them everything now." Resist that.

Months two and three

Independence increases. They're doing more of the role unsupervised, which is the whole point, but you still check in on how it's actually going, not just assume it's fine because nobody's complained.

If there's a probation period running alongside this (our probation guide covers the law), keep it conceptually separate from the induction itself, even though the timing often overlaps. And whatever the outcome of that probation review, it should be no surprise to them. If it is a surprise, that's a failure of the check-ins along the way, not a sudden discovery about their performance.

Who owns what

This is the bit that turns a plan into an actual plan, rather than a nice idea nobody's responsible for.

The manager owns the role itself: objectives, feedback, the actual reviews. The people team owns admin, contracts, policies, and probably the template you're using right now. The buddy owns the everyday stuff, the questions too small to bring to a manager, the introductions. IT and facilities own the kit and the access, ideally sorted before anyone needs it rather than scrambled after. And the starter themselves owns something too: asking questions, keeping notes, saying clearly what's unclear.

That last one matters more than it sounds. A plan works both ways.

Checking understanding and reviewing progress

Here's a thing that trips people up constantly: asking "any questions?" almost never surfaces the actual gaps. People say no even when they're lost, because admitting confusion in week one feels risky. So instead, ask them to explain a process back to you, or do it while you watch. That's where you actually find out what landed and what didn't.

And when the same question comes up more than once, from more than one starter, that's not them being slow. That's your documentation being unclear. Fix the document, not the person.

Build in proper review points too: end of week one, end of month one, somewhere around month three. Ask what's still unclear, what they wish they'd known earlier, what you should change for the next person. That last question is the one that actually improves your process over time.

Remote and hybrid starters

Different logistics, same principle. Kit needs to arrive before day one, obviously, because there's no office IT desk to wander over to. They need somewhere safe and sensible to actually work from. Video introductions matter more than they would in person, because there's no corridor to bump into people in.

Which is exactly the risk: nobody bumps into a remote starter. So you schedule that instead. Deliberate check-ins, deliberate intros, because none of it happens by accident the way it might in an office.

A written who's-who helps too, and a short glossary of internal terms and acronyms nobody thinks to explain because everyone else already knows them.

A one-page template to copy

Keep the whole plan to one page. Dates down one side, owners down the other, reused for every new starter rather than rebuilt from scratch each time.

Before day one: start time, place, and greeter confirmed; welcome pack sent; kit and log-ins ready; team told; buddy assigned
Day one: welcome, essential admin, access working, one small task, meet manager and buddy
Week one: meet the team, first proper task with support, short daily check-ins
Month one: objectives in writing, job-specific training, relevant policies in context, weekly one-to-ones
Months two to three: increasing independence, progress review, probation outcome no surprise
Owners noted against every item, always

That's it, really. Not complicated. Just paced properly, and written down somewhere you'll actually look again.