Checklist for Hiring New Employees

After you’ve gone through the first five steps of the hiring process, which we detailed in How To: Hire an Employee, and you and your new employee(s) have signed an agreement, you’ll need to prepare for their first day on the job. There are a lot of administrative tasks associated with hiring a new employee, some of which will require you to make HR decisions and/or alter your service or insurance plans.To make sure you’re not missing any important factors, follow this handy checklist when preparing for the arrival of new employees.

Workspace:

• Decide where your new employee will be sitting and arrange the office accordingly.
• You may need to consider placement of other employees that person or persons will be working with.
• Order a desk, chair and office supplies (if you don’t already have a workstation set up).
• Give your new employee(s) the passcode or key to get in to office/ building (if applicable).

Phone:

• Order a phone or add their number to your company plan.
• Set up phone line & extension.
• You may need to consider how adding lines/extensions will affect your phone plan. For more information, see How To: Set Up a Business Phone System.

Computer:

• Order a computer.
• You’ll need to consider how many computers and which type you need. For help with this step, see How To: Select the Best Small Business Computer.
• Set up computer so that it is ready to use when employee starts (both hardware and software).
• You can usually have an IT person handle this.
• Set up the employee’s email address.
• If your company consisted of just you before you made the new hire, you may have been using a personal email address for business correspondence. It may now be time for you to Set Up Business Email Accounts.

Employment Documents:

Have your new employee(s) fill out the necessary documents for employment, payroll, and tax withholding before or on their start date.

• Employee Agreement Form
• Your new employee should have already signed an Employment Agreement before they started working. Consult with your attorney when drafting your company’s Employment Agreement, or use a service like LegalZoom, which provides online employment forms.
• Tax Forms
• Form W-4 to report how much in taxes to withhold from their checks 
• Form W-9 to provide taxpayer ID number and certification 
• Form I-9 to show that the employee is eligible to work
• You’ll need to make copies of the employee’s driver’s license and Social Security card, or a copy of their passport.  These things are usually kept in the employee’s permanent personnel file and do not need to be sent anywhere.  
• Direct Deposit Form
• You can easily get direct deposit forms from your bank or simply use a template like this: Direct Deposit Authorization.

Benefits Documents:

You may or may not need these, depending on whether you offer benefits or not.

• Health Insurance Forms
• Get these from your health insurance provider or insurance broker. Talk to your health insurance provider or insurance broker about how adding an employee will affect your plan. See How To: Get Group Health Insurance.
• 401(k) Forms
• Get these from your financial services provider.

Introduction to the Company:

Introduce your new employee to your company policies as well as to your other employees.

• Give your employee a company policies manual and/or operations manual (if you have them).
• Write or update company titles, roles, responsibilities and distribute to all employees.
• Usually your existing employees will want to know how adding a new person will affect their own responsibilities.
• Introduce the new employee(s) to the rest of the team (if applicable).
• Celebrate your new hire with a company lunch or happy hour!