How to plan employee onboarding
About two months from signed contract to the 30-day review: fifteen activities for HR, IT, the manager and the new hire, with four milestones. The three views below show the same plan and stay in step.
Timeline: what has to be ready before the first day
One row per activity, grouped by who does it.
First day is a fixed milestone, drawn as an outline diamond: the start date is in the contract and does not move with the work. Everything before it is preparation. IT cannot set up the laptop until Create accounts and access is done, and HR's Day-one readiness check waits for the laptop and the welcome email. That leaves one work day, the Friday of Ready for day one, before the new hire arrives.
Drag Create accounts and access a week later. The laptop, the readiness check, Hand over laptop and access and everything after it move five work days. First day, the welcome lunch and the HR introduction stay where they are: the new hire arrives on time and waits a week for a working laptop. Tidigar shows no warning, so compare the handover with the first day yourself.
First week: the list for day one
The same plan filtered to the First week phase, with the day, who does it and the status.
Send it with the welcome email or walk through it on the first morning. The filter hides the preparation but keeps its dependencies: when the handover moves, its date in this list moves too.
Flowchart: where the work changes hands
Lanes show who does the work; arrows cross between them at each handoff. A diamond marks where work splits, and every branch runs.
The signed contract releases work in two lanes at once: IT orders the equipment and creates the accounts, and the manager plans the first week and picks a buddy. They meet again at HR's readiness check. On the first day the work splits again, between IT's handover and the manager's welcome, and the First-week check-in waits for both branches before the first project starts. Access working follows Security training: the training is where the new hire first signs in to the company's tools.
Make it yours
- Choose Open in Tidigar under any view to get your own copy, dated from this week. It is free, needs no account and stays on your device.
- Drag First day to the agreed start date. The first-week work follows it; the preparation does not, so check that it still ends before.
- Rename the values of Who to your teams and add the activities your role needs, such as a desk, a phone number or an access card.
- Share → Send a copy gives the manager or the new hire an independent snapshot that your later changes do not reach.
Frequently asked questions
When should onboarding start? As soon as the contract is signed. Here IT has about three weeks for equipment and accounts.
What belongs in the first week? Equipment and access on day one, a welcome, the required training, one small task and a check-in.
Can I assign the activities to real people? In your own copy, Who is a category: renaming IT to a person does not assign or notify anyone. In a plan stored in Tidigar Business (paid), each activity can be assigned to a member of your organisation, with its history; see Assignments and history.