employee onboarding sop

New Hire First-Week Onboarding SOP

A first-week onboarding SOP that gets new hires set up, introduced, and productive with clear owners.

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Example text

New Hire First-Week Onboarding SOP

SOP-HR-001: New Hire First-Week Onboarding

Document owner: People Operations
Effective date: 2026-07-01
Version: 1.0

Purpose

Give every new hire a consistent first week so access, introductions, and role expectations are completed on time.

Scope

Applies to full-time employees joining a corporate or hybrid role. Contractor onboarding follows SOP-HR-003.

Roles

Role Responsibility
Hiring manager Owns role expectations and first projects
People Ops Owns paperwork, access requests, and welcome schedule
Buddy Provides informal guidance and answers day-to-day questions

Procedure

Before day one

  1. People Ops sends the offer packet and collects signed documents.
  2. IT provisions email, SSO, and required tools by 9:00 a.m. day one.
  3. Hiring manager schedules a 30-minute kickoff and assigns a buddy.

Day one

  1. Confirm badge, laptop, and account access.
  2. Complete required policy acknowledgements.
  3. Tour the workspace or virtual tools stack.
  4. Hold the hiring manager kickoff and review week-one goals.

Days two through five

  1. Complete role-specific training modules.
  2. Shadow at least one live workflow with the buddy.
  3. Finish the first scoped starter task.
  4. Hold a Friday check-in covering wins, blockers, and week-two priorities.

Done looks like

Access is working, paperwork is filed, week-one goals are reviewed, and the new hire has a documented plan for week two.