HR Guide to Employee Onboarding Documents and Checklists

The ability to efficiently onboard employees is critical for setting up your new hires (and your organisation) for success. A well-organised onboarding process boosts employee productivity and is also essential for ensuring compliance with HR regulations.  

However, many UK companies still rely on manual processes for employee onboarding, causing delays, errors and inefficiencies. For new starters and their managers, this means more time spent ramping up and getting on with the job.  

HR teams need a clear playbook to follow for new hires to avoid these inefficiencies and improve the employee experience. Below, you’ll find a complete checklist for employee onboarding to make the process as smooth as possible. Add in a platform like DocuWare, and businesses can streamline onboarding through web forms, automation and secure and efficient document management.

• Why Onboarding Documents Matter for New Employees
• New Employee Onboarding Document Checklist
• Benefits of Using a DMS for New Hire Onboarding Documents and Forms
• Streamline New Employee Onboarding with a DMS Solution

Why Onboarding Documents Matter for New Employees 

Thorough and compliant documentation is absolutely critical to any HR function and it’s particularly important during the onboarding process. Onboarding documents make sure your organisation stays fully compliant (and has an audit trail to prove it), and that new starts are set up for success in their role and the organisation at large. 

Compliance and Legal Risk 

Complete and accurate documentation helps companies comply properly with employment law. This is more than just a check-the-box exercise—when a dispute arises, clear documentation can be the difference between compliance and costly legal action. For example, in the UK, right-to-work checks and completed tax forms are a requirement for the onboarding process. Requirements for onboarding are covered under multiple regulations, such as the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, the Employment Rights Act 1996, and the Pensions Act 2008. 

Consistency and Transparency 

Every employee should have the same introduction to the company, its policies and culture. This ensures there are no surprises and expectations are made clear from the beginning. Having new hires sign off on training in these areas also provides HR with an audit trail should confusion or disagreements arise down the line. 

Employee Engagement and Retention 

Recruitment is an expensive process. So, once you’ve got an offer accepted and a contract signed, it’s important that the experience remains positive. A negative onboarding experience can mean the difference between someone who is excited to be part of the organisation or one who immediately looks elsewhere. In a competitive hiring environment, poor onboarding can be a costly mistake, and studies show that strong onboarding processes can improve retention by up to 82%. 

New Employee Onboarding Document Checklist 

So, what should you include within your onboarding process and in which order? Here’s an employee onboarding document checklist to make sure HR has everything it needs and new employees are set up for success. 

Essential documents for HR compliance 

First things first: Which documents are absolutely necessary to obtain for compliance purposes? In the UK, you will need:  

• Signed employment contract detailing the terms of employment 

• Documented right-to-work checks to verify the employee’s eligibility to work in the UK 

• Tax forms such as P45 or Starter Checklist (P46) for accurate and compliant payroll setup 

• Bank details to complete payroll setup 

• Emergency contact information 

Optional items can include: 

• Non-disclosure agreements  

• Health and safety training records (this may be a compliance requirement depending on the industry and role) 

Company policies and code of conduct 

It’s important to introduce new hires to the history, culture and policies of the organisation they have joined. You can’t expect someone to follow the rules if they don’t know them. By including this information in your onboarding checklist, it also ensures you have sign-off from employees that they understand policies and workplace rules from the start. 

This part of the checklist should include: 

• Employee handbook covering culture values, workplace rules, policies regarding leave and any other relevant information 

• Anti-harassment and equal opportunities policies 

• IT and social media usage guidelines, including data security protocols 

Employee benefits and enrolment forms 

Here is where you make sure the employee fills out all the information required for: 

• Pension enrollment 

• Health insurance and any other benefits 

• Agreement on any flexible working arrangements 

Equipment and access forms  

One of the most important items for making sure employees can get started in their role as soon as possible is system access. This can include:  

• Hardware such as computers, headsets and other equipment 

• System credentials and login information 

• ID cards or any other building access 

For this part of the checklist, close collaboration with the IT department is often required to minimise delays. 

Role-specific training materials and guidelines 

Here is where your checklist may diverge by team or function, depending on the role. More complex organisations or those with higher levels of turnover may have multiple onboarding checklists that cover specifics for different functions or teams.  

But it’s a critical component of good onboarding. Research shows that providing thorough onboarding for employees reduces their time-to-proficiency by up to 34%. 

Lots of training will be done on the job with other team members. But HR can still play a critical role by providing basic onboarding training for departments and roles, such as:  

• Detailed job description and clear outlines of responsibilities 

• Training manuals or online courses 

• Expectations on performance and key objectives 

Benefits of Using a DMS for New Hire Onboarding Documents and Forms 

A Document Management System (DMS) transforms the way HR managers onboard employees from a manual, paper-heavy process to an automated, streamlined workflow manager. 

Enhanced efficiency and time savings for HR teams 

Manual processes, even when documents are somewhat digitised, are extremely time consuming. They leave new hires confused about what to sign and look through, and HR chasing down documents and signatures. Without a dedicated task manager throughout the onboarding checklist, signatures can slip through the cracks. It’s also easy for documents to get lost in the shuffle and it's not an ideal onboarding scenario for new employees. 

With document management software, you can: 

• Send onboarding forms for new hires via secure web links 

• Automatically route completed documents to the right person or place 

• Set up automated reminders for missing or incomplete paperwork for new employees 

Improved data security and confidentiality 

HR handles extremely sensitive and personal information, especially during the onboarding process. There are strict regulations in place to make sure this data is handled and stored correctly. But many traditional systems are still not set up to close the gaps around processes and make sure this documentation is stored and accessed the way it should be. 

With a DMS like DocuWare, security is ensured through: 

• Encryption of all documents 

• Role-based access controls 

• Automated backups to prevent data loss 

Quick and easy access to employee documents 

Processing files is one thing, but when HR needs to dig into files and retrieve information, holes in their existing system become abundantly clear. Not only is it extremely time consuming, but it can leave the company open to serious compliance risks. 

A DMS resolves this issue through robust file management by storing and indexing documents clearly, making them easy to retrieve at the click of a button. Let’s say an employee needs their P45 form months after onboarding for tax purposes. With a DMS, HR can locate and share this in seconds without sifting through paper documents or scrolling through a disorganised sharepoint. 

Compliance tracking and document audit trails 

A DMS can track every interaction with a document, from who has accessed it to edits and approvals. Audit trails like this are invaluable for the ability to conduct audits faster and clearly demonstrate compliance adherence.   

This can be anything from right-to-work checks for external bodies to timestamped records on documents during employee disputes. 

Seamless integration with payroll and HR systems 

There are more platforms and tools at our disposal than ever. As the workplace has been increasingly digitised, a new challenge has emerged. Disparate systems that do not connect well with each other can create bottlenecks and make activities like reporting difficult.  

But with DocuWare’s DMS, you can easily integrate your document management with other critical HR software such as payroll systems and your HRIS, as well as email and Microsoft Teams integration. These integrations ensure notifications are not missed and your existing HR tech stack works more seamlessly.  

Streamline New Employee Onboarding with a DMS Solution 

A Document Management System transforms the onboarding process. It ensures every stage of onboarding runs smoothly and efficiently. Before a new hire’s start date, HR can send automated welcome packages that include contracts, policies and secure web forms. Reminders for key paperwork and signatures are easily sent, and makes sure employees are set up for success from day one. 

See how DocuWare’s employee management solution leverages features like workflow automation, secure web forms and centralised document storage to transform your onboarding into a compliant, efficient process for everyone involved.