Onboard a new starter
Your own checklist, gone through together and signed, the new starter pack and their details form.
What this is for
When someone starts, go through your own onboarding checklist with them on a phone or tablet, tick each item as it's shown, and both sign at the end. They also get your new starter pack to open and confirm, and fill in their own contact details and emergency contact. The signed record stays on their staff file.
What is on this screen
Each part of the screen above, top to bottom, and what changing it affects.
Onboarding page
- New starter pack · Start onboarding
- Manage the files every new starter gets, or start onboarding for someone: who, which checklist (the one for their department is picked first) and a finish-by date, a week after they start unless you change it.
- In progress · Overdue · New starters to start · Signed
- Onboardings open, ones past their finish-by date, people who joined after you set up your first checklist and have no onboarding yet, and signed ones kept on file.
- New starters to onboard
- Each new starter with no onboarding yet, and Start beside them. HR is also told in Sign OS when someone new joins.
- In progress
- Each onboarding: the person, the checklist, the finish-by date, whether their details are in, how much of the pack they've confirmed, a progress bar, and In progress, Overdue, Signed or Cancelled.
- Checklists · New checklist
- Your checklists with how many items, how many are compulsory, and the version. Open one to change it.
- New starter pack · Manage
- The files in the pack now.
Writing a checklist
- Name · Suggest it for
- What you call it, and which departments it suits, so the right one is picked for office or workshop staff.
- Sections and items
- A heading for each section and an item for each thing to show or hand over. Move them up and down, add and remove them.
- Compulsory · Can be N/A
- Compulsory items must be answered before anyone signs. N/A is only offered on items that allow it.
- Save checklist · Stop using it
- Every save is a new version; onboardings already started keep the version they began with. Stop using it takes it off the list without touching records.
- Guide
- Topics onboarding checklists usually cover, such as first aid, fire, evacuation, PPE and hazardous substances. Topics to think about, not items to copy.
New starter pack
- Add a file
- A name, the file (PDF, Word or a photo, up to 20 MB), a note, and Only for if it's just for one kind of employee, such as casuals.
- In the pack · Taken out
- Each file with who it's for and how many people have confirmed it. Take it out stops new starters getting it; Put it back returns it.
- Guide
- The documents employers have to give new staff, such as the Fair Work Information Statement and, for casuals, the Casual Employment Information Statement. Download them fresh from the source; Sign OS doesn't supply them.
One onboarding
- Their details form · New starter pack
- HR sees when the new starter filled in their details and which pack files they've confirmed, with the date.
- Checklist
- Each item with Yes, and N/A where allowed. Tap again to undo. Each tick shows who did it and when. Compulsory items are marked.
- Signatures
- The new starter signs (on their own phone, or on yours: it records whose login they signed on) and the person running it signs with their name. Nobody can sign until every compulsory item is done, and once anyone signs the ticks are fixed.
- Print or save as PDF
- Once both have signed, prints the record: every item, who ticked it and when, and both signatures.
- Finish by · Cancel this onboarding
- Change the finish-by date, or cancel it for someone who didn't start after all. Cancelled ones are kept.
Your onboarding (the new starter)
- 1. Your details
- Mobile, home address, date of birth and who to call in an emergency, saved onto your staff file. Your start date, how you're employed and your position are shown for you to check. It doesn't ask for bank, tax file number or super: those go to whoever does the pays.
- 2. Your new starter pack
- Open each file, then I've got it records that you received it and when.
- 3. Your onboarding checklist
- Where it's up to, and the link to go through it and sign.
Before you start
- Your shop has the HR add-on. HR people who can make changes set up checklists and the pack and start onboardings.
- Sign OS doesn't supply the checklist or the documents. You write your own items and upload your own files, with a guide beside each.
Step by step
- 1
Open HR & Safety → Onboarding and press New checklist. Write your own items in sections, using the guide beside it, mark the compulsory ones and save.
- 2
Press New starter pack and upload the files every new starter gets, such as the Fair Work Information Statement and your handbook.
- 3
When someone starts, press Start onboarding (or Start beside them, or on their staff file's Onboarding tab), pick the checklist and a finish-by date.
- 4
They're told in Sign OS and by email. On their phone they fill in their details and open and confirm each pack file.
- 5
Open their onboarding on a phone or tablet and go through the checklist together, ticking Yes or N/A as you go.
- 6
When the compulsory items are done, they sign and you sign. The signed record is on their staff file; press Print or save as PDF for a copy.
Tips & gotchas
- Sign OS doesn't write your checklist or supply the documents you give new staff, and isn't legal advice. Check with the Fair Work Ombudsman or your adviser.
- Bank, tax file number and super details stay in your payroll system, not Sign OS.
- If an onboarding goes past its finish-by date, HR and whoever started it are told once.
- A file added to the pack later goes to anyone still being onboarded, not to people who've already finished.