Remote employee onboarding checklist: the parts an office does for you
Table of Contents
In an office, a lot of onboarding happens by accident. The new person overhears how decisions get made, sees who people go to with questions, and borrows a charger from the desk next door. Remote, none of that happens unless someone plans it.
This checklist covers the remote-specific layer only: the things an office would have handled through proximity. Your normal hiring paperwork, payroll setup and benefits enrolment still apply; they just aren’t the subject here.
Two weeks before day one
Most remote onboarding failures are logistics failures. The laptop arrives on day three, the login doesn’t work, and the first week is spent waiting.
Ship the kit early. Send the laptop, any monitor or headset you provide, and a short printed note on what’s in the box. Ask for a delivery confirmation and a photo of the setup if they’re happy to share one. Build in time for customs if the person is in another country.
Decide the identity check route. If you hire in the US, Form I-9 normally means someone examines the documents. Employers enrolled in E-Verify and in good standing can use the optional alternative procedure from USCIS: the employee sends copies of the documents, then shows the same documents on a live video call, and you keep clear copies. If you aren’t in E-Verify, someone has to see the original documents in person, which can be an authorised representative you designate near the new hire. In the UK, GOV.UK explains the options: an online check with a share code, a check of original documents, or an identity service provider using document validation technology. British and Irish citizens can’t get a share code, so for them it’s original documents or an identity service provider. Sort this before the start date, not on it.
Create accounts, but don’t send passwords by email. Set up email, chat, the project tool and the password manager. Turn on multi-factor authentication from the first login. Agree how temporary credentials reach the person (a phone call or a separate channel works).
Pick a buddy. Not the manager. Someone at a similar level, ideally with a few working hours of overlap, whose job for the first month includes “answer the questions they feel silly asking”.
The written first week
The single most useful thing you can give a remote starter is a written plan for their first five days. It removes the “am I supposed to be doing something?” feeling that fills the gaps between video calls.
Keep it short and specific. Each day should have one or two scheduled calls, some reading, and one small task that produces something real.
| Day | Calls | Reading | Small task |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Welcome call with manager (30 min), buddy intro (20 min) | Team handbook, communication norms | Post an intro in the team channel |
| 2 | Tool walkthrough with buddy | Last two months of team updates | Fix one typo or gap in the handbook |
| 3 | Meet two people from neighbouring teams | Current quarter’s goals | Write three questions about the goals |
| 4 | Shadow a regular team meeting | Recent decision records | Draft a first-week summary |
| 5 | End-of-week check-in with manager | None | Agree the 30-day goals in writing |
The “fix one gap in the handbook” task does two jobs. It gets the starter making a change on day two, and new people are the best detectors of missing documentation you’ll ever have.
Communication norms, spelled out
People in offices learn norms by watching. Remote starters need them written down, because otherwise they’ll guess, and new people tend to guess towards “always available”.
Cover these explicitly:
- Which channel is for what. Chat for quick questions, the project tool for work status, documents for decisions.
- Response times. What counts as a normal reply time for chat, email and mentions. Say plainly that an instant reply is not expected unless something is labelled urgent.
- Working hours and calendar. Ask them to set their working hours in their calendar. Google Calendar supports this on work accounts if your admin has it switched on, and most calendar tools have an equivalent.
- Camera and meeting expectations. If cameras are optional in some meetings, say which.
- How to ask for help. A named channel or a named person, and an explicit statement that asking is expected.
Health and safety at the home desk
Home workers still need the employer to think about their setup. In Great Britain, HSE guidance says employers have the same health and safety responsibilities for home workers as for anyone else, and that your risk assessment should cover them. The same guidance says you won’t usually need to visit their home. A short self-assessment form in week one, covering screen, chair, desk height and lighting, plus a budget or kit list to fix the gaps, is a proportionate starting point. Other countries have their own rules, so check what applies where your people live.
The 30-day review
At the end of the first month, have a proper conversation rather than a box-ticking one. Three questions get most of the value:
- What did you expect to be different from how it actually is?
- What did you have to work out on your own that should have been written down?
- Who do you still not know that you should?
Feed answer two straight back into the handbook. That’s how the checklist gets better each time, rather than drifting out of date.
Common gaps
A few things that tend to get missed with remote starters:
- Time zone mismatch on the first day. The welcome call is scheduled for 9am in the manager’s time zone, which is 6am for the starter. Check before you send the invite.
- No social context. A remote starter sees people only in meetings, which are a narrow slice of who they are. A couple of unstructured 20-minute chats in week one help.
- Silent struggling. New remote hires often don’t want to admit they’re stuck. Daily short check-ins in week one, tapering to weekly, give them a natural moment to say so.
- Kit that doesn’t fit. A laptop alone isn’t a workstation. Ask about the rest of the setup before day one rather than after a month of hunching.
The checklist, ready to paste
Not legal advice: identity and right-to-work rules vary by country and change, so check the official guidance for wherever you hire.
REMOTE ONBOARDING CHECKLIST: [Name], starting [date], time zone [TZ]
T-14 DAYS
[ ] Kit ordered and shipped (laptop, headset, monitor if provided); tracking sent
[ ] Identity / right-to-work route agreed and booked
[ ] Accounts created: email, chat, project tool, docs, password manager
[ ] MFA required at first login; credentials sent via separate channel
[ ] Buddy chosen and briefed (overlap hours: ____)
[ ] First-week plan written and shared
DAY 1
[ ] Welcome call scheduled in the starter's working hours
[ ] Kit works, all logins tested on a call
[ ] Communication norms doc shared (channels, response times, urgent route)
[ ] Working hours set in calendar
[ ] Intro posted in team channel
WEEK 1
[ ] Daily 15-minute check-in with manager
[ ] Home workstation self-assessment completed; gaps budgeted
[ ] Met two people outside the immediate team
[ ] One handbook gap fixed by the starter
[ ] 30-day goals agreed in writing
DAY 30
[ ] Review: expectations vs reality
[ ] Review: what should have been written down (add to handbook)
[ ] Review: who they still need to meet
[ ] Check-ins moved to normal 1:1 cadence