Onboarding a new colleague

Learn how, as an HR admin, you use a checklist for everything you need to arrange around a new colleague's start: the email account, the laptop, the first day and the check-in after a month. That way your new colleague's first weeks feel organised rather than improvised.

Starting an onboarding

You start the onboarding when you add a new colleague:

1. Go to People and click Add people → Add single colleague.
2. Go through the steps. See Adding colleagues to Heartsome.
3. In the last step you'll see Create an onboarding checklist. Leave it ticked.
4. Click Add colleague.

The box is ticked by default if the start date is today or later, and unticked if the start date is in the past. You can change it yourself. Entering a colleague who has worked for you for years? Untick it. Did someone start last week and you're only entering them now? Tick it if there are still things to arrange.

Hiring someone through a vacancy in Heartsome? You go through the same steps, and the box is usually ticked already.

Where do you find the checklist?

Go to People → [name] → Employment. The Onboarding card is at the top, showing for example "2 of 6 done". You can also get there from the action item "Finish [name]'s onboarding" on your Pulse.
The checklist holds your company's steps, such as:

• Create their email account
• Add them to the chat tool
• Give them access to the password manager
• Get their laptop ready and record it under Assets
• Plan their first day
• Schedule a check-in after their first month

You set which steps go on the checklist by default in Company Settings → Onboarding. See Setting up onboarding steps.

Working through the checklist

• Ticking off: click the box in front of the step. Ticked by mistake? Click again.
• A step for this colleague only: type it under the list at "Add a step, for this list only" and click Add. For example "Introduce them to the supplier".
• A step that doesn't apply: remove it with Remove this step. For example, if the colleague isn't getting a laptop, take that step off. Your company's list doesn't change.

Once everything is ticked

Once every step is ticked, the card shrinks to one line: "Onboarding done on [date]". Show the list still shows you the list. Untick something there or add a step, and the onboarding is open again. A month after the last tick, the line disappears.

Started an onboarding by mistake? Remove all its steps. The card disappears straight away.

Pulse

For each onboarding with open steps, your Pulse shows the action item "Finish [name]'s onboarding", with the number of open items and the start date. You'll see up to five: first those still to start, soonest start date first, then those who've already started.

An onboarding stays on Pulse until everything is ticked, however long that takes. Some steps, like the check-in after a month, are open for a while on purpose.

If the colleague leaves after all

If you record their leaving while the onboarding is still open, the onboarding drops off Pulse, and the card becomes "Onboarding stopped: [name] is leaving". After the last day the card disappears. If you cancel the leaving, the onboarding is open again. See When a colleague leaves.

Good to know

• No onboarding for an import or a rehire. Colleagues you import from a spreadsheet or rehire don't get an onboarding. An import is usually about people who have worked there for a long time.
• Different start date? The onboarding uses the contract's start date. Move that, and the onboarding moves with it.
• No box in the last step? Then your company has removed all its onboarding steps. Add one in Company Settings → Onboarding.

Who sees what?

• HR admin and account owner: see and work through the checklist.
• Manager: doesn't see a team member's onboarding.
• The new colleague: doesn't see their own onboarding. If the new colleague is an HR admin themselves, they do see their own checklist, via People.

Updated on: 21/10/2026