Providing a positive onboarding experience can help you make a great first impression with new employees, but it’s all too easy to get sidetracked by new hire paperwork. Tax forms, employment contracts, and other onboarding documents can be a hassle to fill out and take the focus away from your new hire’s first day on the job.
By creating an onboarding checklist and using document management software to fill out and store essential documents, you can simplify the new hire onboarding process and increase employee engagement and retention.
Here are a few of the most essential onboarding documents to collect from new team members, along with best practices for an effective onboarding process.
What Are Employee Onboarding Documents?
Onboarding documents include all of the paperwork a new hire needs to read or fill out before starting their new job. Some of these may be standard documents (such as tax forms from the IRS), while others are company-specific documents that introduce the new employee to your workplace policies and company culture.
Onboarding forms aren’t just used to collect information and meet your HR compliance obligations — they’re also an opportunity to welcome your new team member into their new role and ensure they have a smooth transition.
As HR tech gets more powerful, many HR professionals use onboarding software to automate the onboarding process and create more efficient workflows. These tools consolidate onboarding paperwork and can even pre-fill essential documents.
Types of Onboarding Documents
Onboarding documents range from mandatory to optional. Ideally, you’ll provide your employee with all of the documents they need without overwhelming them. Here are some of the essential onboarding documents that may be required.
Legal documents
Legal documents are formal documents related to a new hire’s employment, such as an employment contract. This may include a formal job offer letter with a start date and job description, as well as non-disclosure and non-compete agreements. Consider adding these legal documents to your onboarding checklist:
- Job offer letter
- Background check
- Employment agreement
- Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
- Non-compete agreement
Payroll and tax documents
The next category of onboarding documents includes financial forms like payroll and tax documents. You’ll typically need to collect a federal income tax withholding form (W-4) from employees, while independent contractors can use a W-9 form to provide their taxpayer identification number or Social Security number.
You may also need to collect an Employment Eligibility Verification form (I-9) to verify that a new hire has the right to work in the United States.
Other essential documents include state tax forms and a direct deposit form to collect the new employee’s bank account information:
- W-4 form (or W-9)
- I-9 form
- 1099 form
- State tax forms
- Direct deposit form
Company policies
Next, you’ll need to provide documents that outline your company policies, such as an employee handbook. Depending on your organization, you may also need to include information on your dress code, drug testing, and other company-specific policies.
Consider providing a form to collect emergency contact information, as well as an organizational chart with important phone numbers:
- Employee handbook
- Code of conduct
- Emergency contact form
- Organizational chart
- Company mission statement
Employee benefits information
Finally, you’ll need to enroll new hires in your employee benefits program, which may include health insurance and other health and wellness benefits. Make sure new hires know how to access entitlements like parental leave, as well as how to enroll in your retirement plan and stock options (if applicable):
- Health insurance
- Benefits enrollment
- Paid-time off (PTO) or personal leave policy
- Retirement plan
- Stock options
Best Practices for Onboarding Document Management
Filling out onboarding documents can take time, but it doesn’t have to get in the way of an efficient onboarding experience. Follow these six steps to save time, reduce human error, and get your new hires ready to step into their new role on Day One:
1. Digitize paperwork
These days, handing your new hire a thick stack of forms to fill out isn’t the way to go. Most new employees will expect at least some of your forms to be digital, and ideally, you’ll digitize all of your paperwork so there aren’t any paper forms to fill out.
Digitizing processes has several key benefits, including streamlined workflows, less chance of loss or damage, and fewer opportunities for human error.
2. Generate forms automatically
Not everyone gets the same set of onboarding documents. Employees and independent contractors, for example, will need to fill out a different set of tax forms. Instead of giving employees a list of forms and expecting them to choose the right ones, use onboarding automation software like Pulpstream to deliver documents automatically.
Pulpstream’s RapidBee AI-powered service center can automatically suggest the right forms for each employee and convert PDF templates into fillable online forms.
3. Pre-fill with existing information
Many of the forms on your onboarding checklist will require the same basic information. Don’t ask employees to fill in the same details over and over again. Once you have an employee’s name, address, phone number, and other basic info, use your onboarding software to pre-fill subsequent forms with the information you already have.
By digitizing your onboarding documents, you’ll also be able to identify errors in real time and notify employees if they’ve made a mistake or missed a required field.
4. Accept e-signatures
Collecting signatures is one of the most important parts of the contract lifecycle, but the process of collecting physical signatures is unnecessary and inefficient. Instead, accept e-signatures online so new hires can sign onboarding documents in real-time and other parties can be notified immediately when their signature is required.
Pulpstream’s document automation platform integrates with DocuSign, EchoSign, and other e-signature tools so you can easily generate and sign employment contracts.
5. Protect employee confidentiality
Once you’ve collected sensitive personal information from your new employees, you’ll need to make sure that only authorized members of your staff and human resources team have access to them. If a new hire has disclosed a disability during the hiring process, for example, you’ll need to meet strict confidentiality requirements.
By storing documents in a secure cloud-based system like Pulpstream, you’ll protect them from prying eyes while eliminating data silos that slow down processes.
6. Provide a self-service portal
Finally, remember that an employee’s details may change over time. Instead of requiring them to contact your HR team to update their address, phone number, or bank account, make it easy for them to update their information with a self-service portal.
Pulpstream’s AI-fueled employee service center allows employees to update their bank account or address, request a leave of absence, and resolve other employee relations issues without having to wait for your HR department to get back to them.
Streamline the Onboarding Process with Pulpstream
Onboarding documents range from tax forms to employment contracts, and play a key role in ensuring HR compliance and fostering employee engagement. By digitizing and automating the process, you can reduce the time and effort it takes to fill out essential documents, and minimize the risk of oversights, omissions, and human error.
From onboarding to employee relations, Pulpstream empowers your team with online document management, onboarding automation, and a self-service portal. Generate forms automatically, pre-fill them with the information you already have, and accept e-signatures to keep the onboarding process running smoothly.
Request a demo today to see how Pulpstream can improve the employee experience!
