Bringing a new developer into your team is not just about provisioning a laptop or creating an email account. Onboarding is a critical first step in the employee lifecycle, especially in fast-paced technical environments. A strong onboarding strategy improves retention, accelerates productivity and reinforces your company culture from day one.

This guide walks you through each stage of a structured onboarding process using a practical checklist format tailored for technical teams. Whether your company is remote-first or office-based, these steps will help you deliver a smooth and consistent onboarding experience.

📋 Why Onboarding Matters

A proper onboarding experience:

• Ensures every new hire receives consistent guidance

• Reinforces your team’s values and culture

• Speeds up the path to productivity

• Keeps HR, IT and leadership aligned

• Helps reduce turnover

• Sets clear expectations early

• Automates repetitive work so no detail is missed

Companies with great onboarding processes see stronger performance and longer retention across roles. It all starts with planning.

🧰 Onboarding Stages and Checklist

A great onboarding process starts well before day one and continues through the first few months. Below is a structured breakdown of each onboarding phase with actionable steps.

📦 Preboarding: Before Day One

Make new hires feel welcome and prepared even before they log in.

• ✅ Send offer letter and collect signed contract

• ✅ Request legal documentation (ID, tax forms, NDA, IT policies)

• ✅ Gather direct deposit and emergency contact info

• ✅ Set up work tools: email, Slack, Zoom, code repos, permissions

• ✅ Assign a mentor or buddy

• ✅ Prepare and ship equipment (if remote)

• ✅ Send welcome email with agenda and contact info

• ✅ Schedule orientation and team meetings

• ✅ Inform the team about the new hire's role and start date

👋 First Day: Connection and Orientation

Create a warm and productive first impression.

• ✅ Personal welcome from the team or manager

• ✅ Office tour or virtual tool walkthrough

• ✅ Confirm access to all systems and accounts

• ✅ HR presentation covering:

  • Company values and mission

  • Benefits and payroll

  • Time off policy and internal support

• ✅ Introduce onboarding buddy

• ✅ Provide onboarding kit: swag, handbooks, setup guides

• ✅ Schedule a team lunch or virtual icebreaker

🔄 First Week: Tools, Tasks and Training

Start building routines and understanding roles.

• ✅ Review short-term goals and job expectations

• ✅ Begin role-specific training (repos, pipelines, deployments)

• ✅ Shadow senior team members on active tasks

• ✅ Start light project work

• ✅ Hold daily check-ins with the manager

• ✅ Begin compliance training (data security, ethics)

💡 First Month: Feedback and Growth

Focus on learning outcomes and integration into the team.

• ✅ Celebrate early wins and give positive feedback

• ✅ Assign small independent tasks or projects

• ✅ Continue role-specific training

• ✅ Confirm HR tasks are complete (benefits, payroll, documents)

• ✅ Gather feedback about the onboarding experience

📈 30-60-90 Day Milestones

Track performance and plan for the long term.

• 30 Days

  • Review onboarding progress and recognize achievements

  • Clarify responsibilities and expectations

• 60 Days

  • Evaluate collaboration and performance

  • Adjust workload and set medium-term goals

• 90 Days

  • Conduct a formal performance review

  • Shift focus to mentorship, development or training

  • Introduce long-term projects and broader responsibilities

🎯 Best Practices

• Keep your onboarding process consistent with a documented checklist

• Encourage cross-functional collaboration between HR, IT and team leads

• Automate recurring steps where possible

• Always personalize onboarding to the person’s role and background

• Start collecting feedback early to keep improving the process

✅ Conclusion

Onboarding is not a one-day event but a structured journey that shapes your team's culture and productivity. When done right, it creates confident and engaged developers who feel supported from the start. Whether you're hiring your first engineer or scaling a team across continents, this checklist will keep your onboarding process smooth and successful.

Keep evolving your onboarding plan and your team will thank you for it.