You’ve Built the Systems. Now Prep for Your First Hire.
Congrats! You’ve mapped out your tasks, set up SOPs, and organized your workflows. Your business is finally ready for someone new to step in and start making your life easier. 🎉
But before you hit the “hired” button and call it a day, there’s one more layer of preparation that will make the difference between a smooth start and a chaotic first month: getting your HR ducks in a row.
Before we jump into all that, though, hi! 👋 I’m Angela, founder of Work Nouveau, a boutique consulting agency that helps businesses build sustainable HR systems and create people-first processes that actually work. (Think of us as your cool HR team 😉) Whether you’re adding your first team member or scaling up, we’re here to help your people and your business thrive.
So now let’s break down how to prep your business for your new hire, so they feel welcomed, clear, and confident from day one.
🔗Note: this blog is part of a series! → Read part one on systems and processes to set up before you hire here.
1. Get Your Job Description and Expectations Ready
Even if you think you know what you need, putting it in writing is critical. A clear job description sets the tone for the hire, defines responsibilities, explains how you’ll measure success, and helps everyone align expectations. Include:
Key responsibilities – what you expect them to own immediately
Recurring tasks – tasks that will happen week-to-week
Success metrics – how you’ll know they’re doing a great job
Tools & systems – list what they need access to and what they’ll use daily
Pro tip: A solid job description also helps with onboarding and training. It’s your roadmap for how they’ll learn the ropes.
2. Prepare Your Onboarding Plan
You’ve got SOPs and systems, but how will your new hire actually learn them? An onboarding plan is a roadmap that gives structure to their first days and weeks (for both you and your new hire). Think of it as a mini curriculum:
Week 1: Orientation, tools access, intro to team and workflows
Week 2: Shadowing or working alongside you on recurring tasksWeek 3: Taking ownership of simpler tasks with support
Week 4+: Full responsibility on recurring tasks, gradually building autonomy
Even a simple checklist goes a long way. It reduces anxiety for your new hire and ensures nothing falls through the cracks.
Want a simple onboarding plan that you can implement for just about any position? Our Painless Onboarding toolkit guides you through your new hires first 90 days,
Grab our Painless Onboarding toolkit here!
3. Setup Payroll, Benefits, and Compliance
Fair warning - this is the least fun (and usually most confusing) part of the whole process. You want to make sure that before your new hire starts you’ve set up all the compliance essentials. This varies wildly depending on where the company is based, what state the employee lives/works in, your size, and more.
Payroll Set up and Schedule - think about how often you want to pay your team. The two most popular structures are bi-weekly and semi-monthly (wait, don’t those mean the same thing?)
Bi-Weekly means every two weeks, so your team ends up getting 26 paychecks each year. With bi-weekly paychecks, most months will have 2 paychecks, but some will have 3.
Semi-Monthly means twice a month, on set days (usually the 15th and last day of each month). In this structure, your team receives 24 paychecks a year.
Federal, State, and Local Compliance - the good stuff, like tax forms, state tax accounts, unemployment and workers comp, required labor posters, etc.
Benefits - depending on your size, you may or may not be offering benefits like health insurance just yet. But several states and jurisdictions have mandates around paid sick leave and other paid leave requirements.
Clear Time Off Policies - this includes vacation, sick, holiday, and more. And again, depending on where your new hire is located, there may be some local legislation that mandates this.
Ideally, the above are set up before you even begin looking for a new hire, but at the very least get these systems up and running at least a month before their start date. This gives you plenty of breathing room to adjust in the event that something goes wrong. Remember, we’re dealing with federal and state agencies here, and chances are something will be delayed, or that you may need to bounce around from one agency to another before everything is squared away.
You can usually hire an accountant or bookkeeper to help with this, or there are plenty of tools out there that will streamline and simplify the whole process. Need help figuring out where to go next? Let’s chat!
4. Prepare Your Workspace and Access
Whether remote or in-office, giving your new hire the right tools and resources is critical to setting them up for success. Don’t assume that because something is obvious to you, it will be obvious to them. New employees are learning everything from scratch, including the systems, the processes, the culture, and the little tricks that make the workday flow smoothly.
Take the time to provide clear, explicit guidance: step-by-step instructions, access to the right software, templates, passwords, and any reference materials they might need.
Walk them through how things actually get done, not just how you think they should be done. The goal is to remove guesswork and build confidence, so your new hire can contribute effectively from day one.
Things you should be thinking about here include:
Logins for email, project management tools, collaboration systems, chat platforms, and any other tools they’ll use daily
Access to shared drives, folders, or document repositories
Workstation setup (computer, headset, monitor, office supplies, ergonomic needs), and any role-specific equipment, software licenses, and permissions
Contact list, org chart, and key internal resources
Guidance on communication channels and meeting norms
Training materials, tutorials, or onboarding guides relevant to their role
Introduction to recurring meetings, key stakeholders, and project workflows
Company culture touchpoints like rituals, social channels, or team traditions
The more you can remove friction in the first week, the quicker they’ll start contributing confidently.
5. Plan Check-Ins and Feedback Loops
Onboarding isn’t just about handing someone tools and instructions. It’s an ongoing conversation. A new hire is learning your business just as much as you’re learning their strengths and work style. Scheduling structured check-ins in the first 30–60 days ensures they feel supported and empowered to contribute.
Consider including:
Weekly one-on-ones: Quick checkins to answer questions, clarify priorities, and provide guidance. These meetings give the new hire a safe space to speak up and prevent small issues from becoming bigger obstacles.
Task and process reviews: Regularly review completed work, workflows, and SOPs. Here you can catch misunderstandings early and reinforce best practices.
Insight and improvement sessions: Encourage them to share observations, ideas, and suggestions. New hires often notice gaps or inefficiencies that long-time team members have normalized.
Goal check-ins: Revisit short-term goals and progress regularly so expectations remain clear and attainable.
By building these feedback loops into the onboarding plan, you not only help your new hire gain confidence, but you also create a collaborative environment where processes evolve and knowledge is shared.
Your New Hire Is Ready - Are You?
You’re doing so much more than checking boxes or following rules by putting HR basics, onboarding plans, and access in place. You’re demonstrating to your new hire that you’re intentional about how you operate, and that you are doing what you can to set them up for success.
The right prep today means more breathing room tomorrow.
Want to make your next hire seamless and stress-free?
Let’s chat! I help business owners like you create onboarding plans, HR systems, and processes that save time and set your team up for success from day one. Schedule a call with me today and let’s get your new hire ready to shine.
