The Employee Onboarding Process, Step by Step
In short: The employee onboarding process starts when a candidate signs the contract and ends when the new employee works independently, usually after the first 90 days. HR, IT, facilities, and the manager each have their part, and most of it has to be ready before the first day. This article shows the steps, the roles, and a BPMN diagram that you can download and run in Jira.
Last updated: November 2026
What Is the Employee Onboarding Process?
Onboarding is everything a company does to turn a new hire into a productive member of the team: contract and payroll, accounts and hardware, a workplace, the introduction to the team, training, and regular feedback. It is a typical support process: it repeats with every hire, several departments work on it, and it has a defined result.
It is also a process that often fails at the hand-offs. HR knows the start date, but IT hears about it too late. The laptop arrives in the second week, and the manager is on a business trip on the first day. None of these tasks is difficult. They only have to be started at the right time, by the right people, and somebody has to see what is still open.
The Process as a BPMN Diagram
The employee onboarding process in BPMN. Click the picture to enlarge it, or download the BPMN file.
The four lanes are the four roles. After HR has prepared the onboarding plan, a parallel gateway starts four tasks at the same time. The process waits at the second parallel gateway until all four are done. Only then does the first day begin.
The Steps of the Onboarding Process
1. Before the First Day (Pre-boarding)
| Who | What |
|---|---|
| HR | Prepare the onboarding plan, collect the documents, and set up payroll |
| IT | Create the accounts and prepare the hardware |
| Facilities | Prepare the workplace and the access card |
| Manager | Name a buddy and plan the first week |
These four tasks do not depend on each other, so they run in parallel. Running them one after the other is the most common reason why something is missing on the first day.
2. The First Day and the First Week
The manager welcomes the new employee, introduces the team and the buddy, and explains the plan for the first week. The employee gets the hardware, the accounts, and the access card that were prepared before.
3. Training
The manager runs the training plan: tools, products, processes, and the first real tasks. The buddy is the first contact for everyday questions.
4. Review After 90 Days
HR holds a review with the employee and the manager at the end of the first 90 days or of the probation period. The feedback goes both ways: how the employee is doing, and what the onboarding should do better next time.
Who Is Involved?
- HR owns the process and starts it.
- IT provides accounts, hardware, and access rights.
- Facilities provides the workplace and the access card.
- The manager is responsible for the introduction and the training.
- A buddy from the team helps in the first weeks.
Where Onboarding Usually Gets Stuck
- Tasks start too late. If IT and facilities start only when HR is finished, the time before the first day is too short.
- Nobody sees the status. Each department has its own list, and nobody knows whether everything is ready.
- The first day is the last defined step. Training and the review are forgotten when no task reminds anyone.
- Every hire is handled differently. Without a defined process, the quality of the onboarding depends on who happens to do it.
Run the Onboarding Process in Jira
With Flower you model the process once in BPMN and start one process instance for every new hire. Flower then does the following:
- It creates a Jira work item for every task when the process reaches it, so nobody has a task before it can be done.
- It assigns each work item through its swimlane, for example to the IT team. See Swimlanes.
- It starts the pre-boarding tasks in parallel and waits until all of them are resolved. See BPMN Gateways.
- It can set due dates and reminders with timer events, for example for the review after 90 days. See Due Dates and Timer Events.
- It shows in the process diagram where each onboarding stands.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the steps of the employee onboarding process?
Pre-boarding before the first day, the first day and first week, training, and a review after the first 90 days.
How long does onboarding take?
The process in this article runs from the signed contract to the review after 90 days. Many companies continue with regular feedback until the end of the first year.
Who is responsible for onboarding?
HR usually owns the process. IT, facilities, and the manager are responsible for their own tasks.
What is the difference between onboarding and orientation?
Orientation is the introduction on the first days. Onboarding is the whole process, from the contract to the point where the employee works independently.
Related Processes
- List of 25 key business processes
- Template: Employee Onboarding
- Template: Employee Offboarding
- Business Process Automation for Human Resources
- Get Started with modeling