Before the employee joins
- Identify the engaging legal entity, type of engagement, work location and person responsible for day-to-day instructions.
- Confirm role, joining date, reporting contact, wage and attendance information required by the approved process.
- Prepare a document checklist appropriate to the engagement, location and applicable legal requirements.
- Agree what happens if a joining item is incomplete: who records it, who resolves it and whether joining can proceed.
During the first week
- Confirm the employee understands reporting arrangements, attendance capture, workplace instructions and where to raise administrative questions.
- Verify the employee master reflects approved details and that any document gaps have a named closure owner.
- Give the payroll team the first-cycle inputs in the correct format and within the agreed cut-off.
Every subsequent cycle
- Use a controlled route for transfers, leaves, exits, replacements and changes to employee records.
- Reconcile employee movements with attendance and payroll inputs; flag mismatches for review rather than silently overwriting one source.
- Track outstanding issues to closure and keep evidence of the final approved instruction.
How to use the checklist with Karma
Share the number of sites, types of workforce engagement and current systems. Karma can discuss managed staffing, onboarding administration, apprenticeship support and related handovers.
Where your question concerns a specific registration, contribution or statutory requirement, verify the law and effective date with the relevant specialist.
Questions we often hear
Is one onboarding form enough for all locations?
A common core helps, but site- and engagement-specific requirements should be checked separately.
Who should approve payroll-related employee changes?
Specify the authorised source and reviewer in your working arrangements. The payroll provider should not be left to guess which instruction is valid.