Before a new employee starts: build a first-week plan with observable results
Define the work, access, supervision and evidence a new employee needs before the first day, then use a small supervised task to find gaps in the handoff.
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Make the first week a defined operating handoff
A start date does not tell a new employee what good work looks like or who can answer a blocked task. Before the first day, write a short plan that connects the role to an observable result. The objective is to make the work understandable and supervised, not to fill every hour with meetings.
Michigan SBDC recommends written job expectations, measurable performance criteria and a training plan. SBA's hiring guide separately highlights payroll and employer responsibilities. BGA's first-week exercise below addresses operating readiness; it does not replace the legal, payroll, safety or other requirements applicable to the actual employment relationship.
Choose one outcome and an accountable supervisor
Describe one useful result the employee should be able to produce with appropriate support by the end of the week. For an office role, that could be preparing an accurate internal service-request record from approved sample information. State what fields are required, what evidence is acceptable and who reviews the result.
Avoid a vague goal such as learning all the software. If the role includes different duties, choose a small representative task before expanding. Name the supervisor, a backup contact, the time for questions and what the employee should do when neither person is available. A first-week plan is not a promise of unsupervised readiness.
Check access before the first assignment
List the equipment, individual account, instructions and approved workspace required for that task. Give only the access needed for the role and stage of training. Confirm that the employee can reach the actual working environment through the business's normal authorized process; an invitation email alone does not demonstrate successful access.
Do not solve a missing account by sharing an owner's password or granting broad administrative privileges. Use fictional or otherwise approved training information where practical. Keep real customer records, financial details and other sensitive material out of an unrestricted training document.
Separate access problems from task-performance problems. If the employee cannot reach the instructions or the required system is unavailable, record that obstacle and its owner. Repeatedly assigning the same blocked work will not produce evidence about the person's ability to perform it.
A fictional service-desk example
Assume an employee is learning to prepare a service request for supervisor review. The training input contains an invented customer name, a requested service, a preferred time and a missing location. A usable output records the supplied details, flags the missing location and routes a question to the supervisor rather than inventing an address or promising an appointment.
On day one, the supervisor demonstrates the process and explains why the missing detail matters. On day two, the employee attempts a similar approved example with support. Later in the week, the employee handles a changed example and explains when to stop and ask. These are suggested stages, not a universal timetable or a real employee's results.
Record whether the output met the criteria, which corrections were needed and whether the written instructions were sufficient. A record being created is not proof that a customer was booked, notified or served. Keep those downstream outcomes separate when the role eventually includes live work.
Review the instructions as well as the output
Use BGA's one-page SOP guide to document the repeatable task, then test whether the employee can find the relevant step. If the supervisor supplies an important rule verbally, add it to the approved instructions. An unexplained rule should not become a hidden test.
Give specific feedback tied to the work: the missing detail, the consequence and the next attempt. Distinguish a training gap, an unclear expectation and a system defect. Keep employment decisions and sensitive personnel records within the appropriate private process rather than a broad operations tracker.
Close the week with a bounded next step
Review the observed work with the employee. State what is ready for the next supervised stage, what still needs practice and who will remove any remaining access or instruction blocker. Check the role's applicable requirements before expanding responsibility; finishing a sample task is not authorization for every action in a system.
The owner should leave with a short readiness record: agreed result, access checked, examples reviewed, corrections made and next review date. Measure dependable completed work over time. Do not claim that onboarding increased productivity or customer satisfaction until the business has evidence of those outcomes.
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