Slack templates: Onboard a new hire

When someone new joins your team, it can be a challenge for them to get oriented to your company and find essential information for their new job. To share everything they’ll need in one place, use our New hire onboarding template — just fill in a few details during setup, and you’ll be on your way!

Tip: Find a template that’s right for you, whatever you need to do. From Slack on desktop, click   More in your sidebar and select   Templates to browse available templates.

The new hire onboarding template includes: 

•   Onboarding guide canvas for all the project details your team needs
•   First week to-do list for tasks and deliverables
•   Join team channels workflow that posts automatically when tasks are updated

Create your onboarding channel

To help new members of your team get up to speed, create a channel with our New hire onboarding template for them to use as a temporary home base in Slack.

1. From your desktop, click the plus button in the sidebar.
2. Select Channel, then choose New hire onboarding from the list of templates. Click on a tab in the template preview to see the canvas, list, or workflows.
3. When you’re ready to start setup, click Next, then click Use Template.
4. Fill in the name of your new hire following the #welcome- channel prefix. Prefixes make it easy for others to find and determine the purpose of a channel.
5. Choose a channel type (public or private), then click Create.
6. You can invite people to the channel right away, but we recommend waiting to add others until you’ve customized your template.
   

Edit the template

Once your template is ready, you can view and make changes to the canvas, list, and workflows.

Onboarding guide

To-do list

Workflow

1. Click   Onboarding guide in the channel header to open the canvas.
2. Update the first section with your new hire’s name and a short welcome message for them. (Bonus points if you record a video clip!)
3. As you scroll through the canvas, add information to the Meet the team, Important meetings, and Company culture sections (and edit the name of any or all sections, if you’d like).
4. By default, anyone in the channel will be able to edit the canvas. To restrict editing permissions, follow these steps.

💡Visit Use a canvas in Slack for detailed instructions on working with canvases. 

1. Click   First week to-dos in the channel header to open the list. You’ll see several example tasks, which you can keep or delete.
2. To edit a task, click into the Task field and add new text. To assign it, click the   people icon and choose a person. To delete a task, hover over it and click   Open. Click the three dots icon, then select   Delete item.
3. To add tasks for your new hire to complete during onboarding, click Add Item. By default, all members of the channel will be able to update, add, and remove items from the list. To restrict editing permissions, follow these steps.

💡Check out Use lists in Slack for a step-by-step guide to working with lists. 

Workflows in Slack automate processes by carrying out a pre-configured series of steps. The workflow included in this template requires additional configuration to add your new hire to the right channels:

1. Open the   Workflows tab in the channel header.
2. Click the   three dots icon next to the New hire onboarding workflow, then select Edit workflow.
3. Click the   pencil icon next to the Invite step to make changes.
4. Below Select channels, add the channels you want your new hire to join. 
5. Click Save, then click Publish Changes.

💡Read What is a Slack workflow? for an overview. 

Add people

Once you’ve finished editing your template, add your new hire and people they’ll be working with closely in their first few weeks (like an onboarding buddy, mentor, team lead, etc).

1. Click cluster of profile pictures in the top right.
2. Click  Add people.
3. Search for people or user groups, then click Add.

Get to work

👏 Nicely done! With your onboarding channel set up, you’re officially ready to welcome your new hire to the team.