How to create an employee onboarding checklist with automated tasks

Welcome new hires with a seamless, automated process

In this guide, you’ll create an employee onboarding checklist that turns a manual HR routine into an automated, collaborative workflow. You’ll use forms, logic, and portals to assign tasks, send reminders, and track completion, all inside Formaloo.
📘 Learn more: Create your first form, app, or portal in a flash

Step 1 — Create your onboarding form

Start from your workspace and click + New → Form. You can start from scratch or pick an Employee Onboarding Form or Task Checklist template from the Template gallery.

Or use Magic Create, describe your goal, for example:

“An onboarding checklist that assigns tasks to HR, IT, and managers automatically after a new employee joins.”

Why this matters: your onboarding form becomes the single source of truth for each new hire.
📘 Learn more: How to create a form

Step 2 — Add essential employee and job fields

Include details HR needs to personalize the onboarding steps:

• Full name
  
  
• Job title / Department
  
  
• Manager name
  
  
• Start date
  
  
• Office location or remote
  
  
• Employment type (Full-time, Contractor, Intern)
  
  

💡 Tip: add a admin-only status field (e.g., Pending → In progress → Completed) to track onboarding stages internally.
📘 Learn more: Form editor and field types

Step 3 — Add checklist items as sub-tasks

Create fields for each onboarding step, grouped by responsible team:

HR tasks

• Send welcome email
  
  
• Upload signed contract
  
  
• Add to payroll system
  
  

IT tasks

• Create company email
  
  
• Set up hardware and tools
  
  
• Grant software access
  
  

Manager tasks

• Schedule intro meeting
  
  
• Assign mentor
  
  
• Review first-week goals
  
  

💡 Tip: mark task fields as “checkboxes” so each team can tick off completed actions easily.
📘 Learn more: How to customize text field and long text field

Step 4 — Use logic to assign tasks automatically

Go to Settings → Advanced logic to route and assign tasks:

• If Department = Sales → Assign to Sales Manager for review.
  
  
• If Employment type = Contractor → Hide payroll tasks.
  
  
• If Office location = Remote → Add equipment shipping checklist.
  
  

This ensures every new hire’s onboarding experience is relevant and efficient.
📘 Learn more: How to add advanced logic to your form

Step 5 — Set up automated notifications and task alerts

Go to Settings → Notifications to send automatic updates:

• Notify HR when a new employee form is submitted.
  
  
• Notify IT with access setup tasks.
  
  
• Send a welcome email to the new employee with next steps and contacts.
  
  

💡 Pro tip: include dynamic field IDs like @employee_name, @start_date, or @manager_name in your emails for a personal touch.
📘 Learn more: How to create and send custom email templates

Step 6 — Add on-update logic for task completion tracking

Use on-update logic so your checklist evolves as teams complete their parts.

Examples:

• When HR marks all tasks done → Change Status = “IT Pending.”
  
  
• When IT completes setup → Change Status = “Manager Review.”
  
  
• When all tasks completed → Send completion email to HR and Manager.
  
  

📘 Learn more: What is on-update logic and how it works

Step 7 — Build an onboarding dashboard

Open Results → Responses to visualize onboarding progress:

• Table view: filter by department or status.
  
  
• Kanban view: group by Pending, In progress, Completed.
  
  
• Charts: show each department status.
  
  

📘 Learn more: How to showcase charts based on form responses

Step 8 — Create an HR and manager portal

From your workspace, create a Portal and add pages such as:

• All onboarding cases (HR access)
  
  
• My team’s new hires (Manager view)
  
  
• Employee view (personal checklist access)
  
  

Set permissions so each user only sees their relevant tasks.
📘 Learn more: How to create a portal and manage users’ access

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Step 9 — Analyze onboarding efficiency with AI

Enable AI Analyze to identify workflow bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement:

• “Which departments complete onboarding fastest?”
  
  
• “Which tasks are most often delayed?”
  
  

📘 Learn more: Uncover insights and trends in your data with AI Analyze

Pro tips

• Duplicate this setup for different roles (e.g., interns vs. managers).
  
  
• Connect to Google Sheets or Slack for team-wide visibility.
  
  
• Link related forms, like Employee Directory or Equipment Tracker.
  📘 Learn more: How to connect forms with automatic data transfer
  
  

Example scenario

A new hire joins as a marketing executive. HR fills out the onboarding form. Formaloo automatically assigns tasks to HR (contracts), IT (accounts setup), and the Manager (orientation). Once all tasks are marked complete, the system updates the status to Completed and emails HR a summary report.
📘 Learn more: How to create an approval form

FAQ

1. Can multiple departments update the same checklist?
   Yes, use on-update logic and shared portal pages for cross-department collaboration.
2. Can I add file uploads for signed contracts or ID documents?
   Absolutely, add file upload fields for document storage.

Your onboarding workflow is live, make every first day smooth

You’ve built an automated onboarding checklist that keeps HR, IT, and managers aligned. Keep refining your logic, dashboards, and reminders to make every new hire’s journey simple, structured, and welcoming.
📘 Learn more: Build personalized and time-saving flows with logic, automations, and AI

Last updated October 2025

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