About the onboarding program builder
Most onboarding plans fail the same way. Everything lands in week one — the accounts, the handbook, the introductions, the first real task — and then nothing is scheduled at all, so the second month is silence and the ninety-day review is the first time anyone checks. Grouping the work by when it actually happens makes that obvious while there is still time to fix it.
This builder organises a plan into phases: before day one, week one, the first thirty days, and the run to ninety. Add tasks under each, name who owns them, and mark the ones that need reading and acknowledging rather than just ticking. It is the light version of the programs Essoflo runs — no assignments, no reminders, no tracking, just the plan itself.
The downloaded HTML file is the useful part. Its checkboxes work, and the progress is remembered in the file, so a new starter can keep it open for three months and actually use it rather than reading it once. There is a PDF for handing to someone, and Markdown for a Notion page or a repo.
Nothing you type is sent anywhere. The plan is saved in your browser so it survives a refresh, and it is yours to download.
How to use it
- 1
Name the role
Write the job being onboarded into. A plan for a support specialist and one for a field engineer should not look the same.
- 2
Set the phases
Start from before day one, week one, the first thirty days, and days thirty to ninety. Rename or add phases if your shape is different.
- 3
Add the tasks
One line each, under the phase where it actually happens. Say who owns it — most onboarding stalls because a task had no name against it.
- 4
Mark what needs acknowledging
Policies and procedures usually need reading and confirming rather than a tick. Set those to read and acknowledge so they stand out.
- 5
Download it
The HTML file has working checkboxes that remember progress — give that one to the new starter. PDF is for the manager, Markdown for your wiki.
Questions
- What should go in a new starter’s first week?
- Enough to make them functional and welcome, and no more: accounts and equipment working, the people they will work with met one at a time rather than in a single group call, the handbook or key procedures read, and one small real task they can finish. Training that can wait a fortnight should wait a fortnight.
- Why split the plan into phases?
- Because the common failure is invisible in a flat list. Grouped by when it happens, an overloaded week one and an empty month two are obvious at a glance, which is the point of writing it down at all.
- What does the interactive HTML download do?
- It is a single file with working checkboxes. Ticking one is remembered inside the file, so a new starter can keep it open across their first months and see what is left. It needs no internet connection and no account.
- Is this the same as onboarding software?
- No, and deliberately. This produces a plan. It does not assign it to anyone, chase anyone, or tell you who has finished what — that is what the full product does. If you only need the document, the document is free.
- Do I need an account?
- No. Nothing you type leaves your browser, and the plan is kept locally rather than on our servers. Download it if you want to keep it.
Related templates & reading
Keep it with the process it belongs to
A downloaded file goes stale the moment the process changes. In Essoflo the same matrix sits against the live procedure, updates with it, and the people named on it can actually see it.