If staff onboarding feels more draining than empowering, you’re not alone—and this might be the fix you’ve been missing.
You’re stretched thin.
You hire to make space—
but instead, you find yourself deeper in the weeds.
More to explain, more to fix, more to hold.
And if staff onboarding doesn’t work out?
You’re back at square one—only more tired.
Hiring should feel like relief.
But too often, it adds friction instead of flow.
That’s why we rebuilt our staff onboarding from the inside out..
Not as a checklist—but as an actual system.
Ours has over 40 steps.
Each one designed to create clarity, not complexity.
The result: our newest team member started with full access, clear direction, and immediate confidence.
They knew where to go, what to do, how to communicate, and why they were here.
And I wasn’t the bottleneck.
The system ran.
They landed.
The business moved forward.
This isn’t magic.
It’s what happens when your systems are designed to support your flow—not stall it.
If onboarding has ever left you burnt out or behind, this episode will shift everything.
Here’s what you’ll learn from our staff onboarding episode:
- What most people miss when preparing for new hires
- How to set your team up to succeed without constant handholding
- And the exact process we use (that you can borrow or steal)
Because bringing someone on should feel like freedom.
Let’s make it so.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: What Advanced Staff Onboarding Really Looks Like!
- Advanced Onboarding Process: Developing a clear onboarding process with over 40 individual tasks can greatly simplify the joining of new team members, reducing stress for both the new hire and existing staff.
- Pre-Hiring Preparation: Start preparing for a new hire before the hiring process begins by documenting needed access, software licenses, and permissions. Consequently, this proactive approach helps ensure a smoother onboarding experience, too.
- Standardisation and Flexibility: Creating a uniform staff onboarding process allows for similar steps across different roles while still being flexible enough to adjust specific needs for each position.
- Documentation is Key: Lastly, keeping detailed records of access log sheets and onboarding steps enables team members to handle the onboarding process independently.
- Seamless Experience for New Hires: Making sure that new employees have all the required tools, access, and training from day one also fosters a positive impression of the company, increasing the likelihood of long-term retention.
BEST MOMENTS: Staff Onboarding in Action—What Really Works!
00:01 – 💬 “When us small business owners decide to hire a new person for our team, it’s typically because we’re at capacity or over capacity.”
00:59 – 💬 “Our Advanced Onboarding is a process I developed since day one of my business, and I’m continually iteratively improving it. It’s how we’ve just onboarded our latest team member. And despite us not having an operations manager at the moment, our team was able to pull together and complete all the activities in time for this person to start work.”
08:44 – 💬 “By having that time before we start hiring and start thinking about this stuff, it means that we’re preparing ahead of schedule.”
10:46 – 💬 “If we can get that feeling inside of us from day one, the chance of them actually sticking around is going to be far higher, and that for you as a business owner is absolutely priceless.”
14:19 – 💬 “The key to making this work seamlessly is understanding how all of your apps integrate together, how each of those needs to be set up, when they need to be set up, how to train people on doing them.”
TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW
00:00 Advanced Staff Onboarding Process Insights
06:27 Proactive Employee Onboarding Strategy
10:12 Streamlined Onboarding and Account Setup
12:08 Streamline Onboarding and Systems Integration
14:17 “Systems Geek Podcast & Academy”
Episode Transcript
Dr Steve Day: When a small business owners decide to hire a new person for our team is typically because we\\\'re at capacity or over capacity, we\\\'re working too hard, our team are overwhelmed and we just need some extra additional support to take the pressure off and to bring new expertise in. However, why is it that when most people hire new staff, the experience isn\\\'t one of immediate calm and reduction of stress is the opposite. Suddenly we have more work to do.
We have to figure out how to onboard them, how to set stuff up for them, to delegate work to them, and the whole thing actually creates more stress. Sometimes it works out and we end up with a brilliant new team member and it\\\'s all going well. But all too often I see people go through this painful process of finding a great person, of trying to integrate them to the team but not getting it right. And that person can leave after weeks or maybe months. And the whole experience is just a waste of time.
You have to go back to the beginning. Today I want to talk about our advanced onboarding process. This is a process I developed since the day one of my business and are continually iteratively improving it. It\\\'s how we\\\'ve just onboarded our latest team member. And despite us not having an operations manager at the moment, our team was able to pull together and complete all the activities in time for this person to start work. So when they arrived on day one, they had everything they needed and understanded how we going to work with them, how to communicate effectively and what they needed to do from day one.
So if you\\\'ve ever had a less than perfect experience on bringing new team member of things not going quite as smoothly as you wish, then stick around as I walk through our entire advanced onboarding process. And do remember to hit subscribe so you don\\\'t miss out on future episodes of cool stuff like this, which will just make your business run far more smoothly and give you more time to enjoy the stuff you love each day. Okay, so I\\\'m recording this episode at the time where we\\\'ve literally just had a new person.
They\\\'ve been onboarded into our company and are due to start on Monday. We had a team meeting today just to make sure that everything was ready for this person. And I reflected on how complicated the whole thing was of how many steps were involved. But my biggest reflection was, my God, how did I manage to do this before I\\\'d actually created a fully documented process behind it? I remember the days when hiring somebody or onboarding somebody I should say was just a winging it process, literally, they would arrive on day one, I\\\'d give them some stuff to do, hope for the best. And as things came up, as problems arose, I\\\'d fix them, like, oh, you haven\\\'t got access to this. Oh, you need that. Or you can\\\'t do this because you hadn\\\'t got this, or whatever it is.
Things just basically fitted together over the first few weeks. If that person stuck around, if they weren\\\'t put off by the complete chaos that my business used to be, then great, we\\\'ll get to a place where we were actually working effectively and things were running smoothly. But that often took weeks, if not months to get it right. However, now, even before this person starts, we have got everything set up. I\\\'m confident that when they arrive on day one, they\\\'ll know where to go, when, how their work will be delegated. They\\\'ll have access to the training for the apps. They need to be able to work day to day with us. They\\\'ll understand what their role is and what\\\'s expected of them.
All of this has happened in the background without really much input at all from me, despite us actually not having a formal operations manager who would typically deal with this stuff. So not having an operations manager has basically meant that other team owners have had to chip in and do bits and bobs around the activities. But because we\\\'ve got it documented, that was actually a big problem. It was just a case of actually organizing who was going to do what based on their access and their availability and their capacity.
So the whole thing, despite not having an operations manager, has gone incredibly smoothly. That was the inspiration to think like, I\\\'ve got to share this, I\\\'ve got to explain how we did this. But once you\\\'ve got it, it means that the whole onboarding process becomes super slick, becomes professional, and it doesn\\\'t require you as the business owner to get involved. There may be certain decisions you have to make at certain times throughout the process, but actually all of the work can be done by other people.
It\\\'s just a case about setting things up and having a standard way of doing things. And that\\\'s what I want to talk about today.
So our advanced onboarding process has over 40 individual tasks to get someone set up and ready to start working with us. Some of those have subtasks, many of those require frameworks or documents or wikis to back them up. So people know how and what to do when they actually start doing that particular task. And so building this is something that you do over time.
You have to make decisions about how, how you want people to be onboarded, what do you want people to have access to, which apps do they need subscriptions for? Which ones are you going to share by a password management app? How are they going to actually work with you, what tasks will be assigned to them, what licenses maybe need to be bought for them. But the vast majority of the decisions can be made and documented before you actually do the hiring process.
When you hire somebody into a similar role in the future, the vast majority of the decisions will be the same. So each time you hire a new role, you may have to tweak things a little bit. So for example, if I hire a new marketing assistant, like we\\\'ve just done now, compared to hiring a salesperson or an operations person, their access to various things might change. But the general onboarding process will be the same.
So each time we onboard someone into a new role, there may be some amendments that need to be done to the system. But the vast majority of it is the same for every single person that way. We\\\'re basically creating a sort of cookie cutter approach to onboarding, but one that is flexible enough to allow us to use it for any type of role in our business.
The onboarding process I want to talk about today is part of our advanced recruit right and onboarding pipeline. This is a project that we set up in our task management app that allows us to track the entire process from start to finish. That includes making a decision to hire somebody, going through some pre hiring work, the hiring process, the pre onboarding, the standard onboarding, and then the advanced onboarding process.
It allows me as the manager or the business owner to be able to see where my team are up to in this process. Whether you\\\'re using an agency to hire someone for you, using the recruit right hiring system that we offer, or your own way of doing this, the pre onboarding and onboarding stages are going to be the same regardless of where this person comes from. This is how you get somebody new integrated into your business, regardless of how you found that person. So whatever type of recruitment process you work, this episode is still massively valuable to you.
So onboarding for us starts at the time we make the decision to hire somebody. Right at that early stage we can start thinking about this new role we\\\'re hiring for. Do we need to purchase any licenses for this person? Are there specific software they\\\'re going to have to have access to that we need to arrange ahead of time? Are there any other things we just set up for this person that we haven\\\'t done before?
Or is this just a role that we\\\'ve had previously and therefore we\\\'ve got everything we need with all decisions already made? By having that time before we start hiring and start thinking about this stuff, it means that we\\\'re preparing ahead of schedule. So it doesn\\\'t all happen at once and get overwhelming. At that point, we\\\'ve actually found that person and you want to onboard them and get them started.
During our pre hiring meeting, we go through what\\\'s called our staff access log sheets. This is where we document for each type of role in our business what apps we need to add the person to as a user. What LastPass permissions they need? So they can get access to the right passwords for their role . What Google groups they need so they get access to all the shared drives. And what Asana teams and projects they need access to? What Slack channels they need to be added to and what company meetings they need to go onto.
By documenting the decisions role by role, it means that next time we hire somebody into the same or a similar role, the act of onboarding is far easier. We\\\'ve made all the decisions ahead of schedule. This pre onboarding meeting is just a case of sense checking, to make sure nothing\\\'s changed or needs updating.
You may use different apps in your company or have a different way of working. That\\\'s fine. Whatever you do, it\\\'s just about documenting the decisions. So when you hire your first admin assistant, what are you going to give them access to? Let\\\'s write that down. Let\\\'s make a list. Then next time someone comes in, you can do the same thing.
When you hire someone into a new role, you may give them access to a different set of apps and permissions. Therefore, document what that is.
That is the process of creating what\\\'s called our access log sheets. Once you\\\'ve got those in place, it means that anybody in your team with the right permissions can do the entire onboarding process without having to come back and ask you. It means that when that person arrives on day one, they\\\'re going to have access to the core stuff they need.
Yes, there may be some additional stuff you need to add later. That\\\'s fine. What we don\\\'t want is someone to arrive on day one and feel like they\\\'re hitting barriers at every turn. If you\\\'ve ever worked for a company and not got all the stuff you need to do your work, it\\\'s incredibly frustrating. Your first few days can just be setting up logins and getting started.
We want this experience to be seamless. This person comes in feeling like, wow, this company\\\'s awesome. This is where I want to work. These guys are systemized. They know what they\\\'re doing. This is somewhere I want to stick around for the long term.
If we can get that feeling in that person from day one, the chance of them actually sticking around is going to be far higher. That view as a business owner is absolutely priceless.
So we\\\'re going to fast forward now to the point we\\\'ve actually made the decision to hire somebody.
We have a process with templates and guides on how we set up our position agreements and terms of engagement or the hiring agreement with the employee. We\\\'ve got a process that shows our staff how to use our e-sign software to set it up and send it to the new employee. That means all of that happens without my involvement.
I just get an email saying, can you just sign this document? And it\\\'s all done. We then have a process to chase up any licenses that needed to be bought. Like, were they actually bought at the time we made that decision? Or do we need to go and pay for those now, so this person can be fully onboarded?
We then go through what\\\'s called a standard onboarding process. This happens for every single employee. So it\\\'s really simple to systemize.
Everyone that comes and starts with us needs a LastPass license. They need ScreenPal screen recording software. They need a Google license or a free Google Drive email setup. And they need access to the task manager to do their work.
Everybody always gets that. So we\\\'ve documented the simplest way for us to do that. For example, we set up an email account. Then we just add that email to the various apps. That email address then receives the invitations from all of our apps.
The person on the receiving end can then go and set up the accounts as they need to. It minimizes the work for us. We\\\'ve thought about the structure and order in which things need to be done. That ensures the person has access, but also that our team doesn\\\'t spend hours setting stuff up unnecessarily.
That\\\'s one of the key benefits of having planned and iterated this process over the years. We\\\'ve made it as slick as possible. After completing the standard onboarding process, we’ve now got an email address set up. We can start thinking about what other apps and permissions this person needs.
We go through setting up additional user accounts. For example, we add them as a user to the CRM. Then we give them access to the teams. And projects within our task management app . We reassign the tasks they need to start working on. And we set them up with LastPass ; we configure their sharing groups. We update their instant messaging groups ; add them to additional meetings not covered by the sharing groups. We assign tasks specific to their role. Like checking the unified inbox, we have a unified inbox management system. Our staff check that daily to ensure no tasks are missed. We set them up with time trackers so they can create. And submit invoices we arrange a welcome meeting.
We send additional documents for signature, like data sharing agreements or IP reassignments. Then we initiate a follow-up loop to confirm everything is assigned. And that’s it.
Once those steps are done, our new staff member is ready to start. They have everything they need. All documents are signed. They have all necessary access. And all of this relies on having the process set up.
Setting this up for yourself may seem overwhelming at first. There\\\'s a lot going on here. But the way we did it is to do it slowly. Iteratively build it up as you go.
The next time you hire somebody, just start writing down what you\\\'re actually doing. Then the time after that, you’ll see there are a lot of similarities. There will be a few things that need to change. If you document the access people get as you onboard them—and also as they work in their role—and you give them new access, keep a record of that. That\\\'s probably the same access a similar role will need in the future.
That way, you can start creating a completely standardized way of onboarding everybody into your company.
The key to making this work seamlessly is understanding how all of your apps integrate together. Know how each one needs to be set up, when it needs to be set up, and how to train people on using them at each stage in the process.
For example, how you organize your shared drives makes a difference to your onboarding process. How you share access—whether you use sharing groups or add people individually. How do you share passwords? Do you use a password sharing app? How is it organized? What folder structure do you use?
How do you delegate work? Do you have a documented process for using your task management app? Is that well-documented so the person coming in can access training? Do they understand how to use it effectively in the same way everybody in your company does?
Do you have training around communication? How people actually communicate within your company? All of these things take time to set up. Yes, you can do it all yourself.
But if you\\\'d rather spend your time doing things you actually enjoy, then why not check out the Systemize Your Success Academy?
That\\\'s where we share everything—this advanced onboarding process, our Recruit Right hiring system. And much more, how to hire, onboard, train? And work with your team effectively? How to manage them like a pro?How to create systems for everything you do in your business? Pipelines for recurring tasks. How to gain total visibility and control. Set up reporting and more.
Basically, it’s about building an entire operating system for your business in a step-by-step way, with guidance and support all the way through the process. That is what the Systemize Your Success Academy is all about.
You can check it out at join.sys.academy, at join.sys.academy, you\\\'ll find more information about our platform, our community, our 19+ courses, dozens of frameworks and processes, and done-for-you plug-and-play resources.
All of this means you can get things set up far quicker than doing it all yourself. I\\\'ve literally spent the past nine years thinking about this. This is all I do.
I absolutely love operations. I love systems. I\\\'m a total systems geek. That\\\'s why I\\\'ve got this podcast. That’s why I set up this community.
I\\\'ve been coaching and guiding over 350 clients over the past nine years on doing all of this—and much more. So go and check it out at join.sys.academy and see if it’s the right thing for you to move your business forward.
If you want to find out more, there’s a link on that page to book a call. Have a chat with us to see if the Systemize Your Success Academy is right for you and your business at this stage—or not.
Either way, thank you so much for listening today.
I hope you found this interesting and useful. Please hit subscribe for more episodes on building a business that serves you. One that allows you to live with more presence, more purpose, and more freedom.
Please share this with anyone you think would benefit from learning how to build a unified onboarding system for your staff.
Thank you so much. I\\\'ll see you next time. Bye.
VALUABLE RESOURCES
- Systemize Your Success Academy: https://join.sys.academy/
LINKS TO CONNECT WITH THE HOST
- Podcast: https://www.systemizeyoursuccess.com
- Website: https://systemsandoutsourcing.com/
- Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/
- YouTube: https://youtube.com/@drsteveday42
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drsteveday42
ABOUT THE HOST
Steve moved to Sweden in 2015 and transformed how he ran his businesses—switching to a fully remote model. A former NHS doctor, with a background in computing and property investing, he now helps overwhelmed business owners systemise and outsource effectively. Through his courses and coaching, Steve teaches how to automate operations and work with affordable virtual assistants, freeing up time and increasing profits. He runs his UK-based businesses remotely with support from a team of UK and Filipino VAs, and is passionate about helping others build scalable, stress-free companies using smart systems and virtual support.
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