As of 13 August 2026, AI can create an employee onboarding checklist.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a free chatbot such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and paste the prompt.
   2. Gather your employment contract process, right-to-work process, privacy notice, health and safety information, equipment list, training requirements and relevant company policies.
   3. Replace the bracketed slots in the prompt with the details of your business and the new starter's role, then paste the relevant policy text below the prompt.
   4. Ask the chatbot to produce the checklist and its list of questions, then answer the questions it marks as [TO CONFIRM].
   5. Open the relevant GOV.UK and Acas guidance and compare each compliance consideration in the checklist with the current source, removing anything the source does not support.
   6. Ask a manager or HR colleague to check task ownership, timing, evidence and role-specific training against your actual process.
   7. Copy the final table into your task or spreadsheet system, assign named owners and send each owner only the tasks they are responsible for.

   Prompt

   Create a practical employee onboarding checklist for a UK business.
   
   Business details:
   - Business type: [describe the business]
   - Number of employees: [number or approximate size]
   - New starter's role: [job title and department]
   - Employment type: [employee, worker, contractor or not yet decided]
   - Work location: [office, home, hybrid or multiple sites]
   - Start arrangements: [start date or timing, working hours and manager]
   - Systems and equipment: [list]
   - Required training: [list]
   - Existing policies and processes: [paste or summarise]
   - People responsible: [list names or job titles]
   
   Produce a checklist grouped into before the start date, first day, first week, first month and ongoing probation or review points. For every task include: task, purpose, suggested owner, due point, evidence that it is complete, and whether it is business-specific or a UK employment, right-to-work, data protection, health and safety or other compliance consideration.
   
   Do not invent facts, policies, deadlines, legal requirements or training. Mark missing information as [TO CONFIRM]. Separate items that are generally expected from items that depend on our circumstances. Flag anything that should be checked against current GOV.UK or Acas guidance or with a qualified HR or employment-law adviser. Include a short list of questions I must answer before using the checklist, and finish with a plain-text table I can paste into a spreadsheet.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.