Onboarding Checklist

New Employee Onboarding & Compliance Checklist (South Africa)

Ensure every new hire is legally compliant, fully documented, and professionally onboarded with our New Employee Appointment Checklist — a comprehensive, ready-to-use HR tool designed specifically for South African labour legislation.

This checklist helps employers, HR departments, and payroll administrators reduce risk, stay compliant, and maintain a complete personnel file from day one.

✅ Why you need this checklist

Hiring employees without the correct documentation exposes your business to labour disputes, fines, CCMA claims, POPIA breaches, and SARS/UIF non-compliance. This checklist acts as a single source of truth for everything required during onboarding and throughout the employee lifecycle.

📋 What’s included

This professionally structured checklist covers:

• Pre-employment & recruitment documents
  (CVs, references, qualification verification, criminal/credit checks)
• Employment contracts & onboarding
  (BCEA-compliant contracts, job descriptions, probation, NDAs, policies)
• Statutory & payroll compliance
  (UIF, PAYE, bank details, leave records, overtime & deduction consents)
• Health & Safety (OHSA)
  (Inductions, PPE registers, medical fitness, injury-on-duty procedures)
• Employment Equity & POPIA
  (EEA forms, income differentials, POPIA consent)
• Performance & training records
  (Probation reviews, annual appraisals, skills development)
• Exit documentation
  (Certificates of Service, UIF forms, final payslips, exit interviews)
• Record retention & POPIA-safe storage guidance

All sections are clearly laid out with tick boxes and notes, making audits, inspections, and internal reviews fast and stress-free Checklist - Onboarding Employee

🎯 Who this is for

• Small & medium businesses
• HR managers & administrators
• Payroll & accounting firms
• Labour consultants
• Employers with 1–500+ staff
• Businesses preparing for audits or CCMA matters

🚀 Key benefits

• Saves hours of admin time per employee
• Reduces legal & compliance risk
• Ensures consistency across hires
• Improves HR professionalism
• POPIA-aligned data handling
• Perfect for audits, inspections & disputes

📄 Format

• Editable document
• Easy to print or store digitally
• Designed for ongoing use per employee file