Employee Onboarding Checklist & First Hire Cost Calculator

This employee onboarding checklist and first hire cost calculator helps you work out what a first hire really costs, run fair structured interviews, make a clear offer and onboard in 90 days.

Who it's for: Owners of very small businesses who are about to hire their first or second employee and want to check the numbers, interview fairly and onboard with a plan.

The problem it solves: Pay is only part of what a hire costs, and unstructured interviews and memory-based onboarding make it easy to miss things. This kit adds payroll-tax, workers' comp and benefit placeholders, one-time and training costs to show the yearly and first-year cost and the revenue the hire needs, ranks candidates on weighted job-related criteria, and dates every onboarding task from the start date with DONE, OVERDUE and DUE SOON status.

What's inside

• First Hire Workbook (EXAMPLE + BLANK, .xlsx)
• First Hire Playbook (PDF)
• Job Post Template and Interview Guide and Scorecard (DOCX + PDF)
• Offer Letter TEMPLATE (DOCX + PDF)
• First 90 Days Onboarding Checklist and SOP Template (DOCX + PDF)
• AI Prompt Pack: 25 prompts (PDF + TXT)
• Start Here guide and license

How it works

1. On Hire Cost, enter pay, hours, placeholder payroll %, one-time costs and your revenue share.
2. Set your interview criteria and weights, then score each candidate right after the interview.
3. Send the offer letter (after attorney review).
4. Enter the start date on the Onboarding Tracker and work the task list.
5. Hold 30-, 60- and 90-day check-ins.

Good to know

• Every number in the EXAMPLE file belongs to a made-up business; it isn't a market rate or a recommendation.
• Templates aren't legal advice; tax lines are placeholders. Have your own professionals review them.
• The tools help you run your business; they don't guarantee income or results.
• Excel .xlsx workbook, no macros; formulas tested in LibreOffice (Google Sheets and Excel open-tests pending).
• Employment rules (forms such as Form I-9 and W-4, state new-hire reporting, pay-transparency, posters, workers' comp) differ by state and city. The checklists are general reminders, not a complete list, and the offer letter is a template to have an employment attorney review.
• This kit doesn't decide whether someone is an employee or a contractor.

Need a website? Bought any kit from the Archive? You get a $39 credit toward any website package from The Collective if you request it within 60 days of your purchase (one credit per website project). The credit applies only to website services, not to kits or other products. To request it, email ryanviabusiness@gmail.com with your order number.

Refunds: All sales are final. This kit is an instant digital download, so we don't offer refunds once your order is placed. If a file is broken, missing or not as described, email ryanviabusiness@gmail.com with your order number and we'll send you a working replacement file; if we can't provide a working file that matches this description, we'll refund your order. If you bought the same kit twice by mistake, email us within 14 days of the second order and we'll refund the duplicate order. Nothing in this policy limits any rights you have under law that can't be waived.

License: one business; no resale, redistribution or sharing.

Cover images are illustrations created with AI. The people shown are fictional, not customers.