Manager's Induction Planning Guide template

2. Planning principles

• Plan backwards from day one: the legal items (right to work, written statement) and the physical items (kit, access, uniform) have lead times.
• One named owner per item — shared responsibility is nobody's responsibility.
• Protect the first day in the roster: an induction run by a manager who is also covering the floor gets abandoned at the first rush.
• Stage the content: safety before work, essentials before detail, everything signed as it happens.

3. As soon as the offer is accepted

1. 1Send the offer and the contract or written statement, so the starter has their particulars on or before day one.
2. 2Complete the right-to-work check before the start date and file the evidence.
3. 3Order or reserve everything with a lead time: uniform, PPE in their size, IT kit, till or system accounts, keys or door codes.
4. 4Choose and brief a buddy who will actually be rostered alongside the starter in week one.
5. 5Book your own diary: the day one morning, an end-of-week-one review, and the four-week probation check-in.
6. 6Send a welcome message covering start time, location, who will meet them, dress code, and parking or transport notes.

4. The week before they start

1. 1Confirm the kit, accounts, and access are actually ready — check them yourself, do not assume the ticket was done.
2. 2Build the day one plan hour by hour, using the new starter induction checklist as the content list.
3. 3Roster the buddy and the starter on the same shifts for week one, and tell the team who is starting and what the buddy role is.
4. 4Print or set up the induction checklist for signing, and gather the documents the starter must read: [list].
5. 5Reconfirm with the starter two or three days out — a short message removes the day one no-show risk on both sides.

5. Day one

1. 1Be there when they arrive — the first ten minutes tell the starter how the next year will feel.
2. 2Run the safety essentials before any work: the tour, fire evacuation and assembly point, first aid, accident reporting.
3. 3Alternate formal items with real work alongside the buddy; nobody absorbs six straight hours of policies.
4. 4Sign off each completed item on the induction checklist as it happens, not from memory at the end.
5. 5Close the day with fifteen minutes one-to-one: questions, first impressions, and what tomorrow looks like.

6. Weeks one to four

1. 1Hold the end-of-week-one review: progress against the training plan, what needs repeating, and how the roster fits.
2. 2Release the starter to unsupervised work task by task, only as each sign-off is completed.
3. 3Check in with the buddy weekly for the unfiltered version of how it is going.
4. 4Hold the four-week review against the probation criteria and record it: performance, attendance, training progress, and objectives to the next review.
5. 5Ask the starter what the induction missed and feed the answer back into this guide and the checklist.

7. Measuring whether the induction worked

• The induction checklist is fully signed within [number] weeks — audit this, do not assume it.
• The starter can answer the safety basics unprompted at week four: alarm, assembly point, accident reporting.
• Time to unsupervised competence against the norm for the role: [benchmark].
• Probation outcomes and early-leaver rates by manager — a pattern of failed probations is usually an induction problem before it is a hiring problem.

8. Records and review

Keep your day one plan, review notes, and the signed checklist in [system/location]. This guide is reviewed [frequency] and whenever the induction checklist, systems, or roles change. Owner: [name/role]. Next review due: [date].