Training your crew
Construction Onboarding Checklist: A New Crew Member's First 30 Days
A construction onboarding checklist covers four stretches: before day one, day one, the first week, and the first 30 days. The items that matter most aren't paperwork. They're the few tasks every new crew member has to learn your company's way, taught the same way every time, with a lead's sign-off in the field.
Most onboarding checklists are written for office jobs: laptops, email accounts, benefits orientation. A new crew member needs something different. They need to know where to show up, what to bring, what's dangerous on this site, and how your company does the work. Here's a checklist built for crews.
Download the printable checklist (PDF)
Want the Lesson items taught the same way to every new hire? See how field lessons work.
How to use this checklist
Print one for each new hire, or keep it on a clipboard in the truck. Their lead checks items off as they go. Items marked Lesson are the ones that should be taught the same way to every new hire, no matter who they ride with. Those are the ones worth turning into training they can take on their phone.
Before day one
- Hiring paperwork and emergency contact on file
- Start date, time, address, and who to report to sent by text
- PPE and tool list sent: what we provide, what they bring
- Training sign-in ready: QR badge or company code and PIN
- Start-of-day routine assigned, in their language Lesson
Day one
- Meet their lead and the crew
- Site walk: hazards, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, emergency plan
- Your site safety rules, and the ones people most often skip Lesson
- Tools and equipment checked out, and how to care for them
- End-of-day cleanup and closeout expectations Lesson
First week
- Core task 1, done your company's way Lesson
- Core task 2, done your company's way Lesson
- Most common mistakes on those tasks, and what they cost Lesson
- How to talk to a homeowner, inspector, or GC's superintendent Lesson
- Who to ask when they're not sure
- End-of-week check-in with their lead
First 30 days
- Remaining core tasks for their role Lesson
- Lead signs off on each core task in the field
- Training record reviewed: what's done, what's left
- 30-day conversation: what's going well, what's unclear
Pick your core tasks before the first day
The "core task" lines are blank on purpose. Before a new hire starts, decide the two or three tasks they need to do your company's way in their first week. For a framer, that might be wall layout and your nailing schedule. For a concrete crew, forming checks and pour-day setup. Keep the list short. You can add more once the basics stick.
The hard part isn't the list
Writing a checklist is easy. The hard part is teaching every item on it the same way to every new hire, while your lead is also running a job. When the basics depend on whoever the new guy rides with that week, some of it gets skipped, some of it gets taught differently, and nobody knows which.
That's what the Lesson items are for. Each one can become a field lesson: a 20 to 30 minute phone lesson built from how your best lead does it, in English or Spanish, with a short exam at the end. A new hire can take the first ones before day one, sign in with a QR code instead of an email, and show up already knowing how your company starts the day. Your dashboard shows who has finished what, so the "training record reviewed" line in the first 30 days takes a minute instead of a guess.
Make the lead sign-off count
The most important line on the checklist is "Lead signs off on each core task in the field." Training teaches the method. The sign-off confirms the new hire can actually do it. Record it, with the date and who signed off, so you have it when a GC or insurer asks how your crew was trained.