Whether you are a business owner, a manager or a human resource officer, welcoming new employees can be a lot of fun. You’ve probably talked to them during the interview, and are now looking forward to having them on board. Having them sign a new employment form will surely make them feel welcome and important.
Duly accomplished new hire forms form part of the employee’s file. As long as they are consistent, complete and do not violate employment laws, these employment forms will benefit both the company and the employees.
What Is a New Employee Form?
A new employee form is a document that new hires or new employees accomplish to provide their details to the organization or company. New employee forms are essential because they could be used for payroll, human resource management or compliance with laws. This type of form is also sometimes called employment information form for new employees or new employees detail form.
Depending on their purpose, new hire forms are also referred to as any of the following:
New Employee Compliance Form
This new employee form is vital in complying with state and federal laws, specifically labor laws and tax laws. Government identification card numbers, existing health card information and citizenship or resident status are among the standard questions in a new employee compliance form.
Business-Specific New Employee Form
This type of new employment form is structured or designed depending on your type of business or industry. You can ask questions based on your company’s needs and even utilize the information you collect to further improve your operations. The form can be as comprehensive as you want.
New Employee Experience Form
A new employee experience form can help facilitate employee engagement strategies. In this type of new employee form, the company can ask about how new hires feel toward the company and their work as well as their expectations. Allowing new hires to fill up this form will make them feel heard.
New Employee Form for Employment Practices
These forms are essential for internal use by the HR department. The new employee form for employment practices can help guide HR officers in managing employees, payroll and scope of work. The form could also be used to inform new hires of employment practices and company rules.
What to Include in a New Employee Form?
Creating a new employee form from scratch may take some time and effort. Fortunately, you can easily download a new hire employee information form from CocoSign and customize it.
You just need to determine what type of information you want to collect and its purpose/s. It’s important to design your employee paperwork in a way that you don’t have to go back and forth and have them sign employee forms anew.
New hire forms should necessarily include the following:
- Basic personal information of the new hires
Here is where you ask about their full legal name, preferred name, age, address, gender, contact details, civil status, birthdate, and names of spouse and children, if any. You may also ask about their citizenship and visa status.
- Government ID numbers
In this part, you ask for their proof of identification. They can provide their driver’s licenses or passports. You can also ask about their social security number or tax ID number.
- References and emergency contacts
Ask for at least three references from the new employee. Have them list their references’ names, address, relationship to the new hire, and contact number.
Do also ask for a mobile or telephone number that you can contact in case of an emergency.
- Mode of preferred payment
In case you want to give your employee the liberty to choose their preferred mode of payment, you can include this in the new employee forms.
- Tax details
This part is especially important for tax compliance and the new hire’s payroll.
You can choose to have a generic new employee form or have it customized based on the job descriptions of the new hires. You can even include their job titles, job descriptions or scopes of work and names of immediate supervisors, among others.
You can also make the new hire forms more fun to fill up by asking your employees about their interests and skills.
Why And When Should You Use a New Employee Form?
Regardless of the size of your company or the nature of your business, making sure you have a new employee form ready is vital. As mentioned, forms for employees do not just help with record-keeping; they also help ensure that you abide by existing labor and tax laws.
A new employee form empowers your organization to gather key information about the new employees you were unable to collect during the interview. By having them accomplish these forms, you can keep their personal details handy.
For example, if you have their emergency contact numbers in record, you would know who to immediately call in case something happens to the worker.
In case lawful authorities seek your assistance for a certain employee, you can responsibly provide the information needed.
Ostensibly, you can also utilize new employee forms to know which of your employees have other skills that can help the organization. Knowing their interests can also help you improve employee engagement strategies.
Tips for Using New Employee Forms
To make sure you maximize the use of new employee forms, here are some practical tips:
- Know your purpose.
Are you going to use it for background checking your employees or merely as a reference and for record purposes only? If you know your goal, you can maximise new employee forms and design them accordingly.
- Be specific with what you want to ask.
Be direct when you ask for information. Don’t waste your new employees’ time by being unclear about what you want to know. Make use of standard phrases and avoid using jargon. Only use technical terms when you know that your employee will and should understand them.
- Be organized and consistent.
As much as possible, group the information that you need. If you are asking about their banking details, do not mix it up with their social security or tax details.
- Have your employees sign the new hire forms.
It’s pivotal for the employees to sign the forms and acknowledge the truthfulness of the information they provide.
- Avoid being too personal.
Try to be more sensible when choosing the questions to ask. You want to make sure that you are encouraging and welcoming your new hires.
Conclusion
New hire forms are incredibly essential in any workplace and have become an important part of the hiring and onboarding process. Ensure that you have copies of new employee forms as you welcome your new hires. CocoSign has numerous new employee forms. Check out and download our employment forms for free today.
