Separate company onboarding from readiness for a client

An onboarding conversation required us to separate two kinds of work. The first belongs to joining your own company. The second belongs to working for a particular client: a course, an introduction or a supervised ride.

Both can concern the same person. They still answer different questions.

Two workflows, two meanings of “finished”

Company onboarding prepares the hire and works through the steps around it. Client onboarding follows that client's process. Put both in one list and “finished” becomes difficult to read. A person may have joined the company while an introduction is still needed for the intended assignment.

The decision from our conversation was to keep the second workflow separate. It starts with the client and shows that client's next steps. That keeps it clear which process has finished and which is still open.

A confirmation needs a responsible person

A supervised ride cannot be confirmed simply because a document exists. The conversation therefore also covered who should mark it complete. The chosen workflow gives that confirmation to the responsible dispatcher.

The same questions help with your own list: who actually saw or performed the step? Who can take responsibility for confirming it? A clear owner avoids the later question of whether a tick represents a real confirmation or just a reminder.

Keep the handover visible

Once the first process is complete, the person needs a visible next step. Nobody should have to create a second list from memory. At the same time, starting that second list must not look like completing it.

That is the purpose of the separation: each status describes its own process. A completed contract, a confirmed introduction and readiness for a specific assignment remain distinguishable. This note explains the decision from the conversation; the availability of individual product features is checked separately.

A checklist for the transition

For a case followed by a client introduction, check the handover against these points:

• The first process has its own completion state. Its status explains which work within the company has been completed.
• The client is named. The second list belongs to a particular assignment instead of mixing general and client-specific steps.
• Every open step has a responsible person. For a supervised ride, it should be clear who can confirm it.
• Confirmation has a clear meaning. A tick describes a completed step. The decision about a specific assignment remains distinguishable from it.

The responsible people determine which requirements apply to your workflow. A general checklist does not replace that decision.

Look at the transition

Take a case where company onboarding is complete. Can the next person identify the client, the remaining steps and who needs to act? If that information is missing, start by improving that handover.