New Starter Pre-Arrival Checklist

This record covers preparation before arrival for one named starter. Everything that happens once they are through the door belongs elsewhere, and the boundary matters because the pre-arrival record is the only one that can still change the outcome.

No regime has a pre-arrival checklist requirement. What the regimes have are duties that fall due on or before the first day, spread across employment law, immigration law, equality law and health and safety law, and this record is the single instrument that makes them all visible against one date.

The pattern is consistent: immigration and employment duties bite on or immediately before the first day, health and safety duties bite on being recruited, and equality law constrains when health questions may be asked at all. The differences are in the deadlines and in how much protection a temporary worker gets from the host.

Filling this form in is trivial. Every item is a yes, a no or a not applicable, and a record of forty yeses can still be followed by a first day where nothing works. Four judgement calls decide whether the record was a control.

Pre-arrival findings are rarely about the checklist being absent. They are about it being completed too late to matter, or completed accurately for a set of items that did not include the ones that failed.

A packing site lost two operatives to sickness and asked its agency for cover. A labourer was confirmed on the Friday afternoon for a Monday start. The pre-arrival checklist was opened on the Monday morning and completed in eleven minutes. Right to work was marked not applicable because the agency held the file. Induction was marked partly, since a site safety induction ran on Wednesdays. PPE was marked yes because there were boots in the store. The supervisor knows they are starting was marked yes; nobody had told the supervisor.

The worker was put on a de-palletising task alongside an experienced operative, in boots two sizes too large, and caught a hand between a cage and a post on the Tuesday afternoon. The investigation asked three questions. Had the site verified his right to work, which it had not and could not, because the agency's copy was not a check by the employer using him. Had he received safety training on being recruited, which he had not, because the induction was on Wednesday. Had the task been assigned with his capabilities in mind, which nobody could evidence because no one had spoken to the supervisor before he arrived.

None of the three failures were caused by the checklist being wrong. They were caused by it being completed after the only moment at which any of them could have been fixed. The corrective action was a two-day minimum lead time on agency placements, a right to work check performed by the site regardless of what the agency holds, and no start date confirmed without a named induction session.

The form is easy and early. What fails is everything with a lead time that sits in another team's queue: the induction slot, the occupational health appointment, the account request, the boots in an unusual size, and the supervisor who finds out on the day.

KnowOps

Opens the checklist at offer acceptance against the start date, tracks each readiness item to its owner, and shows which starters in the next fortnight are not ready.

KnowTrain

Holds the induction and awareness requirements for the role and books a named session before the start date, so training due on recruitment has a date rather than an intention.

KnowHealth

Runs the pre-placement questionnaire and clearance through occupational health, and returns the adjustments in time for them to be in place on day one rather than identified on it.

Ella

Watches start dates against outstanding items, escalates the ones that will not clear in the remaining lead time, and holds every write for approval before it touches a record.

Right to work check

The employer's own verification that a person may lawfully do the work, performed before employment begins and evidenced by a dated copy, which is what establishes a defence against a civil penalty.

Form I-9

The United States employment eligibility verification form, with section 1 completed by the employee no later than the first day of employment and section 2 by the employer within three business days.

Written statement of particulars

The statement of core employment terms which in Great Britain must be given to a worker on or before the first day of employment.

Conditional offer

An offer made subject to checks, which is the point at which health questions and medical examinations become permissible in jurisdictions that restrict pre-offer enquiry.

Pre-placement health assessment

An assessment of fitness for the specific role and its hazards, establishing a baseline and identifying adjustments, distinct from ongoing health surveillance.

Reasonable adjustment

A change to the work, equipment or arrangements that removes a disadvantage arising from disability, which only helps if it is in place on the first day rather than identified on it.

Vulnerable worker

A worker needing additional protection because of age, pregnancy, health condition, language or inexperience, triggering a specific assessment before task allocation.

Provisioning

The act of issuing equipment and granting system and door access, which follows the request recorded here and is evidenced in its own record.