Effective onboarding is crucial for setting FP&A professionals up for long-term success. When onboarding is done well, an employee will have a clear understanding of their responsibilities, be prepared to execute their role and be strongly integrated into the company culture, helping them become productive more quickly and meet their goals successfully.

Ultimately, good onboarding contributes to a higher rate of employee retention, which is important because turnover leads to higher costs to recruit, hire and train new staff. Additionally, increased turnover decreases morale, leads to knowledge loss, decreases productivity and distracts from attention on key work.

An onboarding checklist for FP&A should cover the three main dimensions of FP&A skills, as described in the FP&A Maturity Model: personal & team effectiveness, finance & financial processes, and technology & data. The sections of the onboarding checklist are summarized in the table below.

Personal & Team Effectiveness	Finance & Financial Processes	Technology & Data
Relationships: create connections and builds trust as a business partner	Skills: understand finance and the processes that deliver finance acumen	Tools: understand the current tools for the role and where the role is heading
Culture & Politics: understand the unwritten rules of how work gets done	Deliverables & Processes: understand key milestones, dates and reports	Data: understand the location of the data, gains access to the data; understands the definitions, calculations and utilization of the data
Work styles: understand how they will interact with their supervisor	Business acumen: understand how the business delivers value	Security: understand the policies and ethics around sources and uses of data
Feedback: understand their progress throughout the onboarding process

See below for the onboarding checklist, with quotes from a variety of AFP FP&A roundtables and interviews, or jump to part two on Best Practices for Onboarding a New Hire in FP&A.

Personal & Team Effectiveness

As a trusted business partner, FP&A builds relationships through credibility, collaboration and clear communication.

Relationships

Objective: The new hire creates connections and builds trust as a business partner.

Tasks for the Supervisor

• Set up meetings with the new hire and key partners.
• Assign mentors and buddies (in the new hire’s own department and other departments).
• Help the new hire explore finance and the company.
• Onboard as a cohort, if you have multiple new hires.

Advice from Finance Professionals

• For supervisors of early career professionals: “I start with the overall org chart and explain what each department does and how everything works together. This helps to define how we divide up the work and who in finance supports each area of the business.” — Sr. Director, Finance, in the media industry
• For experienced professionals: “When I moved companies, I really focused on building my network and having a wider reach outside of my group or the finance organization. You need to tap into those people who have the history and perspective on why things are the way they are.” VP, Finance, in banking

Culture and Politics

Objective: The new hire understands the unwritten rules of how work gets done.

Tasks for the Supervisor

• Discuss company norms (e.g., meetings start promptly, agendas are always sent before meetings, etc.).
• Describe the culture you have and the culture you want to create.

Advice from Finance Professionals

• For supervisors of early career professionals: “We have first-year ‘freshmen’ lead a social or charity event for the department to give them a chance to meet people in a simple task and contribute. The second-year ‘sophomores’ ‘buddy’ up with new hires to leverage their recent onboarding and become part of the culture.” — Sr Director, FP&A, in the telecommunications industry
• For those onboarding a senior leader: “Executives want to understand the social political environment: who has a bad temper in what department, what topics to avoid, how to work with certain people. These are things that they can't ask you upfront.” — Group Finance Manager in the construction industry

Work styles

Objective: The new hire understands how they will interact with their supervisor.

Task for the Supervisor

• Establish preferred methods for sharing and digesting information.

Advice from a Finance Professional

• For new hires: “Some leaders share a how-to guide for working with them: Slack for this and email for that; contemplation in meetings or quiet reflection, etc. New hires should ask for this information.” — CFO of a start-up

Feedback

Objective: The new hire understands their progress throughout the onboarding process.

Task for the Supervisor

• Define the goals and measures of the onboarding process and the role.
• Increase the frequency of team and 1:1 meetings during the onboarding process.
• Have progress evaluations, e.g., 30/60/90 days reviews.

Advice from Finance Professionals

• For supervisors: “There is no substitute for having frequent check-ins, a dialogue where you really understand where that person is at, and they understand what's expected of them. There should not be any surprises at evaluation periods.” — finance professional
• For supervisors: “After four weeks, we ask the new hires to share their observations, learnings and recommendations back to management. Presenting to the CEO and CFO makes them feel privileged, part of the company and valued for their newness rather than penalized for it. You would be surprised what they see!” — Group CFO of a global logistics company

Finance & Financial Processes

FP&A links corporate strategy to financial execution. It does this by transforming business objectives into financial plans and supporting their implementation through strategic resource allocation. FP&A processes further generate input and insights via financial analysis, supported by enabling technology.

Skills

Objective: The new hire understands finance and the processes that deliver finance acumen.

Tasks for the Supervisor

• Ask staff across the company to contribute to the educational curriculum so the new hire’s learning is tailored to the company.
• Assign training to supplement on-the-job learning for skills that are necessary to the role. This can be in the form of online, hybrid or in-person classes.

Advice from Finance Professionals

• For supervisors: “We have an apprentice model of working side by side. Managers should have new hires join meetings and calls, then debrief after to connect the dots. Managers need to make it safe to ask questions.” — finance learning & development professional
• For supervisors: “We leverage ‘learning pathways,’ which are internal collections of training from various sources curated to the department. They include overarching courses in the early days, then move to more role-specific training.” — finance learning & development professional
• For supervisors: “We are in the process of shifting to a skills-based organization with the way we level ourselves. We have a taxonomy of skills for every role.” — finance learning & development professional

Deliverables and Processes

Objective: The new hire understands key milestones, dates and reports.

Task for the Supervisor

• Prepare and share key milestones, dates and reports.

Advice from Finance Professionals

• For those onboarding a senior leader: “When I had a new CFO, I shared reports, an understanding of the deadlines, key contracts, including both documented and actual performance. I also shared customer feedback and reviews.” — Group Finance Manager in the construction industry
• For those onboarding a senior leader: “We gave an executive-level presentation for all the operating units under the new executive’s scope, focusing on: What is the customer profile? How are the teams set up? What are the big numbers to be aware of? What are the challenging questions? We explained the business from the top down.” — finance professional

Business Acumen

Objective: The new hire understands how the business delivers value and makes money.

Task for the Supervisor

• Have the new hire experience the customer-facing side of the business, e.g., front-line work or key supply chain roles.

Advice from a Finance Professional

• For early career professionals: “Business knowledge is continuous. After a year or five years, there are still opportunities to learn.” — finance professional

Technology & Data

By harnessing technological advancements and data-driven insights, FP&A professionals can uncover deeper understanding, make more informed decisions and drive efficiency across the organization.

Tools

Objective: The new hire understands the current tools for the role and where the role is heading.

Task for the Supervisor

• Explain what the current tools for the role are and where the role is heading.

Advice from Finance Professionals

• For supervisors of early career professionals: “For young hires, I will send them to an Excel class or software-specific training.” — finance professional
• For FP&A professionals: “I always say that I'd rather hire somebody with the right attitude than the right skills. If you have the right attitude, I can train you on the skills, but if you have the wrong attitude, even with the right skills, I can do nothing with you.” — Group Finance Manager in the construction industry
• For FP&A professionals: “The business environment is changing so quickly. Skills are a requisite along with attitude for continuous learning, and companies need to have on-demand resources to support this, whether it is your first role, a transfer role, or if you are staying in your current role.” — finance professional

Data

Objective: The new hire determines the location of the data, gains access to the data, and understands the definitions, calculations and utilization of the data.

Task for the Supervisor

• Ensure the new hire has access to data, as appropriate for their role.

Advice from a Finance Professional

• For early career professionals: “Application of tools and data are generally learned in an ‘apprenticeship’ model on the job.” — finance professional

Security

Objective: The new hire understands the policies and ethics around sources and uses of data.

Task for the Supervisor

• Ensure the new hire receives training on the policies and ethics around sources and uses of data.

Advice from a Finance Professional

• For supervisors: “We work closely with HR and ensure they cover the formalized induction and online training that covers the code of conduct, conflicts of interest, safety at work, cyber security, IT usage and AI policy.” — Head of FP&A in the power utility

Example of an Onboarding Plan for Finance

Here is an example of an onboarding plan from one of the world’s largest shipping and logistics companies:

“We defined a calendar for the new hires:

• “The first week was about stakeholders: They met with line leaders or heads of functions.
• “The second week was about systems: Whatever their ERP, where will they draw their P&L reports, their cost reports, their financial statements for analysis. How to use business intelligence tools to pick things here and there and structure an analysis.
• “The third week was business operations: All the finance business partners went to our shipping centers because when you're doing reports, you need to visualize how the company runs.
• “The fourth week was about feedback. We asked the new hires to share their observations, learnings and recommendations back to management. I tell my new hires that I am a part of the system, but they are coming from the outside and should give us a new perspective. Presenting to the CEO and CFO makes them feel privileged and a part of the company and valued for their newness rather than penalized for it. You would be surprised what they see!”

Read part two on Best Practices for Onboarding a New Hire in FP&A.