To make onboarding run like clockwork for your prospects, candidates, recruiting partners, and the people in your organization, organize your process with a detailed time line.
Time lines minimize most of the infefficiencies and communications blunders that delay or prevent your getting the best new employees and bringing them up to speed quickly. The idea is to think through your whole plan in advance, document it,and get alignment around it from everyone involved in onboarding your new employee.
– an excerpt from Onboarding (Bradt and Vonnegut, Wiley, 2009)