New hire checklist: A step-by-step guide to onboarding employees in Mexico [2024]

Hiring your first employee in Mexico is just the beginning. Once you find that perfect candidate for the job, it's time to start onboarding them into your company, a process that can make the difference between a smooth beginning in their new role, or a rocky start that leaves them looking for another new job ASAP.

Zippia’s research found that while most companies have an onboarding process, for 58% of businesses, onboarding is only about the paperwork. In reality, it's so much more than that—onboarding is your chance to make a good first impression on a new hire, help them learn about your company, teach them how to succeed in their role, and help them make connections with their colleagues (and fill out all the new hire paperwork, of course). Additionally, missing the mark while onboarding an employee in a different country could violate labor laws and land your business in hot water.

So before your new employee in Mexico signs their job offer, make sure all the pieces are in place to make their onboarding experience positive, impactful, and educational. In the checklist below, you'll find everything you need to know to help your new hire feel welcome and confident to start work, plus how to guide them through their first 90 days and beyond.

Before their first day

• Complete an employment background check. A background check can help determine a job candidate's experience, qualifications, and eligibility to work in Mexico. Just make sure to handle prospective employees' personal data with care—Mexico's data privacy laws mean you could face fines if you don't. Read our full guide to employment background checks in Mexico to learn more.
• Send an offer letter. The next step is the offer letter (also known as an employment contract). To stay compliant with Mexican employment laws, it needs to include the right information and clauses—like employee information, salary, benefits, probationary periods, termination policies, and any other information that's necessary to know before they start in their new role. Read our full guide on creating offer letters for employees in Mexico.
• Do the necessary paperwork. Paperwork is a necessary part of employee onboarding. Human resources will usually take the lead on wrangling all the right forms, which can include social security enrollment, I-9 forms, direct deposit authorization, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and more. Many businesses have inefficient workflows for internal documents, including multiple email chains and back-and-forth between stakeholders and signatories.
• Enroll them in benefits. Mandatory benefits in Mexico include profit sharing, vacation days, 13th-month salary, sick leave, and more. See the full breakdown in our guide to employee benefits in Mexico.
• Add them to payroll. Mexican law requires all employees in Mexico to receive their salary in Mexican pesos. You'll also need to keep careful payroll records for your Mexican employees—the government can audit them for up to five years. Check out our full guide to running payroll for employees in Mexico.

• Order and configure their devices. Help your new hire hit the ground running by ordering and configuring their devices before their first day.

• Set up their app accounts. Make sure your new employee has immediate access to their email Slack, Zoom, and any other important app accounts by getting them registered and set up ahead of their start date.

• Prepare any resources they'll need on their first day. These can include:
• Their own copy of your onboarding checklist
• An employee handbook
• Copies of any other company policies they should know
• A team directory
• And agenda for their first day or first week
• A copy of their job description
• A list of their top priorities as they start their new job
• Any other role-specific resources they may need

• Schedule their orientation (and a get-to-know-you event with the team!). Mexican employees tend to be tight-knit, forming friendships and spending time together outside of the office. Make sure you schedule events for your team to welcome their new colleague—and let everyone know ahead of time to make sure they block off the time to attend.

• Assign them an onboarding buddy or mentor. New hire onboarding goes smoother when the new employee has a point person who can show them the ropes and answer their questions. Someone from the HR department or a teammate who's worked for the company for a while can be great choices.

• Send a welcome email. Just before your new hire's first day, send them a welcome email with all the information they'll need when they arrive at work for the first time—an agenda, your office dress code, the name of the person they'll check in with, and anything else they need to know. You can automate the process of creating a welcome email with Rippling.
  
  

During their first 90 days

• Schedule organizational and role-specific training. Your new hire's first job is to learn about your business—things like your company culture and goals, and how they fit into the big picture. Slowly, over their first few months, you can start to pivot their training to more role-specific information but remember to keep things bite-sized and give your new hire time to tackle the learning curve.

• Assign work and help them set goals. With their learning curve in mind, start assigning your new hire some tasks and work to do—but be careful not to overload them! Try a goal-setting framework like SMART goals—setting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound—to help set clear targets your new employee can work toward.

• Schedule regular check-ins and mentorship to help them stay on track. Remember that onboarding is a process that goes on for months, and you should have regular check-ins with new employees for at least their first 90 days. Schedule check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 days to start, but be flexible if your new hire wants to meet more frequently than that.

• Offer regular feedback as they get settled in. Feedback is key to helping new employees know when they're on the right track—and when they need to redirect or refocus their efforts. Offer them regular feedback throughout their onboarding so they never have to wonder about their performance.

• Seek their feedback on how you can improve the onboarding experience. And finally, remember that your new hire knows better than anyone what works about your onboarding process—and what doesn't. Solicit feedback from them so you can improve the process for future employees.

Make onboarding a breeze with Rippling

If you're going to hire employees, contractors, or remote workers in Mexico, you need more than just a new hire checklist: you need Rippling. 

Rippling makes it easy to onboard and manage employees and contractors around the world—in one system that helps keep you compliant with local employment laws and regulations.

And with Rippling, onboarding new employees is a breeze. Complete and verify background checks, send offer letters, and store digital documents—all from one centralized location.