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How to Create and Assign Employee Onboarding Checklists in Microsoft Lists

Amos Gikunda Sep 28, 2026 869 views

Question details

The user needs an efficient way to create and assign individual onboarding checklists for new hires using Microsoft Lists, ensuring progress tracking and privacy.

How to Create and Assign Employee Onboarding Checklists in Microsoft Lists

Product: Microsoft Lists
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Setting up individual onboarding checklists for multiple new hires while maintaining privacy controls.
Observed behavior: Needs to assign checklists with progress tracking and user privacy without the unnecessary overhead of creating a separate list for every single new hire.

Before you start

Before setting up your checklists, determine whether managers need to monitor each person's progress from a centralized view and whether new hires are permitted to view one another's onboarding tasks.

Solution 1Recommended

Use a Centralized List with Item-Level Privacy Permissions

Keep all onboarding tasks in a single structured Microsoft List but use item-level permissions to ensure new hires only see their assigned tasks.

Instead of creating a new list for every employee, you can manage everything in one master list. By configuring item-level permissions, you maintain a clean structure while ensuring individual privacy.

Create the onboarding list

Open Microsoft Lists, click 'New list', and set up the necessary columns for your onboarding tasks.

Add an assignment column

Click 'Add column', select 'Person', and name it 'Assigned To'. This will link tasks to specific new hires.

Access advanced list settings

Click the Gear icon in the top right corner, select 'List settings', and then click on 'Advanced settings'.

Configure item-level permissions

Under 'Item-level Permissions', change 'Read access' to 'Read items that were created by the user' to restrict visibility. Note: You may need site admin rights to ensure managers can still see all items.

Use a Centralized List with Item-Level Privacy Permissions

Manager Visibility: Users with Full Control or Design permissions (like managers or HR) will still be able to view and track all checklist items across the entire list.

Solution 2

Utilize Microsoft Planner for Individual Task Tracking

Microsoft Planner is often better suited for assigning individual tasks and tracking progress with built-in categorization.

Solution 3

Automate Checklist Generation with Power Automate

Use Power Automate to automatically duplicate a master checklist template and assign it to new hires.

Free Microsoft Office alternative

Manage Onboarding Checklists Effectively with WPS Office

While Microsoft Lists requires complex setups and Power Automate workflows for individual privacy, WPS Spreadsheet offers a lightweight, free alternative for creating and sharing customized employee onboarding trackers seamlessly.

1. Create an onboarding template: Open WPS Spreadsheet and select a blank workbook or search the built-in library for a professional onboarding checklist template.
2. Customize task tracking: Enter your standard checklist items, utilizing features like data validation for status dropdowns (e.g., Pending, In Progress, Complete).
3. Save and share securely: Save the file in standard .xlsx format. If privacy is needed, go to Menu > Document Encryption to password-protect the file before sending it to the new hire.

Free and lightweight Office suiteFully compatible with Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) formatsEasily create customizable onboarding checklist templatesShare individual tracker files securely with built-in password protection

microsoft office alternative - wps office

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I hide other people's checklist items in Microsoft Lists?

Yes. You can navigate to List Settings > Advanced settings and modify the 'Item-level Permissions'. By setting it to 'Read items that were created by the user', individuals will only see their own tasks. Ensure tasks are created dynamically assigned to them, or adjust view filtering.

Is Microsoft Planner better than Lists for onboarding new hires?

It depends on your workflow. Microsoft Planner is highly visual, explicitly designed for task management, and handles assignment notifications beautifully out of the box. Microsoft Lists is better if you need highly customized metadata columns and complex structured data.

Can I automatically create a checklist when a new hire joins?

Yes, using Power Automate. You can set up a flow that triggers when a new employee is added to an HR database or directory, which automatically copies template tasks into an active onboarding List and assigns them to the new hire.

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