A First Week Plan for a New Service Tech
A planned first week helps a new hire feel welcome, learn your standards and start safely.
- Free to join, no contracts
- Customers pick you by name
- You set your lead limits
Get the paperwork done before day one
Have forms ready so the first morning is not spent filling them out. Employment paperwork requirements differ by state, so check with your state labor agency or your accountant for what you need. Prepare their login, phone, uniform, tools list and truck assignment ahead of time.
Plan day one
Start with a warm welcome, a tour of the shop and an introduction to the team. Explain how the day works, how to reach the office and what to do in an emergency. Cover safety rules before anything else. Keep the day short on lectures and long on seeing real work.
If you have a small team, ask each person to say a few words about their role and how to reach them. A new hire who knows who to call for parts, scheduling and billing feels less lost, and the office hears fewer repeated questions.
Pair them with a good teacher
Choose a patient, skilled tech as their guide for the first days. Tell that tech what you want the new hire to learn and give them time to teach. A new person paired with someone rushed or bitter will pick up bad habits.
Teach your way of doing things, with daily check ins
Even an experienced tech needs to learn your standards. Show them how you greet customers, what you wear, how you protect floors, how you write notes and photos and how you present options.
Give the new hire a one page cheat sheet with key phone numbers, the software login steps, the dress code and your top ten rules. Review it together on day two. They will refer to it constantly, and it saves you from answering the same questions repeatedly.
At the end of each day, spend a few minutes asking what they learned, what confused them and what they need. Fix small problems immediately. People who feel heard tend to stay.
Think of the checklist as a conversation starter. If something is not understood, spend time on it right away. It is much cheaper to fix confusion in week one than after a complaint in week six.
- Greeting and arrival process
- Safety and protective gear
- Job notes and photo rules
- How to present options and get approval
- Cleanup and walk through
Define success and gather feedback
By the end of the week, they should know the routine, the software, the safety rules and the people. Tell them what they will do in week two. Give them a simple checklist they can follow.
At the end of the week, ask what they would change about onboarding. New people notice things you stopped seeing. Update the plan for the next hire. Write the plan down so it improves each time.
Questions
Should a new hire work alone in the first week?
Usually not. Ride along first, then add small tasks, and let them lead when they are ready and qualified.
What if they are far behind?
Be honest and kind. Build a plan with milestones, and decide together whether the role is a fit.
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Edit history
- Oct 29, 2026: Drafted by infinibell to our content guidelines.
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