By KYN AI Advisory Team — AI implementation specialists, Singapore
A Singapore onboarding checklist has five stages: before the offer, between offer and day 1, day 1, the first 14 days and day 90. The one statutory date to build around is the written key employment terms, which MOM says an employer must issue within 14 days of the employee's first day. An agent can create the tasks, assign owners, chase overdue ones and keep a record. HR signs off contracts, payroll set-up and anything that touches pay.
What does the checklist contain?
Use a single table with a task, an owner, a due date relative to start, and a status. This version suits an SME with an HR lead or an office manager.
| When | Task | Owner | |---|---|---| | Offer | Offer letter issued and acknowledged | HR | | Offer | Right-to-work check: citizen, PR or valid pass | HR | | Before day 1 | Equipment ordered, accounts requested | IT or office manager | | Before day 1 | Bank and personal details collected | HR | | Day 1 | Written key employment terms issued (earlier is encouraged) | HR | | Day 1 | Access, equipment and building pass handed over | IT or office manager | | Day 1 | Introduction to manager and team | Manager | | Week 1 | Payroll set-up confirmed, including CPF where it applies | Finance | | Week 1 | Policies and handbook acknowledged | Employee | | Day 14 | Key employment terms issued by this date at the latest | HR | | Day 30 | Check-in with manager | Manager | | Day 90 | Probation review | Manager and HR |
Dates are relative to the start date. The agent turns them into calendar dates when HR enters the start date.
Which items come from Singapore rules?
Check each against the source. Do not rely on a template from another country.
- Key employment terms. MOM states employers must issue written KETs within 14 days of the start of employment, and encourages issuing before day 1. Source: MOM key employment terms. It covers employees under the Employment Act, so check how it applies to your staff.
- Work passes. For a foreign hire, the pass type and approval must be in place before work starts. Check MOM's pass pages for your case.
- CPF. Contributions apply to citizens and PRs, with rates depending on age and residency. Use the CPF Board's rates and do not copy a rate from a blog, including ours.
- Payslips. Employers must give itemised payslips under the Employment Act. See MOM's guidance for the content and timing.
KYN's own payroll runs on 2026 CPF rules. Rates change, so keep them in a configuration table with a source link and an effective date.
What can an agent do in onboarding?
Four narrow jobs.
- Create. When HR marks a hire as accepted and enters the start date, the agent creates every task with owner and due date.
- Chase. It messages the task owner two days before the due date and again when overdue. The message goes to the owner, not to the new hire.
- Collect. It sends the new hire a link to a form for personal details, and files the answers to the HR record. Sensitive fields are stored encrypted in your cloud account.
- Report. It gives HR a list of open and overdue tasks per hire, with the KET deadline highlighted.
It does not draft contracts, set salary, approve leave or decide a probation outcome.
What must HR sign off?
Anything that changes the terms or money:
- the offer and the key employment terms;
- salary, allowances and the start of payroll;
- work pass applications;
- probation confirmation or extension.
The agent can prepare a draft of the KETs from the offer record. A person reads it, edits it and issues it. A wrong term in a contract is a legal problem, so the final step belongs to HR.
How do you handle personal data?
Onboarding collects NRIC or passport numbers, bank details and next-of-kin contacts.
- Store them in the HR system in your cloud account, with access limited to HR and Finance.
- Do not paste them into a general-purpose chat tool.
- Give the agent access to task state, not to identity documents. It needs to know whether a form was received, not what was on it.
- Follow the PDPC's guidance on protecting personal data for retention and access.
- Log who opened each record.
How do you test the checklist?
Run it on the next three hires in shadow, alongside your current process. Compare task lists. Count tasks the agent missed, tasks that were late, and tasks nobody could own. After the third hire, adjust owners and due dates. Check one thing in particular: every hire has KETs issued by day 14, with proof.
What does a filled-in tracker look like?
The example is illustrative. It shows one hire with a start date of Monday 3 November.
| Task | Owner | Due | Status | |---|---|---|---| | Offer letter acknowledged | HR | 10 Oct | Done | | Equipment ordered | Office manager | 24 Oct | Done | | Accounts requested | IT | 31 Oct | Overdue 2 days | | Key employment terms issued | HR | 3 Nov (target), 17 Nov (latest) | Open | | Payroll set-up confirmed | Finance | 7 Nov | Open | | Day 30 check-in | Manager | 3 Dec | Open |
The 17 November date is 14 days after the start date, which is the outer limit set out in MOM's guidance linked above. The 3 November target encourages issuing on day 1. The agent shows both dates, and turns the row red when the target passes and again if the latest date is close.
How do you handle a late joiner or a changed start date?
Start dates move. When HR changes the date, the agent recalculates every relative task and notifies each owner of the new date. Completed tasks stay completed. Overdue flags reset only for tasks whose dates moved forward. If the start date moves earlier, the agent lists tasks that now fall in the past, so HR decides which are still needed.
What about probation and contract end?
The checklist runs to day 90 in this example, but your probation may differ. Set the review date from the probation period in the contract. Add a task for the manager to submit a written assessment a week before the review date, and a task for HR to send the outcome in writing. An agent can track both dates and chase the owner. The decision stays with the manager and HR.
What records should you keep?
Keep evidence that each statutory step happened.
- A copy of the KETs, with the date issued and how.
- The right-to-work check, with the pass number and expiry for foreign hires.
- Payroll set-up confirmation.
- Policy acknowledgements, with dates.
Store them in the HR system. Set retention according to your policy and the relevant rules. The checklist tells you which documents should exist, and a quarterly sample of three hires shows whether they do.
Where KYN fits
KYN builds onboarding tracking as part of the operations system, in a cloud account in your name. Named accounts, row-level security in the database and logging of every action with the actor apply to HR data as to anything else, and agents use their own restricted accounts. The first 14 days are a review of your stack and interviews with your team. A full build ships in under 90 days. KYN's payroll work follows 2026 CPF rules. See security.
Frequently asked questions
Does the agent replace an HR person?
No. It tracks tasks and chases owners. HR still issues contracts, approves pay and handles the conversations that matter in the first weeks.
What if the hire is a foreign worker?
Add a work pass stage before the start date, with approval evidence stored on the record. Pass rules differ by type, so follow MOM's pages for the specific pass.
Can the new hire complete tasks through WhatsApp?
They can submit documents and acknowledgements through a link sent on WhatsApp. Keep identity documents in the HR system, not in the chat history.
Checked 30 October 2026.
Curious whether Marketing agents fits your business? Talk to KYN on WhatsApp — no forms, just a conversation.
