Essential Steps to Build a Complete New Hire File for Staff
Mar 10, 2025
Hiring caregivers for your assisted living home? That’s exciting! But before they start, you need to set up a new hire file to keep everything organized. This file isn’t just paperwork—it helps you follow the rules, pay staff correctly, and stay ready for inspections.
Let’s go over what you need and how to set it up step by step.
Check out the video, too:
Why You Need a New Hire File
Keeping a new hire file for each staff member is super important. Here’s why:
✅ Follow the Rules – The state checks your records to make sure you’re running a safe and legal home.
✅ Stay Organized – Quick access to info makes your life easier, especially during audits.
✅ Smooth Payroll – Having the right forms means no delays or mistakes in paying your staff.
✅ Be Ready for Emergencies – It’s good to have emergency contacts in case something happens.
A complete file keeps your business running smoothly and your caregivers happy!
What to Put in a New Hire File
📌 Identification & Legal Forms
- I-9 Form & ID (Driver’s license, Social Security card, passport, etc.)
- W-4 Form (So you can withhold the right taxes for payroll)
📌 Employment Documents
- Resume (A copy of their work history)
- Offer Letter (Details on pay and job expectations)
- Signed Policy Forms (Showing they agree to your rules)
- Training Certificates (Like CPR or dementia care training)
📌 Administrative Documents
- Direct Deposit Form (So they can get paid easily)
- Emergency Contact Info (Just in case something happens)
- Vaccination Records (If required in your state)
📌 Termination Policy
- Clearly state notice periods and what happens if they quit without notice.
Having all these in one place helps avoid headaches later!
How to Keep Everything Organized
🗂 Use Both Paper & Digital Copies – Keep a folder in your office AND upload files online for backup.
📂 Buy Filing Supplies – Simple folders with dividers make everything easy to find.
💻 Use Payroll Software – Programs like Gusto let you store documents and manage payroll in one place.
Best Practices to Stay on Track
🔄 Update Files Regularly – If an employee gets a new certification or changes their bank info, update it!
🔒 Keep It Secure – Store files in a locked cabinet and use encrypted software for digital copies.
📋 Do Regular File Checks – Every few months, go through files to make sure everything is up to date.
Why This Matters for Your Business
✔ Smooth State Inspections – No missing paperwork means fewer problems during audits.
✔ Happy Employees – A good system shows staff you’re professional and organized.
✔ Less Stress for You – Everything is in one place, making it easy to find what you need.
Final Thoughts
A new hire file might seem small, but it plays a big role in running a successful assisted living home. When everything is organized, your business runs better, your staff feels supported, and you can focus on providing great care to your residents.
Set up your system today and make hiring easy and stress-free! 😊
Next Steps?
If you’re ready to take the next step, download our Business Plan Checklist to ensure you have everything you need to write a solid business plan.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Show full transcript 👇
Transcript
00:00:00
hey friend I'm Brandon Gustafson I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months in today's video we're going to be getting into how to create a new hire file for your staff at your Assisted Living business so if you need some help with that make sure you stick around for today's [Music] video hey friend welcome back to Assisted Living investing donet before I get started on the video I want to remind you to get over to the website and get our free underwriting calculator
00:00:31
uh just go to Assisted Living investing. net it'll pop up and you can get access to that for free and give that to you to help you along your journey now let's get into the topic for today's video we're going to be talking about how to create a new hire file for your staff at your assisted living for your Assisted Living business this is one of those things that um You probably aren't thinking about as you're trying to get started with launching your business you're you're this is one of the last
00:00:54
things on your mind um but for you that are operating and you found this Channel and and you're like man I needed some help I needed some guidance on this to know what a new higher file is I really hope this is going to benefit you I'm sharing some wisdom of things that I learned as we went through the process that has really benefited us to the point that you know we have a really good process in place so let's get into that so what is a new hire file what exactly is that there's a bunch of
00:01:22
things really it's just like the documents that that you need gather so when somebody comes in you're going to need to capture information from them their I9 documents if if you've ever gone to a new job or you you've done this recently it's going to be like you know your driver's license and your Social Security number or social security card or your birth certificate or passport or there's any number of things that will fall into this but you're going to need to capture that
00:01:46
information you're going to want to put in there things like training documents that that people are signing off on that they perform that training there's going to be maybe some agreements that you're giving to your staff um policies that you need them to sign those types of things you want to make sure you have track of because when you have a survey come in for your facility they're going to want to see all of this documentation for each of your staff members so you want to make sure you have this in a
00:02:10
really good spot I like having paper copies um you can actually like if you get on Amazon and and I'll try to like link a thing down below for what this might look like um hopefully we remember to do this but it is it's kind of like a file that just has folders in it with some tabs and there's three to five tabs in there for the specific things you want to put in there um so you could buy buy one of those and then use that as a template and then go buy some stuff at Walmart for a lot cheaper to kind of get
00:02:36
you started that's something that we did at our facility but that gives you a paper copy in case you need to hand it off to somebody I also like to have digital copies of all of this just in case I need it um there I try to get away from paper but I really like to have digital of everything including this paperwork so you just going to scan in copies put it in there um if you use Gusto for your payroll there's actually spots where you can kind of put in files and things like that for your staff
00:03:02
members so that's going to benefit you if you're interested in learning more about Gusto type in Gusto down below it's a payroll vendor that that we use and we love and I also have a referral link down below as well that will give you I think it like gives you a $100 Visa gift card if you end up signing up through my program or my link um so make sure you know if you're in that process of needing to get payroll set up we really love Gusto and you know get 100 bucks back so might as well do it why
00:03:28
not now let's talk a little bit more about some of the documents that you are going to need as you get into this so I mentioned the I9 documents so you're going to definitely want to have that but there's a lot of other things that you want to kind of keep on file as you're getting into this um you want to have your resume you want to have an offer letter for the staff member and acknowledgements of the company policies that you're giving to your staff members so that you can pull that out in case
00:03:52
they decide to leave or they do something that they're not supposed to and you have to let them go um you know you don't want those things to happen but it's so much better to up front get the signed documents and then when something comes up and they do something they're not supposed to you know say they're smoking inside the house they're not allowed to do that and you let them go like you want to have that as backup paperwork um just in the event that that something comes up so you want to make
00:04:14
sure you keep all those things tax forms so w9s w4s you want to keep all these all the all the W's that that you have you want to keep those on file so that you you can use them if you need to you can reference them you just have them on file so having all those tax forms are going to be beneficial we talked about I9 documents so you want to make sure you have birth certificate social security card driver's license passport not all of those things but the required documents that they bring for their I9
00:04:42
documentation you want to make sure you have copies of that on file so that you have it to reference just in case you need to that it's it's something that that you need to have in place you also want to have direct deposit forms so that they can get the money directly deposited into their account so you don't have to run checks and have paper checks as I don't know anybody that does that anymore but some people might and what I would suggest is use a payroll vendor like Gusto so you don't have to
00:05:07
do that anymore and then you have their direct deposit forms so you have their banking information in case something gets lost or they need to change it or whatever um you've got it on file for your staff and then you also want to have emergency contact information having that just in case something comes up you want to make sure you have that information so all of these things you want to make sure you have it on file like I mentioned having something on paper is is going to be beneficial but
00:05:30
definitely have something in digital form that you can have in reference and you know put where you need to whenever you need it and can access it at a moment's notice uh you know if you're on vacation or something like that and somebody is like oh I need you know we had a survey come in we need this documentation for the staff member you're able to get in log in to the payroll vendor your Google Drive account wherever you have it um hand that off and then you don't get any deficiencies
00:05:55
for it so super important for you to have that that type of stuff put together now let's talk a little bit about why you need this documentation I've kind of been touching on it as I go through throughout this video so hopefully none of this will surprise you but you want to have it in case an employee leaves something that we like to put together as as paperwork and if you're interested in learning more about this put it type termination down below so I I know that this would be valuable
00:06:17
for you but we put in a little thing inside of our paperwork that basically says if you don't give us appropriate notice 2 weeks or or whatever number you want to say your last paycheck will be paid at minimum wage um and and so we put that in there to kind of enforce that hey if you want to leave fine you know we're not going to force you but you have to give us notice because we've got to fill in for you and in a world like Assisted Living where there's so much turnover with employees um you want
00:06:45
to make sure that you're covered and that's one way that we've found that actually works pretty well to incentivize people to at least give us some notice that they're not going to be working for us anymore as much as you don't want that to happen it does give us a little bit of um leeway there so you want to make sure you have that just in case plus it's going to benefit you you know if you had you have a no smoking policy you have a a staff member that's smoking inside the house you know
00:07:09
it could be cigarettes could be pot whatever it is you have a rule that says hey you cannot do this or we will terminate you they do that you terminate them now you have a case with unemployment and they they file for it and you're like no like they broke the rules that's why they got fired and you want to just have these documents in place so that you can reference them you want to have it for taxes sometimes there as you're doing the taxes and things are getting sent out to your employees they may need to reference
00:07:36
something uh they may need information sometimes when when you're dealing with insurance workers comp insurance for example you might need to grab some of this information not necessarily the the tax stuff but contact information last known residents some of those things especially if somebody has left working for you and and they are now fing a claim that requires workers comp um this has happened to us before you want to make sure you have all that information so you can provide it to the insurance
00:08:02
so that they can you know take care of that for you making sure that you can pay your employees correctly and on time that's another huge reason you want to have all of this in gusto in your payroll vendor so you can do that and then like I mentioned surveys when they come for surveys they oftentimes are asking for information about staff members and so you want to have that on file so you can provide it to the the person doing the survey so you don't get any deficiencies for a lack of documentation for your staff the other
00:08:30
thing you want to do is like if there are requirements for vaccinations or or things like that you want to make sure you have all of that kind of packaged together and this so that you can hand it off and it's very easy for you to do if you found this video to be helpful you know we've been talking a lot here in this video about just what a new hire file is how it works why you need it some of those documents that you need if you found this to be helpful make sure you like the video subscribe and ring
00:08:54
the bell as well so you get notified every time we put this content out here we do lives on Tuesdays and on Thursdays we put out more long form videos I want to make sure that you are getting the information that you need and the best way to do that is have you ring that Bell after you subscribe so you get notified every time we put this content out there and if you need some help as you're going through your journey make sure you go and grab the free resources over on the website we're going to have
00:09:15
links down below for all of those I've got five or six of them to really help you get along and move forward on in your investment Journey but I also have a a bunch of other paid resources there's the business planning guide which is the base of everything that you need to do to help you get started on your Assisted Living investing journey and if you need some extra help and guidance check out our Mastermind program I love The Mastermind love working with the people in there you can check out more about that at assisted
00:09:40
living investing. netmaster and if you want a free strategy session to kind of chat about that and see if it's a good fit for you or not check us out at Assisted Living investing. net strategy and we can have a conversation does residential Assisted Living sound interesting to you but you just don't know how to get started at Assisted Living investing. net we're here to help beginners is like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months so they can create that time and
00:10:04
Financial Freedom that they're looking for and remember it doesn't take a lot just a little bit keep going step by step by step I promise that if you do and you're consistent and persistent you're going to be successful thanks for watching and have a great day [Music]
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