Onboarding new workers in Belgium (onthaal)

Two articles, and what each adds

Codex art. I.2-15 requires the employer to organise the onthaal of every worker and to entrust it to a member of the hierarchical line. That fixes responsibility on a person in the line, not on HR and not on a folder.

Art. I.2-11, second paragraph, 9°, adds the parts most organisations discover late. An experienced worker is designated to accompany each beginning worker. And the designated member of the hierarchical line signs, under his own name, a document showing that the necessary information and instructions on well-being at work were given.

What it looks like on an actual Monday

A Flemish distribution centre takes on eleven people for the seasonal peak, across three start dates and two shifts. For each of them someone in the line is designated, an experienced colleague is appointed to accompany them, and the line manager signs a document per person. Eleven documents, not one attendance list with eleven signatures on it.

That distinction is where most Belgian sites are exposed. A group session with a circulated signature sheet documents that people attended something. It does not show that the designated member of the line certified, under his own name, what each of them received.

The Dutch situation is different

In the Netherlands there is no equivalent signature duty, and it should not be claimed. Arbowet art. 8 requires effective information about the work and its risks and instruction adapted to each task, with no prescribed form of proof. The duty exists; how you demonstrate it is your own design, and without a record of your own you cannot show it was met for a specific person on a specific date.

The guide on onboarding new frontline hires across sites covers running it person by person; the guide on workplace instruction law covers the wider duty.