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On this page: What should a first day checklist for agency workers include? · What should the starter bring and know before they arrive? · Why can't the first-day handover be skipped? · Common mistakes · What goes wrong when nobody prepares the gate? · How Radius helps · FAQ
What should a first day checklist for agency workers include?
Four things: the name list, the start time, an identity check slot and an induction slot. Radius Hire's 2026 research paper on frontline hiring handoffs suggests sending them the day before, so the check takes minutes at the gate.
| What | Who sends | Who confirms | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name list of starters | Agency planner | Client site lead, who passes it to security | The day before |
| Start time and where to report | Agency planner | Client site lead | The day before |
| A planned slot for the client's identity check, and who does it | Agency planner proposes | Client site lead confirms the time and the checker | The day before |
| Induction slot | Agency planner proposes | Client site lead | The day before |
| Any extra checks, for example for a worker from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland, or a worker who needs a work permit | Owner named in advance | Client site lead | Agreed in advance, as its own line |
Illustration built for this post, not client data.
Ask for a reply. As the paper puts it, no reply does not mean "received". If the site lead has not confirmed the list by the agreed time, the planner calls.
Keep the list to what the gate needs. Names, the start time and the planned slots are enough to let people in and plan the check. Do not attach copies of identity documents to the list.
Agree what the client records. Agree in advance which of the worker's details the client enters in its own records, and who does it, so the security desk does not have to work it out at the gate.
Plan the check as work, not as a favour. Someone at the client checks each original document. A prepared check takes minutes, but only if a person and a place are ready.
Give extra checks their own owner. Workers from outside the EEA and Switzerland, or workers who need a work permit, can involve extra rules. Agree in advance who handles them, and check the current rules with your legal adviser.
The first day checklist in one view
Tick these off before each first shift. Most of them are due the day before, as the table shows.
- Name list of starters sent to the client site lead, who passes it to security
- Start time and where to report sent to the client site lead
- Slot for the client's identity check proposed, and the time and the checker confirmed by the client
- Induction slot proposed and confirmed
- Any extra checks, for example for a worker from outside the EEA and Switzerland or who needs a work permit, given a named owner
- Reply from the client site lead received by the agreed time (if not, the planner calls)
- Starter told the site address, where to report, the start time, who will meet them and to bring their original ID
- Short handover note with the starter's languages, experience and shift preferences sent to the team leader
What should the starter bring and know before they arrive?
The address, the start time, a contact name and their original ID. The day before, the starter should know:
- the site address and where to report
- the start time and the first shift
- who will meet them
- to bring their original passport, identity card or residence document
- anything they need for the job, such as safety shoes in the right size
Be specific about the document. Dutch government guidance (Rijksoverheid) gives a passport, an identity card or a residence document as examples of valid ID. It says a driving licence is not valid for this check, because it does not show nationality. A copy or a photo on a phone will not do either, because the client checks the original.
The same habit helps at every step: tell the candidate what happens next, who has their file and when they will hear. It starts well before day one, when you tell candidates about early starts and shift patterns before they accept.
Why can't the first-day handover be skipped?
Because the client must do its own check at the gate. Dutch government guidance (Rijksoverheid) says a company that hires an agency worker must check the worker's original identity document itself before work starts. The same guidance says the client may not keep a copy in its own records, because the agency is the employer. The exception is workers from outside the EEA and Switzerland.
For more on the checks a company that hires agency workers must do itself, see the hirer's own checks, chain liability and Wav fines.
The research paper calls this kind of handoff structural: it is there by design, and it should stay. The loss is not in the second check. It is in how the check happens: blurred uploads, requests sent at the weekend, and a gate check nobody prepared for.
What can be checked earlier, before an offer, is a different question. It is covered in Verifying Frontline Candidates: Which Identity, Right to Work and Certificate Checks Can Happen Before the Offer?
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Common mistakes
Nobody owns getting the list to the desk. The list exists somewhere, but not at security. Fix: one named person on each side. The agency planner owns the list until the client confirms; the client site lead owns it from then on, including passing it to security. For how an agency and its client agree an owner for every step, see staffing agency responsibilities, step by step.
Taking silence as a yes. Fix: agree a time by which the site lead confirms, and call if nothing comes.
Telling the starter to "bring ID". The starter arrives with a driving licence or a photo on a phone. Fix: name the documents, and say it must be the original.
Treating the gate as the end of the handover. In the paper's example, the starter gets through the induction and then meets a team leader who knows only her name. Fix: send one short handover note with the starter's languages, experience and shift preferences, so the team leader can plan her first week. A recruitment handover template keeps that note short and complete.
What goes wrong when nobody prepares the gate?
Tuesday, 13:40. Three new agency workers arrive for their first late shift and give their names at the security desk.
The guard looks at his screen and then at his clipboard. There is no list. He calls the shift office. Nobody answers, because the site lead is on the floor. Nobody has planned time to check their identity documents. The shift starts at 14:00.
This scene is a composite, not a documented case.
The agency did its part. The workers did theirs. Nobody prepared the gate. A list sent the day before, a confirmed reply and a planned check slot would have turned this into a five-minute stop at the desk.
How Radius helps
Radius Hire is an AI hiring platform for frontline roles, built in Amsterdam for staffing agencies and employers who hire for the work floor. The Radius ATS is built to let agencies run every client's roles in one workspace, with messages, notes and contracts on one candidate record, with permissions per team. Each check keeps its source and its date, and a person decides every hire.