by Jennifer K. Achtert, formerly of Fisher Phillips
California employers must navigate some of the most extensive and complex new hire onboarding requirements in the country, making compliance a critical focus for HR professionals, payroll teams, and people managers. This guide provides a practical overview of California laws governing the information employers must collect from new hires and the notices they are required to deliver during the onboarding process.
Designed to support compliant and efficient onboarding, the guide outlines documents employers must obtain, including materials related to withholding, deductions, and other required employee information, as well as a comprehensive review of documents and notices employers must provide. These include wage notices, employer policies, leave and benefits information, discrimination and harassment notices, pregnancy and lactation rights, privacy disclosures, workers’ compensation notices, and drug and alcohol requirements. The guide also addresses special obligations for temporary or seasonal workers and industry‑ or occupation‑specific notices.
In addition to statewide requirements, this resource covers a wide range of local onboarding notice obligations across California cities and counties, helping employers manage layered compliance in jurisdictions with enhanced worker protections.
Whether you are building onboarding checklists, updating HR documentation, or training managers, this guide serves as a reliable reference for ensuring a consistent, compliant California new hire onboarding process and staying prepared for future legal developments.
In this guide, learn about:
- Documents to obtain from employees
- Withholding and deductions
- Other documents
- Withholding and deductions
- Documents to provide to employees
- Wage notices
- Employer information and policies
- Leave notices
- Benefits notices
- Discrimination and harassment notices
- Pregnancy and lactation notices
- Privacy notices
- Workers’ compensation notices
- Drug and alcohol notices
- Notices for temporary or seasonal workers
- Industry- or occupation-specific notices
- Other notices
- Local requirements
- Belmont notices
- Berkeley notices
- Burlingame notices
- Cupertino notices
- Daly City notices
- El Cerrito notices
- Emeryville notices
- Fremont notices
- Foster City notices
- Glendale notices
- Hayward notices
- Los Altos notices
- Los Angeles notices
- Los Angeles County notices
- Menlo Park notices
- Milpitas notices
- Mountain View notices
- Novato notices
- Oakland notices
- Palo Alto notices
- Petaluma notices
- Redwood City notices
- San Carlos notices
- San Diego notices
- San Francisco notices
- San Leandro notices
- San Mateo notices
- Santa Clara notices
- Santa Monica notices
- Santa Rosa notices
- Sonoma notices
- South San Francisco notices
- Future developments
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About the author
Fisher Phillps
Fisher Phillps represents management in the areas of labor and employment law. Their areas of expertise include employment discrimination and harassment, litigation of employment disputes, labor relations, employee leaves and wage and hour law.
With offices and attorneys admitted in almost every US jurisdiction, Fisher Phillips knows the local courts and agencies where they practice and have the resources to work seamlessly across offices to handle the most complex problems. They assist their clients with respect to global movement of employees, compliance with employment laws and codes of business ethics of other countries, and international employment contract and employee benefits issues.
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