Building an onboarding plan in Ireland
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Getting onboarding right in Ireland means covering three distinct tracks at once: the legal and payroll obligations, the contractual paperwork, and the practical integration of a new person into the team. Miss any one of them and you create problems that are harder to fix later.
Track 1: Sort the tax and payroll setup before day one
Before your new employee sets foot in the office, you need their Personal Public Service (PPS) number and you need to register them with Revenue.
Here is the sequence:
1. Get their PPS number. The employee provides this to you directly. Without it, you cannot set up payroll correctly.
2. Register the employment with Revenue. You do this through ROS (Revenue Online Service). Revenue will issue a Revenue Payroll Notification (RPN) for the employee, which tells your payroll system what tax credits and cut-off points to apply.
3. Apply the correct deductions from the first payslip. Irish payroll involves three separate deductions: income tax (20% up to the standard rate band, 40% above it), USC at banded rates of 0.5%, 2%, 3%, and 8%, and PRSI at 4.1% for the employee and 11.15% for you as the employer under Class A.
4. Submit your first payroll report to Revenue on or before payday. Real-time reporting is a legal requirement in Ireland. There is no grace period — the submission must go in on or before each payment date, not after.
If you bring someone on without an RPN, you operate emergency tax, which will result in the employee being overtaxed. That creates friction and a bad first impression. Do this step early.
Track 2: Written contracts and statutory statements
Irish employment law requires a written statement of core terms within five days of the start date, and a full written contract within one month. This is not optional.
The contract should cover at minimum:
- Job title and description
- Start date and place of work
- Pay rate and payment frequency
- Working hours
- Annual leave entitlement (the statutory minimum is four working weeks)
- Notice periods
- Any probationary period and its terms
If the role involves a probationary period, the maximum under Irish law is six months, extendable to twelve months in limited circumstances. Be specific in the contract about how performance will be reviewed during that period.
If the employee will work remotely some or all of the time, include a remote working clause. It does not need to be elaborate, but it should state expectations clearly.
Track 3: Pension and auto-enrolment
Ireland is introducing mandatory pension auto-enrolment through a scheme called My Future Fund, coming into effect from 2026. If you are onboarding employees now, you need to factor this into your planning.
Under auto-enrolment, eligible employees who are not already in a qualifying pension scheme will be enrolled automatically. Both employer and employee contributions will be required, phased in over time. If you already run a company pension scheme, check whether it qualifies so that newly hired employees are covered from day one rather than defaulting into the state scheme.
For any employee you onboard, ask early whether they are already contributing to a pension. If not, they will likely fall within the auto-enrolment scope. Being proactive here avoids administrative catch-up later.
Track 4: The practical integration plan
The legal and payroll side gets a lot of attention, but the practical side matters just as much for retention.
Structure the first few weeks with intent:
- Week 1: Focus on orientation. Who does what, how the team communicates, where to find things. Introductions to key people. No expectation of full productivity yet.
- Weeks 2–4: Introduce tools, systems, and responsibilities gradually. Pair the new person with a colleague who can answer questions informally.
- Month 1 check-in: A structured one-to-one to ask how things are going, what is unclear, and what support they need. Do not wait for the probation review to have this conversation.
- Three-month review: Assess against the role's objectives. Document this, especially if there are performance concerns, so that any probation decision is defensible.
Build the plan into a shared document that HR, line managers, and the employee can all see. Verbal onboarding is inconsistent and unverifiable.
A note on compliance documentation
Keep copies of everything: the signed contract, the RPN receipt, payslips, and records of any onboarding meetings. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) can request employment records going back years, and the burden is on the employer to produce them. A simple folder per employee — physical or digital — is sufficient.
If you are hiring across multiple jurisdictions or through an employer of record arrangement, see how Mellow runs payroll across six countries for how the compliance layers differ by country.
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