Welcoming new members to your company can be an exciting time, with the hope of their skills and experience further developing and supporting the growth of your business. However, the onboarding process needs to be efficient and effective to ensure a positive example of your organisation is set, and that you can leverage the new hire’s abilities as soon as possible.
Key to this strong start is ensuring your IT onboarding process is fit for purpose and ideally organised ahead of their arrival. Failure to do so can mean days (or weeks) of non-productive drifting. No matter how well the new starter knows their team, new role and clients, they won’t be productive unless they have their tech sorted. With the average weekly earnings for employees in Australia coming in at AU$1,748.00, this could be potentially costly wasted downtime.
Let’s dive in and explore:
- How to prepare for new employee IT onboarding
- IT onboarding checklist
- Training sessions
How to Prepare for New Employee IT Onboarding
In the lead up to people starting a new role it can be helpful to have a process in place where the hiring manager, or other designated team member, checks in with HR to discover details about the new hire and their position. This will enable you to discover what is required to prepare in advance of their first day.
Here’s what we find needs to be managed most:
- Hardware (laptop / tablet / phone)
- Software (email / drives / docs)
- Access (logins / security)
If there is an existing onboarding process in your company that covers aspects such as payroll, introduction to clients and team, facilities and the like, coordinate with the relevant colleagues to ensure that the IT onboarding is factored into this and prioritised.
For some companies, you may be able to arrange all of this yourself, but if there isn’t the capacity to coordinate this inhouse, you can always consider outsourcing the IT onboarding process to a managed IT services provider.
IT Onboarding Checklist
Here is a checklist of how you can prepare for new employee IT onboarding. This is a standard list which covers the most common bases.
Personal Information
- Name and contact details
- Position title and department
- Starting date
- Software and hardware requirements
- Additional equipment needed
- Access and authorisation requirements online and offline (data access, building/room locations, after hours)
Email Setup
- Mailbox setup
- Email signature
- Anti-spam and security software
- Training
Hardware Requisition and Training
- Phone (desktop with headset, mobile phone)
- Monitor/s, keyboard, mouse, laptop
- Anything required for remote working in addition to inhouse
Software Requisition and Training
- Microsoft 365
- Introduction to basic use (if not already familiar)
- Security best practises
Access
- Network setup – company wide and department
- Personal storage setting
- Access to specific shared drives (as relevant to the job title)
- Print drivers
- Phone network / voicemail
IT Training Sessions
Training sessions across the onboarding process for new team members, including IT specific sessions are often required, particularly in larger companies.
Regardless of organisation size, it can save a great deal of time if you schedule these sessions in advance so new hires are engaged from the start and can see you are organised, prepared for their arrival, and invested in the success of the role and the company.
Pre-Recorded Training
If you find that the same information needs to be shared with each recruit, it can be worth considering creating a training video for specific topics that can be viewed on day one, perhaps scheduled between face-to-face meetings. This content can live on the intranet if your company has one set up, or in an easy to access location for all staff.
The benefits of pre-recorded training:
- Saves time for staff running training regularly
- Can be updated as needed so it is always relevant
- Accessible after viewing if clarification is needed.
Like Support With Your New starter IT Onboarding?
Having all tech needs in place before a new starter commences their role will ensure that they can hit the ground running from day one, and allow you to focus on welcoming them into your team.
If you want to experience the benefits but can’t see how you’ll have the time to arrange what is required in house, managed IT services could be for you. We get it, you’re busy and you might not have a dedicated IT support person or team.
At Discover we let you focus on running and growing your business, while we handle your IT. From Office 365 installation and IT onboarding for new starters, through to security and network design, we offer managed IT services for businesses of all sizes. Better still, our services are a fraction of the cost of having inhouse IT support.
Contact us today to discuss how our managed IT services can benefit your business.
