Onboarding a new employee? You’ve found a great hire, interviewed, and got them to sign their offer letter. Their first day is scheduled. Now what?
That all depends on how you want their first day to go. Are they going to be waiting on equipment and account set ups? Are they spending a week going through documentation? Are they replacing a newly departed employee?
If it were me, I’d like not to have to worry about who to ask for a computer, mouse, or email account. Starting a new job has enough uncertainty. Here are some things to do to ensure their first day goes smoothly.
- Confer with your HR department and IT department or MSP. Do they have a new hire procedure? If so, great! If not, you should create one. This ensures all the people that need to know about the new hire are ready for the start date.
- Decide what your new hire will need to access when they start. If you use specialized line-of-business software or accounting software, they will need a sign on for that. If you have a cloud file sync system, they will need an account for that. If you use a business-class email system or active directory system... well, you get the picture. With that, providing the title of the new hire to the team responsible for setup will ensure that that information is configured.
- Computing equipment is essential to doing many jobs. Do you have the inventory for this new hire? What kind of system does this position require? Give the team configuring it a heads up if you need hardware. Ordering something can take a couple of weeks. Do you need something faster or will they be able to use a temp machine for a couple of days.
- Lastly, it is not best practice to simply rename a user on a computer. CTTS always recommends a fresh OS install for new hires for security reasons – there could be something lurking in the browser history. We would backup the data, reinstall the OS and all important applications, and set up the new user. That ensures the system has all the files and applications needed without anything that might have been left from the previous user that could compromise the system.
As an aside, you might also see if your IT team offers an IT orientation – a basic tour of the system, what to access and where, the rules. This has the added benefit of introducing your new team member to IT support so they know who to go to if help is needed.
Contact CTTS today to set up an onboarding process for your company! (512) 388-5559!
By Josh Wilmoth
CEO, Central Texas Technology Solutions