How to create an efficient IT onboarding experience

According to LinkedIn, companies with a well-designed onboarding process experience 50% greater new hire retention. Creating a great onboarding experience is essential to building a culture where people are excited to work. While a great onboarding experience should include opportunities for shadowing, clear role expectations, and fun team events to get to know each other, it should also provide training for new employees on how to use their technology.

But getting new employees set up with their technology isn’t easy. There are several considerations from a security, HR, access, and workplace standpoint. Plus, you want your employees to feel comfortable and confident using the technology as they embark on their new job. You want them to know how to login to their accounts, schedule their days onsite, or report any tech issues. If your company uses a consolidated workplace platform, you’ll want to make sure your employees know how all the pieces work together.To help you create a great IT onboarding experience for your employees without placing extra work on your shoulders, we’ve created a checklist to run an efficient IT onboarding. Download the checklist for the full step-by-step or catch up on the highlights below.

1. Understand new employees’ technology needs

You’ll want to start by first identifying each new employees’ job function. That will determine the types of hardware and level of security access they’ll need to perform their job.Employees will also need access to the appropriate software for their role. A member of the data team might need SQL or Excel downloaded on their computer. A member of the design team might need Photoshop or Adobe. Once you’ve identified the hardware and software they need, build a profile for each employee. List out what devices you’ve issued out and what software you’ve installed on them. This will help you later on when you are offboarding employees.

2. Set up technology before the first day

The next step is to prepare the technology before the first day of orientation. Make sure you install security software on each device to ensure privacy and protection. You’ll also want to create any necessary accounts they’ll need. Every employee is going to need a company email address, Slack profile, Zoom account, and more. Plus, you’ll want to get them access to their payroll information, benefits, and other employee documents. When your employees come onsite for their first day, make sure you have their laptops and other equipment ready to go. You’ll want them to be pre-installed with the security software as well as any other job-specific tools. If you have remote or distributed employees, make sure you ship out their equipment well in advance.

3. Onboard employees with the support of your team

As part of orientation, set up an hour-long technical workshop where you can help employees enter account details and access their profiles. This way, employees who have questions or get stuck can get an answer right away. You’ll want to use this time you have with employees to inform them of the security best practices your company follows. Help employees set up secure password management. Make them be aware of phishing emails. Also, give employees a quick walkthrough of how to contact tech support if they ever encounter an issue down the line.

4. Get employees set up to come to the workplace

Once your employees are set up with the tools they’ll need to do their job, you’ll need to onboard them on how to use the tools to access where they’re going to their job. That means getting them comfortable with the workplace technology that allows employees to enter the office, book a desk, reserve a meeting room, and more. This should include how they access the building, schedule a day in the office, book a desk, reserve meeting rooms, and locate their deliveries. Be sure to cover all of the helpful onsite features such as the ability to find where their manager is sitting or book a desk based on amenities.

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‍According to our recent At Work workplace trends report, 34% of employees cite slow or outdated technology as a major deal breaker for returning to the workplace. You want to be sure you’re creating the best experience possible with the technology you offer—and that starts on day one by efficiently onboarding employees to your workplace tech stack.