What to do when preparing the IT environment for new employees: "Pre-onboarding Checklist"

"The PC hadn't arrived on the first day of work."
"Email setup wasn't finished in time, so I couldn't work properly for the first week."
"No one knew which systems I had access to."

Many companies experience this kind of confusion when preparing to welcome new employees.

IT issues on the first day of work not only lower a new employee's motivation but also affect the trust they have in the company.Creating a preparation checklist in advance can almost entirely prevent such confusion.

In this article, we have compiled the IT environment preparations that a company should have in place when a new employee joins, in a checklist format.

1. Things to prepare before the joining date

1️⃣ PC procurement and initial setup

Procure the PC and complete the basic initial setup by the joining date.
"Handing it over just as it arrived" will take time to set up, leaving the employee unable to work from day one.

Checklist items:

• PC procurement and ordering (by 1–2 weeks before the joining date)

• OS updates and installation of security software

• Setup of company standard applications (Office, such as Word and Excel)

• Connection settings for company Wi-Fi

2️⃣ Email and account creation

Ideally, accounts used for work should be created by the day before the joining date.
Ensuring they can be contacted from the first day is the foundation of a smooth onboarding process.

Checklist items:

• Creation of company email address

• Invitation to chat tools (such as Chatwork or Teams)

• Registration for the attendance management system

3️⃣ Granting access rights to necessary systems and tools

Confirm with the supervisor before the joining date which systems the employee should have access to. The basic rule of security is to grant only the permissions necessary for their work, rather than "everything just in case."

Checklist items:

• Set access permissions for internal shared folders

• Create accounts for business systems (accounting, customer management, etc.)

• Send invitations for cloud storage (OneDrive, Google Drive, etc.)

2. Things to guide on the first day of work

Even if everything is ready, it is meaningless if they do not know how to use it.
Be sure to provide the following information as a set on their first day.

Explanation of internal IT rules

• Password setting rules

• Data storage locations (e.g., cloud only)

• Rules for using personal USB drives or personal devices

• What to do when receiving suspicious emails

Sharing emergency contact information

• Who to report to when IT issues occur

• Communication flow during system outages

Creating a situation where they know who to ask when they are in trouble from the very beginning leads to a sense of security for new employees.

3. Create a "template" for the preparation list

If you think from scratch every time, things will be missed when the person in charge changes.
Based on the content here, we recommend creating a single "New Employee IT Preparation Checklist" for your company.

By simply checking the list every time someone joins, you can eliminate preparation oversights and significantly reduce the burden on the person in charge of onboarding.

Summary: The "IT environment" on the first day determines the first impression

For new employees, the IT environment on their first day is one of their first impressions of the company.
Whether they feel that "this is a company that is well-prepared" depends on your prior preparation.

First, please use the checklist in this article as a reference to review your company's preparation workflow.

📖 Recommended reading

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At IT Work Lab, we provide support for small and medium-sized enterprises in areas such as:

• IT environment setup and configuration support for new employees

• Creation of internal IT rules and checklists

• Review and improvement proposals for the entire IT environment

If your company finds itself "rushing every time," please feel free to contact us.

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