The IT checklist for a new starter's first day

Start the week before, not on the morning

The most common first-day failure in a small office is a new person sitting at a desk reading the staff handbook because nobody created their account. It happens because the request reaches whoever handles IT on Monday morning, at the same moment the new starter does. Fix the timing and most of the problem goes away. As soon as an offer is accepted, the manager sends one short message with the person's name, start date, role, who they report to, and whether they need a laptop, a phone or a desk phone number.

Give that message a fixed home: a form, a shared mailbox or a ticket with your IT provider. Five working days of notice is a sensible minimum, and longer if a laptop has to be ordered, because supply can be patchy and a new machine still needs setting up once it arrives. If someone is hired on a Friday to start on Monday, accept that day one will be rougher and plan a loan device rather than pretending it will be fine.

Accounts and licences

Create the user account in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace with a consistent naming pattern, such as firstname.lastname, so addresses are predictable. Assign the licence the role actually needs; a receptionist who only uses email and Teams may not need the same plan as an accountant who uses desktop Excel all day. Add the person to the right groups rather than granting permissions one folder at a time, because groups are what make the eventual leaver process quick.

Then work through the line-of-business systems: Xero or MYOB, the practice management or job system, the CRM, the bank portal if they handle payments. Each of these usually has its own user list and its own admin. Keep a simple table of every system, who can create users in it and how long it takes, so the person doing onboarding is not hunting for that information every time.

The laptop or desktop

A new starter's computer should be clean, updated and enrolled in your device management before it is handed over. If you reuse a laptop from a former employee, wipe it properly and reinstall rather than just deleting their profile, because old cached files, saved browser passwords and synced folders have a habit of surviving. Check that disk encryption is on, antivirus or endpoint protection is reporting in, and Windows or macOS updates have finished.

Install the standard set of apps your office uses and test that each one opens and signs in. Plug in the dock, monitors and headset at the actual desk if you can. Ten minutes spent checking that the screen layout works and the webcam is not covered by a sticker saves a frustrated phone call on the first morning. Record the serial number against the person's name in your asset list.

Multi-factor sign-in and passwords

Multi-factor authentication is far easier to set up in person than over the phone. Plan to do it with the new starter on their first morning: install the authenticator app on their phone, register it, and test a sign-in. If they are not comfortable using a personal phone for work, decide in advance what the alternative is, such as a hardware security key, rather than leaving the account with no second factor.

Give them a temporary password that must be changed at first sign-in and never email it to their personal address. If your office uses a password manager, invite them to it and show them the shared folders they will use. Make clear that nobody from IT, the bank or Microsoft will ever ask them for their password or a code, and that they should check with a colleague if something feels odd.

Access to files and shared mailboxes

Grant access to the SharePoint sites, Teams channels, shared drives and shared mailboxes their role needs, and stop there. It is tempting to copy another staff member's permissions wholesale, but that person may have collected access over years that a new starter should not have, such as the payroll folder from a time they covered for the bookkeeper. Copy a role template instead, and if you don't have one, create it now. Check printer and scanner access, the door access card or alarm code, and any Wi-Fi details separately from the IT account. Small things like a scan-to-email profile that still shows the previous person's name are what make a new starter feel like an afterthought.

The first-day conversation

Spend ten to fifteen minutes walking the new person through how IT works in your business. Where to ask for help and what details to include. Where files belong, so they don't end up saved on the desktop. How to recognise a suspicious email and who to tell. What the rules are about personal use, phones and working from home. This conversation does more for security than any setting, because people follow habits they were shown on day one.

Finish by asking them to sign in to everything while you are still there. Problems found at 9.30am are easy to fix; problems found at 4.45pm when they try to open the job system become tomorrow's problem. A week later, ask whether anything is still missing. If you would like a second pair of eyes on your onboarding steps, Office IT can review your checklist as part of a health check.