Proper IT onboarding process is important

New hire onboarding may take days or weeks, even months, depending on your business. In any case, you cannot leave new employees unattended and making their way through all your business processes and procedures themselves. Your IT systems should have top priority on your onboarding list.

It does not matter if you employ only well-known applications to run your business. Your business depends on the proper use of the software, so IT onboarding is in fact critical for your business.

Furthermore, most businesses are online these days and online security is an issue you cannot take lightly. Getting any new employee acquainted with your IT security policies should take place before they start using your business software. The same applies to the use of personal mobile devices for work and for remote access to your business systems.

Main steps for IT onboarding for new employees

Onboarding new employees is a process where you, in theory, should take into account literary any event or scenario that can occur at work. This, of course, is impossible but in the case of IT onboarding, you need to follow a few simple steps to familiarize new employees with your IT basic policies.

First of all, you need to know their proficiency in any software you may use. Asking questions during the job interview process is one thing while testing a new employee’s skills during the actual work process gives you a better overview of his or her IT abilities.

Provide a new employee with all the IT training materials and manuals on the very first workday. Also, provide new hires with any IT policies you have adopted. Encourage new employees to ask any questions they may have concerning your software systems and IT policies.

Do not forget that your IT assets include both software and hardware. Provide a new employee with complete instructions regarding the use of equipment such as printers, faxes, copiers, multifunctional office devices, or any other office equipment you have. You should also make them aware of the basic safety measures when operating the available office equipment.

Sample IT onboarding checklist

Regardless of the number of business apps you use or the complexity of your IT business systems, you should stick to an IT onboarding checklist that includes at least the following steps:

• Check in with new hires to see if they have properly installed all software.
• If necessary, schedule trainings on:
• Security policies
• Best practices when using office equipment
• Productivity tips for commonly used tools.
• Answer specific questions new hires may have after using tools for a while.
• Sign new hires up for routine security training exercises.

Source:Workable

You can always extend your IT onboarding checklist with additional trainings but the above list contains all the basic steps you need to implement. Each of these steps may include different sub-tasks, depending on your specific business and IT systems in place.

P.S. Check this guide on how to improve your onboarding.