IT onboarding checklist for IT teams
IT onboarding decides what a new employee can log in to, on what hardware, and with what level of access from their first hour. When it's improvised, the hire waits days for accounts that should have existed on day one, IT answers a separate ticket for every missing tool, and access copied from a colleague's profile stays in place long after anyone remembers why it was granted.
This IT onboarding checklist covers the provisioning work between the hiring request landing with a confirmed start date and the new hire verified working in every system on day one. It's written for the IT team, or for whoever handles IT at a smaller company, and sticks to the technical side; the hiring manager's own onboarding process runs alongside it.
Frequently asked questions
How far in advance should IT onboarding start?
Two weeks before the start date at a minimum, and as soon as the offer is signed when hardware has to ship. Laptop orders and shipping eat most of that window; accounts and access can be created in the final few days. Starting later than two weeks is how day-one hires end up borrowing laptops.
Who should own IT onboarding at a company without an IT team?
One named person, usually the office manager or operations lead, with an IT provider handling the technical setup. The failure mode is splitting the work between the hiring manager and whoever is nearest a spare laptop, because every step then depends on someone remembering. Name the owner in the onboarding ticket itself.
Should new hires get local admin rights on their laptops?
For most roles, no. Standard accounts with elevation on request through [your device management tool] cover occasional installs without leaving permanent admin access behind. Engineers are the usual exception, since their tooling often requires it; grant it per role, record it in the ticket, and review it in your access audits.
What do you do when the laptop won't arrive by day one?
Issue a loaner from your spare pool and continue onboarding as planned; keeping one or two spare laptops per office makes a late shipment a scheduling detail. Without a loaner, front-load browser-based work: most identity providers let the hire enroll in MFA and reach email from any machine while the laptop catches up.
Do you need dedicated software to run IT onboarding, or is a checklist enough?
A checklist is enough below roughly two hires a month; the process needs a reliable sequence more than it needs automation. Identity providers automate account creation but not the handoffs between IT, the hiring manager, and the new hire. Teams that work in Slack can run the checklist there with a tool like Chaser, so each step has an owner and a due date.
