How IT Solutions Providers Should Prepare For A New Starter

The candidate has accepted the offer and is excited about starting their new role.

However there’s quite a bit of housekeeping to get out of the way first.

As they prepare themselves to join your business, it’s crucial that you too should be getting things ready for their arrival.

Will Martin explains what IT Solutions Providers should do to prepare for a new starter:

“Starting a new role is always a little bit daunting, and their could be some fear around it from the candidate’s perspective.

Making the onboarding process as effective as possible will really help to start their new career on a positive note.

There are a number of things you can put in place before the employee arrives to ensure the right tone is set for their new beginning with your business.

1. Get paperwork out of the way early

First and foremost, get the paperwork out of the way early!

If you can, try to complete it before they arrive.

You don’t want their first day to just be filling out paperwork. They might find this boring and can take a lot of enthusiasm out of their first day.

2. Let the team know about their arrival

Secondly, make sure current employees know about the new starter so they can prepare to welcome them.

People could prepare something to say in advance, and factor into their diaries to spend time with the new starter to make them feel as welcome as possible.

3. Ready their workspace

Thirdly, make sure their workspace is ready.

There is nothing worse than arriving on your first day, trying to log in but can’t, you aren’t able to print, systems aren’t fully operational and then you spend all day on the phone to the IT department to try to get your computer up and running.

It’s frustrating when things aren’t ready.

It could also make them feel like no one was expecting them or really cared to check that your computer was working correctly.

It’s not the right tone for a first day, so ensure their workspace is ready for their arrival.

4. Select a mentor for their first week

Fourthly, select a mentor for their first week.

This is a great idea as it gets them integrated quickly into the business.

You could get someone to offer to be their first week mentor and to show them around if they’re office based.

This will give them a good idea of what a day in the life of your office is really like, introduce them to key members of staff.

If the new starter is fully remote, maybe have the mentor check in with them at the beginning of the day or middle of the afternoon to point them in the right direction.

5. Give them an induction checklist

Fifthly, give them an induction checklist.

This should include:

All the information they require when starting a new role
The people they need to be introduced to
Everyone that they should speak to in the first few days
The types of conversations they should be having around their new start

6. Surprise them!

Lastly, give them a little surprise.

This could be anything from chocolates being delivered or on their desk, a free lunch, a nice welcome message from the CEO or similar.

This is up to you and the culture of your business, but a surprise is a nice touch to make them feel that little bit more special on their first day.”