Effective Onboarding Strategies for IT New Hires

A good IT onboarding process is your best tool for getting your new technical staff ready and productive as quickly as possible. With a good IT onboarding checklist, your new employees:

• Know what's expected of them on day one

• Can access their software and systems right away

• Start building connections with other team members

• See the training and certification roadmap you have laid out for them

• Feel seen, supported, and valued

Remember: IT onboarding isn't the same as IT training – it doesn't have to take much longer to onboard an IT team member than any other new employee. However, there are specific steps you should take to ensure IT professionals are onboarded successfully. 

IT Onboarding Checklist

Below, you'll find our IT onboarding checklist. It's short, direct, and straightforward. We'll expand on each item, giving guidance and context for each step in the next sections. Follow along to onboard IT team members quickly and thoroughly.

Preparing for IT Onboarding Before Day One

The first few steps in the checklist will need to be completed before a new hire's first day. These include: 

Define the Role with Clear, Explicit Expectations 

Before IT onboarding happens, define the role, its responsibilities, and measurable expectations. This shouldn't be the same as the job posting; write a new description with internal metrics and expectations. Keep your language simple, short, and direct. New IT hires want to know what they should be focusing on and how to spend their time—tell them clearly.

Get Network Access Ready Beforehand

Work with your existing IT team to ensure that logins, permissions, and resources are ready ahead of time. Nothing saps energy and morale quite like sitting at a computer you can't use all day. If you do nothing else when you onboard IT, make sure logins and accounts work.

Have a Welcome Packet 

If your company already has a welcome packet, review and update it. If not, write one. At a minimum, include essential company information, key contacts, and their orientation/onboarding schedule. Including the organizational structure, company policies, and an FAQ is a good idea, too.

Involve Managers and Supervisors

As often as possible, include the new hire's supervisor and others in their chain of command in the IT onboarding process. Let their leadership team familiarize them with the team culture and provide clear expectations. Manager involvement creates a sense of belonging.

Develop a Training Plan for their Position

A huge factor in employee retention is whether or not the person feels like they have a future at the company. Develop a realistic training plan customized for their IT role: it shows your new IT hire there's a way forward. Retain talent with online training plans – they eliminate confusion, reveal the best ways to spend time and energy, and provide attainable goals that reinforce a sense of belonging.

Assign a Mentor or Buddy

Developing a mentorship program within your company can benefit new hires and long-tenured employees alike. Mentoring helps organizations develop institutional knowledge about technical challenges and encourages a positive company culture. Being able to ask candid questions also helps new hires feel comfortable as they integrate with the team.

Prepare Simple and Straightforward Projects

Brainstorm small projects that your new IT hires can work on independently as soon as possible. Don't micromanage them, but give them small projects that acclimate them to their tools and workflows and provide them with timely feedback. This step-by-step approach gives a comforting sense of expectation-setting and accomplishment.

First-Day Steps On the IT Onboarding Checklist

Now, it's time for their first day on the new team. These steps should be taken on their first day in their new role. 

Introduce Them to Team Members and Stakeholders

Arrange meetings with all team members and important stakeholders as early in the process as possible. Avoid casual and informal "walk-bys" that interrupt people's work. Wherever possible, set an example of respecting people's time by holding short, in-person meetings.

Help Them Set up their Workstation

Be present as they check their logins and set up software, tools, and platforms. When something goes wrong, your familiarity with the IT support system will show them who to ask for help and how.

Cover Policies, Security Protocols, and Company Standards

Depending on the position, some IT hires will already know IT-specific policies related to security and compliance, while others will need orientation on them. However, all new hires need to know company policies associated with keeping digital assets safe. This is also a good time to cover non-technical standards and company rules.

IT Onboarding Checklist Throughout the Onboarding Process

This section covers the IT onboarding steps you'll take throughout the process, not just on the first day. 

Schedule Feedback Meetings

Don't just pop in on the new IT hire throughout their onboarding process—schedule feedback meetings (even if they're just a few minutes long). This keeps them anchored throughout the process and assures them they're not lost in the churn.

Encourage Questions

Give your new IT hires multiple communication channels where they can have their questions answered by the right people. Whether that's email, Slack channels, or in-person, make sure they know where to turn with questions.

Adapt the Process to the Person 

Stay open to feedback and watch for ways the process isn't working on a case-by-case basis. An IT onboarding checklist is meant to help someone become familiar, comfortable, and productive. If it's failing at that, change it.

Get Them Training and Development

Training and certifications are essential to IT work. Familiarize yourself with all the IT credentials relevant to your position. Make sure your new hire understands the importance of pursuing them and knows what tools, funding, or time they have to work on them.

Use a Learning Management System (LMS)

A learning management system (LMS) centralizes training-related tracking and reporting for an entire organization. A good LMS can track progress toward specific goals and create roadmaps for IT staff (new and existing) to follow. With an LMS, you can consolidate training providers into one platform and simplify the continuing education, training, and credentialing process for HR, new staff, and long-time employees.

 IT Training usually comes in three forms: a single-user subscription to a catalog of courses, standalone training modules, or company-wide training programs. Investing in an LMS can help you navigate and select the right form for your company and track individual and collective progress through training.

Support the New Hire for the First Few Months 

Keep checking in with your new hire—it'll help with retention and productivity. A lot can get lost in the cracks of the first few days and weeks on a job, checking back in makes sure nothing gets missed.

Set Long-Term Training and Certification Goals 

Once your new IT hire is situated, set six-month or year-long training goals. If they're a brand new IT hire, the CompTIA A+ is an all-purpose early-career certification. For mid-career IT professionals, the CCNA is a career-defining credential. Or there are specialty credentials for specific jobs like CISSP from ISC2.

Measure If Your IT Onboard Checklist is Successful

Over time, you may need to reevaluate and redo your checklist. These steps will help you spot inefficiencies and find ways to ensure your checklist's long-term success. 

Monitor KPIs

Measure how long it takes new hires to become productive. Track employee retention. Collect feedback about job readiness. Tracking this data and other KPIs sheds light on hidden parts of onboarding and clarifies what is challenging about acclimating to your organization.

Review, Improve, and Document the Onboarding Strategy

Onboarding isn't a static experience. Regularly review all written materials and make sure they're relevant, accurate and error-free. Your onboarding process is the new hire's first exposure to your company culture and expectations: typos, crossed out sections, and inaccuracies create a sense of casual disinterest at best.

Final Thoughts 

A clear, documented IT onboarding checklist gets your new IT hires situated and oriented quickly. It establishes the first impression of your company's work ethic and expectations, and it makes them feel respected and like they belong. Onboarding a new employee doesn't have to take long—use our IT onboarding checklist to streamline the process, reduce stress, and set your new hires up for long-term success.

Incorporating your new personnel into your Learning Management System makes it possible to track their progress toward certification and competency. Integrating your training pipeline with the CBT Nuggets LMS is the most versatile way for your team to train and the easiest way to keep tracking and reporting across training providers in one place.