IT Onboarding: Steps to Follow for a Successful Integration

You have more or less an onboarding process at the IT department level.

Anyway, between you and me, we know very well that you have no choice but to have one, even if it's rickety!

Offboarding can be skipped, but onboarding is absolutely impossible to avoid. Users who arrive must be operational as quickly as possible. It is precisely in this little phrase 'as quickly as possible' that the shoe pinches in most companies.

There is no well-defined onboarding process for a user, and even if it is well-defined, it is often manual.

Why not overlook IT onboarding?

The risks to the company are high when onboarding is not properly executed.

The biggest impact is on the employee's perception upon arrival. If they are not expected, if their access is not ready, they will quickly feel discouraged, and the initial positive energy will disappear just as quickly, giving way to a feeling of bitterness and dejection.

Let's not forget the adage, "You never get a second chance to make a good first impression."

The time wasted for all stakeholders involved is the second risk for the company. A flawed process leads to duplicate data entry for HR and information 'fishing' for the IT department before the user even arrives.

Numerous exchanges take place between HR, IT and managers.

On the arrival day of a new employee, if certain access rights have not been created and activated, the employee will not be able to start working immediately.

Loss of productivity is a significant factor when there is no onboarding process.

➡️ The time it takes to recruit, the time allocated by HR, IT and managers to onboarding, and finally the latency between arrival and the moment when the person is operational, all add up. Errors and omissions result in significant financial losses for the company.

This is surely what leads you to reflect on the subject.

According to a study by Click Boarding

69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for 3 years if they have received good onboarding
58% of employees who have gone through structured onboarding have remained with their company for more than 3 years
50% of new hires' productivity increases when onboarding processes are in place

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What is good onboarding?

Be careful, just because you have put a few small actions in place does not mean you should pat yourself on the back and say: good job!

From an HR perspective, it is important that the onboarding process is not limited to filling out administrative documents, receiving 3 goodies, their cafeteria card, and their access badge.

From an IT point of view, it should not be limited to distributing a few passwords and access rights.

A good onboarding process takes into account the human aspect and not just the administrative procedure.

The administrative part is obviously important, but it shouldn't last more than a morning; the main thing is to integrate new arrivals.

Unfortunately, 62% of HR professionals who responded to the Kronos Inc. survey say that their primary goal is to integrate newcomers, but in reality, only 30% have processes with actions geared in this direction.

It is even recommended to allow newcomers to fill out administrative documents before their arrival so that they can concentrate totally on the human aspect on the 1st day.

The steps of a computer onboarding

The bare minimum required for the arrival of a new employee is:

provide the hardware
Create accounts
configure accounts
grant access.

⚠️ assigning 1st accesses is a major source of vulnerability. Passwords are either given on a piece of paper, or they are a default formula known to everyone (birthday, social security number), or they are identical for everyone. Even if these are one-time passwords, destined to be reset on first connection, it's important to choose a random password with secure transmission.

Secondly, we will have:

Train users
Transmit security rules and best practices

Without automation, this step will be time-consuming, as information must reach the IT department in a scattered manner.

If you start doing clean processes manually, you will need to follow these steps:

Create a common base of applications and software that all users will need.
Create user typologies with managers to apply application groups based on job functions.
Define which applications or user groups are more sensitive than others in order to put increased monitoring on them.
Define a process with HR to identify new users, transfers, and departures. It is best to abandon exchanges by email or telephone, which are too informal. Excel files remain a solution, but you have to remember to check them. Ticketing systems like Jira or others may be more appropriate for tracking and adding information as you go.
Create accounts while applying the specific nomenclatures for each application.
Transmit credentials.
Assist the person with their first logins.

When automated, the process involves far fewer people, is faster, and is highly reliable.

The process will start in the same way as the manual process.

It is necessary to define a common base of applications, however, the configuration will be done in one go. You create a software package with all the nomenclatures for each application such as the display name, the email address...
Then define the application groups according to the different business lines, create specific packages according to the needs. Configure them.

⚠️ this work takes time the first time, as it requires formalizing several packages, but you can do it officially by bringing together HR and managers to clearly define application and rights requirements.
Once this work is done, you're in the clear for all new arrivals.

With each arrival, transfer, or departure, a synchronization is made between the HRIS and the identity and access management platform. You are therefore notified of all changes on the dashboard.
You can manage the creation semi-automatically using packages that you apply to a user, or completely automatically using workflows that you have configured.
Credentials are sent by email or SMS, and the password construction depends on your internal policy; it can be done randomly or, conversely, by using a date of birth, social security number, or other information.

How a new employee onboarding workflow operates:

The HRIS reports the arrival of a new employee, which will automatically create a new user in your IAM solution.
The trigger for the sequence will therefore be the entry of a new employee into the IAM solution.
Depending on the department the new employee will be joining, a filter will trigger the 'marketing onboarding' workflow.
One or more packages will be applied to create account drafts
We can add a waiting step to request that the units only be activated the day before the employee arrives, for example.
The units are activated for account creation.
We can also add a waiting step before sending the identities.
The credentials for the various accounts are sent to users or managers.

There is also access to checklists that will be assigned to a person so that they can check off what has been done:

apply a package / verify the proper execution of a workflow
assign a laptop, a mouse, a screen...
grant access to the printer
grant access to common areas

Remove friction points during IT onboarding

The technical aspect

Onboarding is an extremely sensitive time in the life of a company. Avoid common mistakes such as lack of access to software and forgetting equipment.

The IT department plays a key role in the arrival of an employee, which is why there is a very precise timing to respect: everything must be ready on day one. Any delay leads to a loss of productivity and disruption.

There are not many possibilities; automation is the only one that will help you in your process.

39% of respondents, according to the SHRM website, complain of onboarding difficulties because they do not have an automated process.

The IT onboarding process must be fluid and known to all. Actions must follow one another, and you must be well-rehearsed.

Once the automation of account creation is in place, a large part of the process is already relieved.

The human aspect

Let's move on to the human side. It is not possible to only focus on the material and technical side, the new employee needs human interaction.

The IT department must get in touch with them as early as possible.

Write him an email to introduce yourself so that he knows the different people involved in the company.

It is more pleasant to receive a welcome email rather than 'here are your credentials: id firstname.lastname pwd: Wu7Gkd85J!'

You'll agree, it's rather cold 😂

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Hello {prénom},

Welcome to {entreprise}! We are delighted to welcome you to our teams 😀.

You will receive all the access credentials you need to start working.

You will receive your access credentials in separate emails. Note that each initial password is temporary and must be reset to define a new one.

Our password policy is as follows:

{It's up to you to define it, knowing that a password manager will be the best option and that SSO should be prioritized}.

We have implemented a password manager {manager name}. All your passwords must be chosen randomly and stored in this space.

On this subject, as soon as you can, choose to connect via your Google or Microsoft account to minimize the use of new passwords.

About security:

{If you have MFA}

We have implemented additional security on certain applications that will require you to provide a code from the Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator application. Here is a link to our documentation to understand the procedure if this security measure is new to you 😉.

Les logiciels communs à {nom de votre entreprise} :

To communicate with your colleagues, you will use {Slack, Teams or other}.
To schedule your meetings...
To block meeting rooms, here is the method (link to documentation).
To store your work documents...
Our email address is:

Your job-specific work tools are:

Salesforce, if you need training, don't hesitate to let your manager know.
Canva for creating visuals, posters, videos and more
Brevo to send emails to our customers and prospects

For all new software requests, make a request to your manager, we have a very smooth process internally that will allow you to have a quick response {within Youzer, you have an IT resource request workflow that relieves support and brings transparency and fluidity to the process}.

If you encounter difficulties:

Tu as oublié tes mots de passe ? Pas de panique, il y a une plateforme pour chaque collaborateur qui te permettra de réinitialiser la plupart de tes mots de passe : {lien de la plateforme, une solution d’IAM permet ce genre d’actions}.
Do you have a question for the IT department? We communicate with tickets, by email {support@entreprise.com}.
Having trouble with your hardware? Your contact is... or send an email to support or contact us by ticket.

But don't worry, we are aware that you are receiving a lot of information for your first day, here is a meeting with {first name of a person from IT}.

You will see at that moment the company's security policy, the essential information, and you will meet the support team!

Day and time of the meeting.

Good start at {entreprise}!!

{your first name}

IT service

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In conclusion

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