Posted by: TAZ Networks on May 11, 2018 at 9:38 am
Get your eager new employee off to a positive and productive start with the right technology.
As a hiring manager, you’ve brought in many new employees. Now, imagine you’re the one with a new job. You come in on your first day, willing and eager to get started and make a difference. Which of the following scenarios would you prefer?
You are directed to your workstation, but where is the computer? Finally, someone brings one to you, but several keyboard keys are missing or sticking. When you boot it up, it has updates pending. The mouse is so dirty it won’t track across the monitor. Starting up the software you will be expected to use every day you find that all available licenses are in use. You’ll have to “get in line” for a license just to do your job.
On the other hand, imagine sitting at your desk with a brand-new laptop ready to go. Your login and temporary password are handed to you, and you can boot up and log in immediately. Your email is already set up, with several “welcome to the team!” messages waiting for you.
Which situation makes you feel more valued and ready to give your all as a new employee?
As a hiring manager, your new employee’s impressions of your company are often shaped by the technology they use on their very first day.
If you want your new staff to be productive from Day 1, here are a few technical items that can help:
Hardware
If you intend to supply your new employee with a brand-new laptop or desktop, please alert your TAZ Networks account manager as soon as you have an accepted offer and start date. This may seem extreme, but shipping delays happen, and we’d hate for your new staff member to be sitting around twiddling their thumbs on their first day because the new computer request wasn’t put in early enough.
Finding crumbs in the keyboard on the first day of a new job won’t help your new employee feel welcome.
If you intend to reuse an older computer, please consider the age and condition of the computer first. If it’s over three years old, it may be out of warranty and, therefore, much more expensive to support. Now is a good time to replace it. Was it previously used by a heavy-handed desk-snacker? No one likes a keyboard with crumbs in the crevices or a sticky mouse. Help your new employee feel valued with a fresh keyboard and mouse.
With reused computers, we will make sure to run any pending updates as part of the onboarding process.
Whatever you do, please do not run out and buy a computer from a standard electronics store. Odds are near 100% that anything you buy at retail is not going to have the right operating system compatible with your server, cloud network, or other network components. We can order a compatible computer with overnight shipping, if necessary to meet your business needs.
Software
What programs will your new employee need to get their job done? Do a quick license count and make sure you have enough licenses for the number of software users.
This is one of those things that can take more time than seems reasonable. We have a client who needed to add a couple of people to QuickBooks. They version they were running didn’t have any “open” licenses, so they were forced to upgrade. However, their QuickBooks was also several versions old, resulting in the upgrade requiring much more time than they had originally budgeted for.
Once your hardware and software are ready to roll, we can help set up your new employee. There are three areas where we will need your input: basic information, access, and security.
Setting Up
Basics
Three basic pieces of data we will need are the new employee’s name, their position, and their email “handle.” We can base the new user off of a previous profile, or use a custom name if needed. For example, if going your existing standard, Dave Smith and Don Smith might both be DSmith@company.com, we can set up a unique handle for the new employee.
Access
Which company data resources will your new employee need access to? Which files will they need to use, and on which drives are they located? Will they need access to the big color printer down the hall, or will the little black-and-white next door be sufficient? Which email distribution lists should they be on?
If you’re not sure, we can help you work through these questions during the setup.
Security
We “bake-in” as many security protections as we can during every user’s initial set up. We will ask several questions about password management, such as, “Can the user change their own password or does that need supervisory approval?” “How often should we force a password change?” Some of these questions may seem tedious, but we ask them to protect your network as much as possible.
We will also ask about local administration rights – do you want this person to be able to install any software they like, or do you want to keep control over that? We recommend locking down as much as possible to start. We can always grant access later, on a one-time basis or for trusted employees.
Is your employee a no-show?
Lastly, no-shows happen! With the current unemployment rate under 4%, demand for workers is high. This is even more true in STEM-related fields. Don’t be embarrassed if your new employee never shows up on their first day. Just give us a call or put in a ticket note, and we can decommission the new user profile in just minutes.
A little preparation ahead of time can go a long way in making your new employee feel like a valuable part of your team. Technology is an important part of that preparation.
TAZ Networks provides outsourced IT support to businesses in Southeast Michigan with 10-100 employees. For more information on how we can act as your IT team, fill out the form and someone will contact you soon.
New employee photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
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