Everything About IT Onboarding + Checklist

Smooth, efficient IT onboarding is critical on many levels. Not only does it increase employee ramp time and boost productivity, but it also heavily impacts employee satisfaction and long-term retention. 

Here’s everything you need to know about IT onboarding to get it firing on all cylinders. 

What is IT Onboarding? 

IT onboarding is the end-to-end process of getting a new team member up to speed and fully equipping them with the hardware, software, and knowledge to perform their job at a high level. 

The IT onboarding process involves four main areas. 

First, you must get the right hardware for an employee, such as a desktop, laptop, tablet, or other office equipment. (An IT procurement solution like allwhere could make this much easier for you…more on that later.) 

Second, the employee needs the necessary software, including apps, user accounts, and platforms. 

Third, your IT team must give them appropriate access for each user account and tool, such as login information and passwords, so they can access what they need. 

With that said, you want to ensure that they don’t have unnecessary access to company accounts, as being able to view sensitive information can create security concerns. 

Fourth, a new hire needs training on how to use hardware, software, and every tool involved in their day-to-day tasks so they can quickly learn the essentials and be a productive member of your team after their training session. 

IT Onboarding Template Checklist

A comprehensive IT onboarding checklist is a big part of effective onboarding and ensures consistency across multiple hires. 

Here’s a downloadable onboarding template to make the process structured and phased throughout the employee onboarding process. 

☑️Identify Necessary Devices

Decide which specific devices a new hire needs on your onboarding checklist, such as:

• A desktop
• A laptop
• A tablet
• A smartphone
• Wearables
• A keyboard
• A mouse
• Electronics accessories
• Office equipment

☑️Create a Device Ordering System

Develop a procurement system so that you can conveniently get the right tools to a new employee during their onboarding journey. This is something you can do in-house. Or you can use professional IT procurement services to handle it for you. 

☑️Set Up Devices and Accounts

Ensure each device is properly configured to be ready for use right out of the box. For example, you may need to install certain software and apps on a desktop and set up a network for remote employees. This should make for a better onboarding experience and eliminate unnecessary friction. 

☑️Provide a New Team Member with Devices

This step in the onboarding checklist involves getting the necessary tools — physical and virtual — into the hands of a new employee. 

☑️Grant Necessary Access

Determine what level of access an employee should have to your company network, apps, and platforms, as well as your employee onboarding software tool and HR software. Ideally, you’ll grant the bare minimum access to prevent unauthorized access and enforce security policies. 

☑️Set Up Security Protocols

This can include creating strong passwords, requiring multi-factor authentication, and providing employees with steps to take if they notice any suspicious activity during new hire onboarding and beyond. 

☑️Provide Training Via an Onboarding Program

The final phase of the onboarding checklist is offering comprehensive training resources to facilitate more efficient onboarding and appointing a specific point of contact if questions arise. Also, give them a glimpse into your company culture to help them fit in quickly. 

The IT Onboarding Process

While there will be some overlap with the IT onboarding checklist we just discussed, here are the nuts and bolts of the IT onboarding process. 

1. Create User Accounts for Email, Messaging, and Other Necessary Software and Tools

Here, you set up each relevant account and onboarding tool that an employee will need to perform their job duties. Doing this beforehand is important, as it helps an employee get up and going without having to manually do a lot of meticulous, repetitive tasks. 

In turn, they can dive headfirst into their job to speed up ramp time. Not to mention, it creates a strong first impression that can factor into long-term retention. 

2. Order and Set Up New Equipment

Efficient IT asset procurement is vital during onboarding because any hiccups can derail your progress and put your employees and company behind. 

The chance of issues arising often increases when there’s remote onboarding, where team members are scattered around the country or the world. 

Because of the inherent logistics complexities, many companies prefer to outsource this stage of the IT onboarding process by using IT management services. 

For example, allwhere can ensure reliable onboarding by ordering, setting up, and deploying IT equipment with zero touches on your end. That way, a new employee can get the equipment they need, regardless of where they’re located, quickly and painlessly. 

All the while, you can conveniently track all of your assets from a centralized dashboard for more effective IT onboarding. If you’re curious about the concept of IT management services, you can learn more in the related posts on our blog. 

3. Give Employees Access to All Accounts and Passwords

All accounts, like apps, software platforms, and CRMs, should be assembled, along with passwords, so employees can have access at a glance. Ideally, these will be put together in a single resource for quick reference. 

Just remember to take security precautions when granting access and creating passwords so that your security policies are upheld. 

4. Complete an IT Onboarding Training Meeting

Here, you’ll want to have an official IT onboarding training meeting, where you go over the essentials of the onboarding process, as well as the offboarding process for a departing employee.

Some topics to cover may include:

• IT assets that an employee will be using
• How to use IT hardware and software
• In-person or digital training resources
• Interactive exercises for using IT assets 
• Security policies and security guidelines
• Where to turn to for help when reporting a technical issue
• Offboarding checklist

Also, don’t forget to gather essential information like contact information, emergency contacts, and preferred IT equipment through an onboarding form. 

This should help things get started on the right foot, as optimized onboarding with fluent communication can get new employees to full productivity two months faster.

5. Provide Security Training

Research has found that around 600 million cybersecurity attacks happen every day, totaling over 219 trillion attacks per year. 

That’s why the final phase of the IT onboarding process should tackle security training head-on, where a new employee learns about:

• Common types of security threats
• Security best practices
• How to identify potential issues
• How to effectively respond

IT Onboarding Best Practices

1. Use an IT Onboarding Checklist for Consistency

Studies have found that “Organizations with a standard onboarding process have 50% higher new hire productivity.” Further, it can improve a team member’s performance by 11.5%. 

Using a formal IT onboarding checklist like the one featured above should ensure consistency from hire to hire and over multiple years. 

With an onboarding checklist, it’s easier to keep new hires on the same page, as everyone is following a systematized process outlined on your onboarding checklist. 

2. Have a Fleshed-Out IT Asset Procurement Strategy

Being able to efficiently get IT assets into the hands of new hires, whether they’re in-house or working remotely, is of the utmost importance. 

When onboarding new employees, you don’t want to haphazardly grab hardware, software, and tools from random vendors and hope for the best. 

Rather, you want a fully crystallized procurement strategy so you only buy from reputable vendors and can distribute IT assets within a reasonable timeframe for a positive onboarding experience. 

3. Create a Plan Specifically for Remote Hires 

Roughly 22% of Americans (36.2 million people) worked remotely in 2025, and that number will only continue to grow. 

With remote hires being especially common in the IT sector, it’s crucial that you can tailor IT onboarding specifically for remote hires — something that requires even more detailed logistics. 

If you have a remote-heavy workforce, partnering with a third-party IT procurement and asset management provider is often the most efficient route, as doing it in-house can lead to complications, especially at scale. 

4. Use Meetings and Ongoing Training to Stay Connected

The onboarding process should never be treated as a one-off type of deal. Rather, it should be viewed as iterative, where you’ll want to maintain consistent communication with employees, which can be done through meetings and ongoing training. 

This gives you a chance to answer questions, maximize productivity, stay current with IT updates, and snuff out small issues before they have a chance to escalate. 

5. Use Automation to Streamline IT Onboarding

Several aspects of IT onboarding tasks can be automated, including:

• Device procurement
• Software installation and configuration
• Asset tracking and management
• Employee notification of when devices will be arriving via email, text, or online messaging
• Employee access management

Used together, automation can go a long way in increasing efficiency and accelerating employee ramp time.

Take the Hassle Out of IT Onboarding with allwhere

Given how essential the IT onboarding process is to providing an enjoyable onboarding experience and long-term employee success, it’s not something you want to leave to chance. 

There are a lot of moving parts to the onboarding checklist, which is why it’s so helpful to use a professional third party like allwhere. 

allwhere handles IT onboarding from start to finish, offering global procurement from leading IT providers, end-to-end logistics, laser-fast IT deployment, and tracking. That way, key onboarding tasks can be handled efficiently while equipping each new hire for success. 

Learn more about how allwhere works here. 

Or check out a real-life case study here.

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