What to consider when taking on new staff

First impressions count, and this is never more important than when welcoming a new employee. While most companies will focus on the HR aspects of an employee starts, there are several areas from an IT perspective that can make a huge difference to whether an employee feels welcome and can do their job well.

• The starting point is the role that person is doing – are they office-based, will they be working from home occasionally or spending most of their time out of the office? This will determine the equipment you make available to them and whether a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone is most appropriate. Even if they are replacing a previous employee, it is still worth reviewing this if the requirements of the role have changed.
• If you need to purchase new equipment at The Tech Lounge, we will handle everything for you remotely, from purchasing the right equipment to meet your needs, setting it up and testing it before delivering it to your site before your new employee starts.
• If a new member of staff will be using existing equipment, it is also worth cleaning the old machines and devices to remove data relating to the previous user or even material that should not be there – sometimes employees working their notice can be less security conscious, downloading files or visiting websites that could compromise your security.
• You will also need to make sure that you have email accounts and passwords set up and that your new employee has access to the right systems. Again, this needs to be done in good time as you may need to change some of your software agreements if you only have a set number of licences.
• How people need access to your systems, whether remotely or office-based, will also affect how you enable them to do this as well as the way you store your data, whether on your own servers or using cloud-based systems. Again, this may seem like overkill for a new employee, but recruiting additional staff can be a good time to review whether ‘the way you have always done things’ is suitable in the future, particularly if recruiting this employee is at the beginning of a period of growth.
• If your team is expanding, you also need to consider cabling and connections to make sure that you can accommodate additional staff. We will always conduct a site survey and discuss your business needs with you as, if you are planning to continue to expand and recruit more staff in the future, you need to ensure you have the capacity to support your business in the medium term, rather than just for this one employee.

So if you are getting ready to welcome a new employee to your business, don’t forget the IT aspects. And if you are going to get specialist help from an IT company, make sure you check they have experience in this area. We have helped many companies with office moves and ensuring they have the right technology available to support their business as it grows. However, we often get feedback that because we can work around a business with minimal disruption, people hardly know we are there apart from improving the way technology works.

Check out The Tech Lounge Implementation Service and find out how to help you wow your new staff.

Take a look at “What does your computer say about your business?” and remember first impressions count for a lot, even internally.