How do we get our IT systems ready for new starters?

As the economy recovers, we are hiring again. How do we get our IT systems ready for new starters?

Staff induction is a key activity in any growth company. Getting induction right will make your company stand out and be more desirable than those companies who do not put the effort in.

All too often we get the last minute call as a new staff member is starting and there is no IT gear in place for them. Clearly it is important to get your induction processes right so that when a new person arrives they feel cared for, valued and useful to the organisation.

Being given a very old computer that was just dusted off will not impress anyone, especially a Gen Y person who has a great computer at home. You could let them start and then drip feed them with the IT environment they need over the next weeks and months. What if this leads to a disengaged employee who costs you thousands of dollars before they ultimately resign and cost you even more?

So what do you need to have ready to place a new starter into a good IT environment?

• Policies
• Security settings
• File access
• Applications that let them work efficiently
• Hardware
• Mobility solutions

Note I start with policies as it is dangerous to hand someone a loaded computer without first handing them the rules that limit the use of such a dangerous device. Safety briefings come before hands on use with most power tools in industry, computers should be no different.

Today it takes only a careless moment on the web with social networking to say the wrong thing about a company one has just entered or to blast out emails to a list of clients or a list of old contacts. Clearly policies on acceptable use of web, email and social media are very important to the reputation of your business. Starting here is always a good idea.

So once you have your policies in place and printed in the induction manual that gets signed off you can keep them on your intranet and send updates to your staff as they are modified over time.

Next you need to set up your server based accounts to ensure the correct security levels have been set up, giving them access to the information they require to do their job and keeping them out of the files they should not be looking at such as finance, HR or R&D.

Next, ensure you have the right applications to support the work the staff do efficiently. Not too many companies would hire a bookkeeper today and point them at a spreadsheet to manage the company accounts. They would have a finance application that automates and controls a lot of the processes and integrates with the ATO. Yet so many companies hire sales staff without a sales tracking application and admin staff without a document management system or task management system.

The right tools improve the productivity of your staff and the visibility of the work they are doing and save you hours of work and thousands of dollars. If you haven't got all of these, spend a little time researching what applications assist which staff roles.

Today there is a small business version of just about every productivity tool used by the big companies. Read more on software systems here. Then of course you need to include the training in the correct use of each of these applications, plus the setup and configuration of the right access levels for the job role into your induction process.

Now you are ready to select hardware. Standardisation across your company is the key here. Keep it as simple as possible to reduce IT costs. Read more on hardware selection here.

If your new recruit is going to be out and about make sure they can work from anywhere to drive quality of information and productivity of your staff. Mobility is relatively cheap today and will enable your staff to do what they need to do when and where they need to do it. You can read more about this too.

So when is the right time to start all of this?

Of course the answer is, if you are going to hire staff you need to have most of this ready before you look for the person. When you are so busy in your small business that you are forced to hire one more person, it is not the time to build significant new processes or procedures. Chances are you will not have time to do it properly then. So start now to ensure you are in better shape when you need to be.

David Markus is the founder of Melbourne's IT services company Combo. His focus is on big picture thinking to create value in IT systems for the SME sector.