IT Equipment Checklist for Onboarding New Employees

The first day experience for a new employee is shaped by whether their equipment is ready, their accounts are set up, and someone knows they were coming. IT is a significant part of that experience — and a poor IT onboarding reflects badly on the whole organisation.

For IT teams, onboarding is also the critical moment to get asset assignments into your records before equipment disperses into the organisation and becomes harder to track.

Before the new hire starts

• Identify which equipment the new hire needs based on their role — laptop specification, peripherals, phone if applicable
• Check your asset register for available equipment that meets the requirement; avoid buying new if a suitable device is unassigned
• Configure the device: operating system updates, security policies, endpoint protection, and MDM enrolment
• Install role-specific software and request licence assignments for any seat-limited tools
• Prepare access credentials and document any temporary passwords that will need to be changed on first login
• Update your asset register to reflect the upcoming assignment with the new employee's name and start date

Day one setup

• Hand over equipment with a signed receipt or logged assignment — this is your paper trail for the asset
• Walk the new hire through the equipment and any IT policies relevant to their device use
• Confirm all software and access is working before leaving them to it
• Issue any physical items — access cards, security keys, or other hardware — and record them in your asset register
• Set a reminder to follow up within the first week to address any IT issues before they become frustrations

Tracking assignments in your ITAM system

Every piece of equipment given to a new hire should be assigned to them in your asset management system on their start date. This creates a record of who has what, when the assignment started, and what the handover condition was.

Good asset management systems also track assignment history, so when the employee eventually moves on, you can see exactly what they were issued and for how long — useful for resolving any disputes and for reviewing whether your onboarding standard loadout needs updating.

Offboarding: the other side of the coin

Asset onboarding and offboarding are two sides of the same process. The equipment you carefully record at the start of employment needs to come back when someone leaves — and the same discipline applies: check it in on their last day, not three weeks later.

A well-maintained asset register makes offboarding straightforward: pull up the employee's profile, see every asset assigned to them, and work through the list. Anything not returned gets flagged immediately rather than discovered missing months later.