10 Questions to Ask About IT Assets and New Hire Onboarding

Your IT onboarding and asset management processes may be killing your employee onboarding, employee retention and new hire productivity. 

Say what? Here’s the simple math. Onboarding is the first time a new hire is exposed to how a hiring company actually works, and it can form many lasting impressions. Research performed for Glassdoor found that organizations with a well-designed onboarding process boosted new hire retention by 82% and new hire productivity by over 70%. Considering that hiring a new employee can cost over $4,000 and requires nearly a month, the numbers can quickly add up. 

The Average Onboarding Process Includes Dozens of Steps, Most Touching Tech

In addition to the direct costs, getting ramped at a company is becoming increasingly complex. According to HR software company Sapling, the average new hire onboarding experience includes 54 different activities. This is probably an undercount; onboarding today includes not only getting a laptop and email but also getting set up with all the software and online tools an employee needs to do their job (plus myriad benefits and their associated applications). The typical employee uses 8 SaaS apps, and companies with 1000+ employees average over 200 different SaaS apps. Most organizations support dozens of employee devices across phone, laptop, desktop, tablet and increasingly sophisticated peripherals like printers and video conferencing gear.  

Integrated ITAM is Crucial for Excellence in Bringing New Employees on Board

In other words, your ITAM tools and systems are closely tied to onboarding. In fact, ITAM is the hidden backend processing machine for onboarding. It can either be a secret weapon for employee retention and productivity -  or it can be a massive weakness. IT departments that deliver bad tech onboarding experiences can quickly poison employee sentiment. Even worse, new hires may spend hours or days waiting for the systems and tools they need to be productive on the job. In contrast, a tightly executed and well-designed onboarding playbook can bring new hires up to speed more quickly and also communicate crisply that they are valued and valuable. 

10 Questions to Test IT Onboarding Processes

No IT teams want to deliver a bad onboarding experience. That said, you should ask some pointed questions about your ITAM and your onboarding support to get an objective view of what the experience is really like. Here are 10 questions to ask: 

1. Do new hires regularly require person-to-person assistance with IT onboarding tasks?
2. How many new tools and systems does each new hire require?
3. How many additional new tools and systems does each new hire require for their specific department and role?
4. How much of your onboarding process is automated versus manual?
5. How often do you closely observe all the steps of onboarding to understand what new hires are actually experiencing?  
6. How many asset management systems does IT need to touch to fully equip a new hire?
7. How long do new hires typically have to wait to receive all their new hardware, applications, and peripherals?
8. How many hours does an IT team member spend for each new hire onboarding?
9. How many tickets are required to fully onboard someone?
10. What is the average resolution time of those tickets?

Ask these questions and see what the answers are. This can be the foundation of a more structured assessment of how well your IT organization is onboarding new hires. The results should also help you identify areas for improvement. Ready to get started? If you have specific questions or need help with ITAM methodologies, you can contact us here.