The first day, the first week, the first month.

Before the start date

The fortnight between accepting and arriving is the period with the highest risk of a candidate accepting something else, and most companies go completely quiet during it.

• Agreement signed and countersigned
• Equipment ordered — this is the longest lead time and the likeliest thing to go wrong
• Accounts created, not just requested
• First-day plan sent to the joiner so they know what to expect
• Team told who is starting, when, and what they will be doing

Day one

The goal of the first day is that the person can do something real. Everything else is secondary to that.

• Access working — tested before they arrive, not discovered at 09:15
• Introduction to their manager and their immediate team
• Policies to acknowledge, with time set aside to actually read them
• Their responsibilities explained — what the business will depend on them for
• Somebody named to have lunch with

The first week

• Introductions to the people the role template says they need to meet
• Mandatory training started, with a date to complete it by
• A first piece of real work, however small
• Manager check-in at the end of the week — fifteen minutes, three questions

The first month

• Thirty-day objectives agreed at the start, reviewed at the end
• Remaining access granted as the role actually requires it, not preemptively
• Feedback in both directions — including what was confusing about joining
• Responsibilities formally accepted rather than assumed

Who owns each step

Assign by role rather than by name, so the checklist still resolves when the person who normally handles IT changes. In most companies of this size there are four owners: the manager, the joiner themselves, whoever handles systems and whoever handles administration. Anything not assigned to one of those four will not happen.

The step almost everybody misses

Write down what this person's predecessor owned, and confirm which of it is actually transferring. A new starter in an existing role frequently inherits the job title and not the responsibilities, which then sit unowned until something goes wrong.