Get New Hires Working Faster: 5 Simple Steps to Streamline Your Hardware Turnaround Process

When you recruit new hires, you’re optimistic they’ll meet all your productivity expectations. But a few weeks later, they are unproductive despite being talented and promising. So, you wonder why this is happening. Maybe your employees are waiting too long to access necessary tools, something that’s common in organizations.

According to onboarding statistics on StrongDM, 43% of new workers wait for more than a week for basic workplace logistics and tools to be set up. The good news is you can prevent delays caused by slow device setup or a shortage of IT hardware and grow a thriving business while still hiring new staff. This post highlights steps to enhance your hardware turnaround process. 

Keep Inventory Management Centralized 

What happens when company hardware is scattered between remote workers, the warehouse, or the main office? You can't tell the condition or location, which is a remedy to keep newly hired teams waiting for the next available devices instead of working. What you can do to boost team performance is track available assets using a single digital device inventory management tool. Also, leverage deployment solutions and warehouse services to optimize device allocation, secure storage of hardware, get real-time asset visibility, and condition checking. Knowing who has a specific device improves asset utilization. Companies also save costs because they can reallocate underutilized equipment and stay proactive in maintenance. Plus, you prevent the costly impact of security breaches because you can detect unauthorized device usage and ensure all hardware is patched and updated against cyber risks. 

Prepare IT Equipment in Advance 

Setting up devices for new teams when they arrive seems like a perfect plan. But think about the hours you’ll waste configuring hardware and software installations. So, prepare technological tools early based on the employees’ roles to allow them to be productive from day one. This approach also reduces costs and IT burden as the need for support tickets is minimized and tech teams can focus on other tasks. 

Be Supportive 

There are several ways you can help recent hires to thrive at work. And one of your priorities should be to provide unlimited support. Don’t do this for one day only. Make it an ongoing process. You can create accessible channels where they can get technical support. Say, they can’t launch an app required for a specific task or their device won’t switch on. Employees should know who to talk to or where to seek help. Design a knowledge base center, with troubleshooting manuals. You could have a FAQs page as well to help your staff solve manageable issues on their own.  

Keep Digital Tools Maintained 

When was the last time your company’s tech devices got a thorough maintenance check? It better be soon or you'll be allocating malfunctioning mobile phones, tablets, laptops, or headphones to recently hired employees. And that will hinder their efforts to start work. Part of IT asset maintenance will be wiping unwanted data, fixing or replacing damaged components, and software upgrading. This ensures tech tools function smoothly, and that translates to improved efficiency, minimal downtime, increased lifespan, and data protection.

Establish a Refresh Cycle 

Imagine this scenario: your employee is logging in to their work laptop for the first time. It’s slow, and the battery lasts for only a few minutes , and every task involves a quick restart that wastes time. Outdated tech hardware will not just frustrate teams, but drain productivity, take away their morale, and increase security risks. How do you avoid this and get employees working faster? Be proactive with your device refresh practice. Instead of waiting for smartphones, laptops, or other devices to fail, you schedule upgrades on a 3 to 5 year cycle. The refresh cycle will entail current device assessment, procuring new ones, transferring data, and retiring outdated ones. 

Before hiring teams and expecting them to start work immediately and remain efficient, ask yourself this: is the company's tech asset turnaround process streamlined? If it isn't, try to track hardware with a centralized inventory management tool and leverage warehouse services. Digital tools should be ready for new teams, stay up-to-date with maintenance, offer tech support, and refresh equipment frequently.