Onboarding a new starter
Onboarding goes wrong in the gaps between people. HR knows the start date. IT owns the laptop. A team lead owns the first task. Nobody owns the join between them, so something always arrives late.
Somebody accepted an offer three weeks ago. Monday is their first day. Eleven small things have to happen, and eight different people do them.
Most of those things are the same every time. That is what makes the mess annoying rather than hard. The list exists in somebody's head, or in a spreadsheet from a starter two hires ago.
PeopleMuster runs that list as a tracked process. A template is stored once. Starting it against a person creates a live copy with owners and dates.
Two details decide whether this holds up. The template is stored once and edited in one place, so an improvement reaches every future starter rather than the next one somebody remembers. And progress reads as resolved out of total, with the age of the instance beside it, so a process stalled at step three is visible without anyone opening it.
Why one record instead of two
Joining is where the two halves of a company meet for the first time. HR creates the person; delivery needs them on a project by Friday. Because both read one record, the lead can allocate hours to a starter who did not exist last week. The org chart, the leave balance and the device assignment already point at the same person. Nothing is exported from an HR tool into a planning tool, because there is only one.
What is switched on
- SOPs and checklists
- The joining steps live here as a reusable template, started against the new person.
- Directory
- The person record carries employee code, title, department and who they report to.
- Devices
- The laptop is assigned from the register, so the serial is recorded on day one.
- Policies
- Published policies sit in one place for the starter to read rather than be emailed.
- Leave
- Quotas per leave type are allocated before the first request arrives.
- Org chart
- The reporting line fills in the chart as soon as it is set on the profile.
What the week looks like
Before day one
HR starts the joining process against the new person. Every step gets an owner and a due date.
Day one
IT assigns a device from the register. Serial, model and condition are on the record, not in a reply.
Day one
The profile gets a department, a title and a reporting line. The org chart updates from that field.
Day two
Leave quotas are allocated per type, so the new starter can request time off without asking what they have.
Day three
The starter reads the policies. Open questions go to the beta assistant or a support ticket.
End of week one
The lead adds them to a project. From then on they appear on the capacity plan like everyone else.
Questions people ask
Can onboarding start before the person's first day?
Yes. A process is started against a person record whenever you like, and steps carry their own due dates. Most of the account and hardware work is due before day one.
Can the joining steps improve over time?
Yes. The template is stored once, so an edit reaches every future starter. The next joiner gets the better list without anyone remembering to send it.
What happens if a step is missed?
The process shows progress as resolved out of total, with the age of the instance. An unresolved step stays visible until somebody closes it.