New Starter Day-One Checklist

Starting a new job comes with enough to think about already — this is what to expect on the IT side of day one, so nothing catches you by surprise.

Before day one

Your manager or HR should have requested your account and equipment in advance. If you arrive and nothing’s ready, that’s a gap in the process worth flagging, not something you need to solve yourself — ask your manager to contact support directly.

What to expect waiting for you

• A laptop or desktop, set up and ready to sign in.
• Your account details — either given to you directly, or sent to your manager to pass on, covering your first sign-in (see Setting Up Your New Employee Account).
• Email and Teams already installed, or instructions for setting them up yourself (see Setting Up Microsoft Teams and Outlook for the First Time).

Your first hour, roughly in order

1. Sign in and set your permanent password, and set up MFA if prompted (see Setting Up Your New Employee Account).
2. Confirm you can open Outlook and Teams, and that your calendar and any expected shared mailboxes are visible.
3. Connect to staff Wi-Fi, not guest — ask a colleague which network to use if it’s not obvious (see Guest Wi-Fi vs Staff Wi-Fi).
4. Set up MFA properly on your phone if you haven’t already, rather than skipping the prompt to deal with later.

Tip

Do all of this before diving into actual work tasks, even if it feels like it can wait — a smoothly working setup on day one saves far more time than the ten minutes it takes to confirm everything’s working now.

Common day-one hiccups

Can’t sign in at all — double-check you’re using the full account details exactly as given (including the correct domain after the @), not a guess based on your personal email format.

Missing access to a shared mailbox, folder, or app someone mentioned — this is normal on day one; access is often granted gradually as you’re introduced to different tools. Ask your manager or support rather than assuming it’s an oversight.

Laptop feels slow or unfamiliar to set up (bookmarks, personal preferences) — that’s expected on a fresh machine; it’s not a fault, just a blank slate.

If anything’s missing or not working

Contact support directly rather than waiting for someone else to notice — a quiet first day is a good first day, and a two-minute fix now is better than losing an afternoon to it.