New starter admin: get employees productive from day one

Key takeaways

New starter admin covers the contract, payroll and pension set-up, system accounts, equipment and first-week plan that should be ready before day one. When it is done late, the new employee spends their first days waiting for log-ins. A standard checklist started when the offer is accepted, run by one owner, makes every start productive from the first morning.

• Start the checklist when the offer is accepted.
• Accounts and equipment ready before day one.
• Payroll, pension and right to work checks are legal steps.
• One owner runs the checklist for every starter.

What is new starter admin?

New starter admin is the set of tasks needed so a new employee can start work legally and productively: the written statement of terms, right to work check, payroll and tax details, pension auto-enrolment assessment, system accounts, equipment, building access and a first-week plan. It sits between hiring and training.

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What needs to happen before day one?

Most of the work should be done before the employee arrives. The legal steps cannot be skipped, and the practical ones decide whether the first week is useful.

• Right to work check completed.
• Written statement of employment particulars issued.
• Payroll and tax details collected.
• Email, systems and access set up.
• Equipment ready and tested.
• First-week plan and a named buddy.

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Why does it go wrong?

It goes wrong because nobody owns it. IT set-up waits for someone to ask, payroll waits for forms, and the manager assumes someone else has done it. The new starter arrives to no laptop and no log-in. The cost is a lost first week and a poor first impression.

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What does the gain look like?

In an illustrative firm, new starters spend about two days of their first week waiting for accounts and equipment. A checklist started at offer acceptance, run by a managed team with a deadline for each item, gets everything ready by the Friday before. Over eight hires a year, that is about 16 working days of new-starter time recovered. Example figures.

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Which parts can be outsourced?

A managed team can run the checklist, collect forms, request accounts from IT, arrange equipment, prepare payroll inputs and send welcome information. Keep the right to work check, the contract decisions and the welcome itself with your own team. A processor contract is needed because new starter data is personal data.

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When is a formal process unnecessary?

A formal process is unnecessary for a business hiring once every few years. Keep a simple list for the legal steps and set-up. It becomes worth formalising when hiring is regular or several managers hire.

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What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: every hire is handled slightly differently by whoever is managing it, so some starters have everything and others have nothing. One checklist and one owner make every start the same.

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New starter checklist

Start these when the offer is accepted.

• Complete the right to work check.
• Issue the written statement of terms.
• Collect payroll and tax details.
• Request accounts and equipment.
• Assess pension auto-enrolment.
• Send the first-week plan.

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Next step

Tell us how new starters are set up today. We will help you build a checklist and say which parts a managed team could run.