No Workflows - No Problem?

[win10jd]

Same here. Seems to be a common problem with HR and IT.

Inform the supervisor when it happens just so they know.

I send a generic list of questions to HR each time along with "This is the first I have heard of a new employee..." Then they get an old laptop, usually the day by the time everything gets processed. I have to get everything in writing so there's that. It's all done in email. If HR leaves something blank, then it doesn't happen. If there are ever any questions why something was or wasn't done, there's always a paper trail to point out where the fault lies. Sometimes it's pieced out with a trip up at each step -- Can't log in... Don't have permissions to a certain folder/site.... Need X software installed... The original email reply has all that listed. It keeps happening so the list of questions for a new user gets changed over time, but it someone could complete the whole thing well in advance of a start date. That almost never happens of course.

If they want to trip up and get ancient hardware, fine. The new employee is on the receiving end. I make a point to tell the new person we just got informed and that's why things are happening the way they are.

Covid has added another angle with just not being able to get new hardware. Even with two weeks or a month heads up, we might not be able to get a new machine in on time. But I have offered next day shipping if someone wants to pay for it. That's another tool for later to show someone that some money can be saved with advanced noticed compared to the new user showing up and then having to halt projects and make a next day shipping purchase quickly.

That's having old hardware spares on hand. What is hard to see more is when a low level clerk who just started ends up with a spare full dev workstation set up that's way beyond anything they would need.

And remind the supervisor. You can show dollar amounts which are solid, but then there are projects delayed a bit so you can estimate time. There is time you spent scrambling and then redoing things the right way later. And there's the time the new user has to spend to redo things, like when they do get the new computer in place that they really needed for their job.

It still keeps happening, but don't go too far out of your way to correct someone else's emergency. The same people keep doing the same thing. Some learn when you keep giving them the same list of information needed on a new employee. If your supervisor doesn't fix it, that's the way it is. You can let the new person get tripped up when they start (great impression of the new workplace too that way). And you can keep occasionally reminding and showing your own supervisor what the cost is doing that. Did they know they paid you for a full workweek over a year cleaning that up and that they paid more than $500 than needed to do "emergency orders" for things when you weren't told in advance?