TL;DR: An engineering consulting firm in Dublin was losing 2.8 days per new hire to setup delays. 40% were missing critical access on Day 1—no laptop, no email, no project files. The problem wasn't any single department. It was that nobody owned coordination. We built an agent that triggers tasks across IT, HR, Facilities, and Management with calculated deadlines, tracks progress, and escalates overdue items. New hires now have everything ready in 4 hours. The firm saves €29K annually in unproductive time.
The Empty Desk
Niamh started her new job on a Monday. Senior structural engineer. €125K salary. The firm had been recruiting for three months.
She arrived at 9 AM. Nobody knew she was coming.
Well, that's not quite true. HR knew. They'd done the paperwork. But IT hadn't set up her laptop—they thought she was starting next week. Facilities hadn't prepared a desk—nobody told them. Her manager was in a client meeting until noon.
Niamh sat in the lobby for 45 minutes. Then someone found her a temporary spot at an empty desk. No computer. No email. No access to project files. No idea what she was supposed to be doing.
She spent her first day reading the employee handbook on her phone.
Day two: laptop arrived, but no software licenses.
Day three: software installed, but no access to the project management system.
Day four: finally productive.
"I felt like an afterthought my first week," she told Cormac, the operations director, during her 30-day check-in.
He'd heard this before. From almost every new hire.
The Coordination Problem
The firm had checklists. Lots of checklists.
IT had a checklist: laptop, email, software licenses, network access, VPN.
HR had a checklist: paperwork, benefits enrollment, policy acknowledgments, badge.
Facilities had a checklist: desk assignment, building access, parking.
Management had a checklist: project assignment, team introductions, first-week schedule.
Finance had a checklist: payroll setup, expense card, timesheet system access.
Every department did their job. Eventually. The problem was coordination.
IT didn't start provisioning until HR sent the equipment request form. HR didn't send the form until the manager confirmed start date. The manager assumed HR had already handled it. Nobody followed up.
Nothing was urgent to anyone except the new hire sitting at an empty desk.
For a senior engineer at €60+/hour, this was expensive confusion. We've written about how to calculate these hidden costs.
The Numbers
Cormac tracked onboarding outcomes for a quarter. The results were worse than he expected.
2.8 days average from start date to fully productive setup. Nearly three days of a new hire's time, wasted.
40% of new hires missing at least one critical access on Day 1. Laptop, email, building access, project system—something was always missing.
€29,000 annual cost. The firm hired 2-3 people per month. At average salaries of €80K+ (blended across roles), those unproductive days added up.
Zero visibility into where things stood. When Niamh sat in the lobby, nobody could tell Cormac which tasks were done and which weren't. There was no central view.
The problem wasn't bad people. Everyone did their jobs when asked. The problem was the asking—the coordination, the reminders, the follow-up that fell through cracks.
What We Built
The onboarding agent has five stages.
Stage 1: Trigger
New hire gets entered into the HRIS (BambooHR in this case). Agent immediately initiates the sequence. Calculates deadlines based on start date.
This happens automatically. No one needs to remember to kick off the process.
Stage 2: Task Assignment
Creates tasks for each department with specific deadlines:
IT: Laptop provisioned, email created, software licenses assigned → Due 2 days before start
HR: Paperwork complete, badge ready, benefits enrollment done → Due 1 week before start
Facilities: Desk assigned, building access activated → Due 3 days before start
Manager: First-week schedule created, project assigned, team notified → Due 1 day before start
Finance: Payroll active, expense card ordered → Due 3 days before start
Tasks go to the right person in each department via Slack with clear deadlines.
Stage 3: Progress Tracking
Agent monitors completion status. Marks tasks done when confirmed. Sends reminders at milestones.
"Laptop for Sarah Chen due in 2 days. Mark complete when ready."
Everyone can see the current status. No more wondering if IT got the message.
Stage 4: Escalation
Overdue tasks escalate automatically. First to the assigned person with urgency flag. Then to the department head. Then to the hiring manager with a daily status summary.
The escalation creates accountability without requiring Cormac to chase everyone manually.
Stage 5: Readiness Confirmation
Day before start: final check across all departments. Agent generates an onboarding packet—everything the new hire needs to know, where to go, who to meet.
Confirms Day 1 schedule with the manager. Flags anything still outstanding.
If something's missing at this point, there's still time to fix it.
The Human Checkpoint
Department heads can override or explain delays.
IT says the laptop order is delayed due to supply chain issues? Fine—flag it, update the timeline, notify the manager so they can plan around it.
The agent doesn't force compliance. It creates visibility. Problems that used to surface on Day 1 now surface a week early, when they can actually be solved.
What Made This Work
Deadlines created urgency. Before, tasks had no due dates. "Sometime before they start" is vague enough that it always gets deprioritized. "Due Tuesday at 5 PM" is specific enough to act on.
Escalation created accountability. Nobody wants their department head asking why a task is overdue. The escalation path means things get done before they become problems.
Visibility replaced assumption. Before, everyone assumed someone else had handled it. Now everyone can see exactly what's done and what isn't.
The agent never forgot. Humans get busy. Things slip. The agent sent reminders at consistent intervals regardless of what else was happening.
What Surprised Us
Managers were the biggest bottleneck.
We expected IT to be the problem. Laptops, software, that stuff takes time.
But IT was actually reliable once they had clear deadlines. The managers—the first-week schedule, project assignment, team notifications—those were consistently the last items completed.
Not because managers didn't care. Because managers were the busiest. The agent's reminders helped, but we ended up adding an extra nudge sequence specifically for manager tasks.
New hires noticed.
Three months after launch, Cormac started hearing something new in 30-day check-ins.
"My last company took a week to get me set up. Here I had everything on Day 1. That's a statement about how this place operates."
Onboarding became a competitive advantage for recruitment. Candidates talked to each other. Word got around that this firm had their act together.
The first impression of a new job matters more than most companies realize. We've written about what those early days look like from the other side.
The Numbers
Before:
2.8 days average from start to productive
40% missing critical access on Day 1
Coordination via scattered emails and assumptions
€29K annual cost in unproductive time
After:
4 hours to fully productive
97% have everything Day 1
Zero-touch coordination
Nearly all €29K recovered
The quote that stuck:
A senior mechanical engineer, hired from a competitor, said it during his first-week debrief:
"I've never started a job where everything just worked. I didn't have to ask for anything. It was all there."
That's what good systems feel like to the people inside them.
The Pattern
If you're growing and onboarding multiple people per month, you probably have coordination gaps.
The symptoms:
New hires consistently missing something on Day 1
Multiple departments involved but nobody owns the whole process
Setup time varies wildly depending on who remembers what
New hire feedback mentions feeling like an afterthought
The core issue: Everyone does their part eventually. The problem is "eventually" isn't good enough when someone's sitting at an empty desk.
Next Steps
Want to see 25 agent architectures across different industries? Download Unstuck—it includes this one plus blueprints for lead gen, invoicing, dispatch, proposals, and more.
Think onboarding might be your bottleneck? Book a Bottleneck Audit. 30 minutes, no pitch. We'll map your current process and identify where coordination is breaking down.
by SP, CEO - Connect on LinkedIn
for the AdAI Ed. Team
