Secure Workforce Onboarding Guide

A secure onboarding process for new members of the workforce is foundational to a strong identity security posture. It's more than just granting access; it's about verifying identities, establishing the proper levels of authorization, and enabling modern, phishing-resistant authentication from day one.

This guide will walk you through the key considerations and features to build an onboarding process that empowers your new employees and protects your organization from potential identity-based threats. The specific features and recommendations highlighted here should be selected and implemented based on your organization’s business needs, identity maturity, and existing technology stack.

Stage 1: Okta Account Activation

Before you provide a new employee with access, you must verify their identity before or at the start of their first day. You can also ensure that new users are equipped with passwordless, phishing-resistant authenticators from the very beginning, helping to make sure that every step of setting up an Okta account is secure. Here are some highly suggested Okta features to implement to get the user onboarding process off to a good start.

Click into each feature below to review implementation resources.

What it does	Request an identity verification to ensure the right user is onboarding or resetting their account. Identity verification provides an extra layer of assurance to your new hire onboarding process.
Learn more	Add an identity verification vendor as an identity provider

Stage 2: Corporate Device Provisioning

Part of new hire onboarding is device setup and account creation. When setting up a new device, it’s important to balance usability with security from the start. Employees should be guided through secure device enrollment, installation of required security tools, and configuration of system updates. Account creation should follow least-privilege principles, ensuring users have the right level of access without unnecessary permissions. Strong authentication methods such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) should be enabled during setup. By standardizing these steps, organizations can streamline onboarding while reducing risks tied to device misuse or compromised credentials.

Click into each feature below to review implementation resources.

What it does	Establish a connection between Okta and Apple Business Manager to support initial provisioning on Apple devices.
Learn more	Apple Business Manager Integration Guide

What it does	Add a layer of security to the Windows or macOS sign-in process by asking users for extra authentication before allowing computer access.
Learn more	Get started with Desktop MFA for Windows Get started with Desktop MFA for macOS

Stage 3: Secure Resource Access

Granting new employees access to the right apps and resources is a critical step in the onboarding process. For enhanced security, new employees should use passwordless, phishing-resistant authentication methods to protect against common cyber threats. The following are some critical Okta features to configure to help ensure they get what they need to be productive while keeping your company's data secure.

Click into each feature below to review implementation resources.

What it does	Identify users when they sign in and set the context for them to advance to the next step. This policy specifies whether to allow access to an application and how frequently to prompt for a challenge.
Learn more	Create a global session policy Set up passwordless sign-in experience

What it does	Assign entitlements to new users by creating policy rules or assigning them manually. This allows you to monitor users' access to resources, the level of access they have within these resources, and how they were granted access.
Learn more	Create entitlements

Secure Workforce Onboarding Guide