How to Set Up a New Employee's Laptop in Under 60 Minutes

How long does your current onboarding actually take?

Most small businesses don't track this number, but it adds up fast. A typical manual device setup for a new hire looks like this:

At €75/hour for IT time, that's €300–€525 per new hire. For a 10-person team that hires 5 people a year, that's €1,500–€2,600 in IT setup time alone — before counting the productivity the new employee loses waiting.

How zero-touch onboarding works

With Microsoft Intune + Windows Autopilot, the process changes entirely:

1You order a laptop from any Microsoft-registered supplier (in Greece, Israel, or Spain — they all support Autopilot).

2The supplier ships it directly to the employee.

3The employee opens the box, connects to Wi-Fi, and signs in with their company credentials.

4Everything else happens automatically: Windows configures itself, Office installs, security policies apply, approved apps download.

5The employee is working in 30–45 minutes — with no one else involved.

Your IT setup doesn't need to be in the same room, the same city, or the same country.

What gets deployed automatically

Microsoft 365 apps (Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel)

1Password browser extension and company vault access

Endpoint protection (Microsoft Defender, configured via Intune)

BitLocker disk encryption (transparent to the user)

Conditional Access policies (enforced at first login)

Any role-specific software you've packaged in Intune

What happens if the laptop gets lost or stolen

Remote wipe via Intune takes about 30 seconds. The device is locked and all company data is wiped the next time it connects to the internet. The employee gets a new device, signs in, and is back to their full setup within an hour.

Does this work for Macs too?

Yes, via Apple Business Manager — the Apple equivalent of Windows Autopilot. Setup is similar: you enrol your Apple Business Manager account with Intune, and new Mac purchases from any Apple Authorised Reseller in your country go through the same zero-touch process.

The Mac setup process is slightly more involved than Windows Autopilot (Apple's MDM profile system works differently), but the end result is the same: a device ready to work within an hour, no hands-on setup needed.