KoltrixSetting Up Email for a New Hire in Under an Hour
A new hire's email setup takes under an hour with a checklist: address, 2FA, shared mailbox access, signature, aliases and the rules of the road.
On this page(5 sections)
- Before you start: decide what they'll cover
- The setup checklist
- 1. Create the account (5 minutes)
- 2. Secure it (10 minutes)
- 3. Grant shared mailbox access (10 minutes)
- 4. Signature (5 minutes)
- 5. Organization: labels and rules (10 minutes)
- 6. Calendar, groups and lists (5 minutes)
- 7. Write the rules of the road (one-time, then reuse)
- On their first day
- Plan for the exit now
- Key takeaways
At a small company, a new hire's email is set up by whoever remembers, usually the morning they start, usually in a hurry. They get an address, maybe a password in a chat message, and a vague "you'll want access to support@ at some point." A week later they're still asking which addresses they're supposed to be watching.
Here's a checklist that takes under an hour, done the day before they start, and gives them everything on day one.
Before you start: decide what they'll cover
Five minutes of thinking saves an hour of back-and-forth later. Write down:
- Their address format. Pick one convention and stick to it:
firstname@,first.last@, or initials. Changing conventions later makes everyone's address book messy. - Which shared addresses they need. Support, sales, billing, hello. Be specific, and think about what they'll need in their first month, not eventually.
- What they should not access. Founders' personal mail, legal, finance or HR addresses, unless their role needs it.
- Who to ask when they have questions about email or a specific address.
The setup checklist
1. Create the account (5 minutes)
- Create their personal address using your naming convention.
- Set their display name exactly as they want it to appear: first and last name, correctly capitalized.
- Add any aliases they need, such as a common misspelling of their name or a nickname, routed to the same mailbox.
2. Secure it (10 minutes)
- Send the invitation or setup link to their personal email, not a temporary password in chat.
- Require two-factor authentication before they can access anything. If your provider lets you enforce 2FA at the workspace level, turn it on.
- Confirm their recovery options point to something they control.
Requiring 2FA on day one is far easier than adding it later. It also sets the tone that email is a security-sensitive system, which matters because email is how password resets for almost every other tool arrive.
3. Grant shared mailbox access (10 minutes)
- Grant access to each shared address on your list, one by one, at the level they need.
- Don't share passwords for shared mailboxes, and don't forward shared mail to their personal address.
- Record what you granted, so you can review it later and remove it cleanly when they leave.
Shared addresses should belong to the company, not to whoever happens to answer them. Per-person access means you can add or remove someone without changing anything for customers. In Koltrix, for example, shared addresses like support@ belong to the workspace and access is granted per person.
4. Signature (5 minutes)
- Provide a standard signature template: name, role, company, and one link at most.
- If shared addresses have their own signatures, explain which signature appears when replying from each.
A simple text signature works everywhere. Large images, social icons and legal disclaimers in signatures mostly add clutter and can make replies look like marketing.
5. Organization: labels and rules (10 minutes)
- Walk them through your label conventions, if you have any, such as labels per customer, per product, or for "waiting on reply."
- Set up a couple of starter rules if they'll receive predictable automated mail, like alerts or notifications.
- Point out how AI sorting works if your inbox uses it, so they know where to look for mail that didn't land in their main view.
6. Calendar, groups and lists (5 minutes)
- Add them to internal distribution lists or groups (
team@,engineering@). - Add them to any external lists they need for their role, such as vendor update emails.
- Share relevant calendars if your calendar is separate from email.
7. Write the rules of the road (one-time, then reuse)
This is a one-page document you write once and hand to every new hire. It covers how the team uses email, which is usually never written down.
Suggested contents:
| Topic | Example guidance |
|---|---|
| Response times | Customers within one business day; internal mail by end of next day |
| Shared addresses | Who covers which, and what to do if you see an unanswered message |
| Tone | Plain, friendly, no jargon; sign with your first name |
| Escalation | Security reports, legal threats and press inquiries go to the founders immediately |
| What not to email | Passwords, API keys, customer payment details |
| Phishing | Never act on payment or credential requests by email alone; confirm another way |
| Personal use | Your policy, stated clearly |
Keep it short. A page people read beats a handbook they don't.
On their first day
Do a 15-minute walkthrough rather than sending a wall of text:
- Log in together and confirm 2FA works.
- Show them each shared address and one example conversation.
- Send a test email to and from their address so they see it working.
- Show them the rules-of-the-road page and where to find it.
- Ask them to reply to a real customer message with someone reviewing, if their role includes support.
Plan for the exit now
It feels odd to think about offboarding on someone's first day, but it's the best time to make it easy. If you record what access you granted, removing it later is a checklist rather than detective work.
Key takeaways
- Decide which addresses the new hire covers before creating anything.
- Send setup links to a personal address, require 2FA from the start, and never share mailbox passwords.
- Grant shared mailbox access per person and record what you granted.
- Write a one-page "rules of the road" document once and give it to every new hire.
Start with Koltrix
Your domain, one inbox, and an API that sends.
A team inbox where AI sorts and drafts (nothing is sent without your click), plus the transactional API and SMTP relay your product sends with. 7 days free, no card.
