> IMHO the key part to creating automation is to make sure you operate in environment that you can fully control.
This pretty much is the opposite of an employee onboarding environment. Much of the discussion here is about automating things via scripts. A typical large enterprise uses a bunch of HR and related systems that are fairly resistant to automation. If you can automate, it may be a massive saga involving cooperation from the vendor of some arcane software.
e.g there is no concept of a "clean environment" when you are interacting with a benefits system, a payroll system build last century, a manual procedure where Barry downstairs has to cut you an access card, etc. etc.
You can aspire to automate these steps but they are 100 x as hard as running bash scripts on a box. And onboarding new employees does not typically happen often enough to justify the effort.