Dash 8-400
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness; Time Pressure
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Human Factors
Climbing through 12;000 ft. out of ZZZ we had a cabin press warning. We leveled off at 12;000 ft. and advised ATC of our intentions. We checked the air conditioning panel and the packs were both flipped to the off position. The Captain then turned the packs to auto and ran the cabin press warning checklist. The cabin press checklist drove us into the pressurization fail checklist. After running both checklists the cabin pressure was normalizing and pressurizing. We then advised ATC that we were able to continue up to FL240 and continued on our flight to ZZZ1 as planned. While the appropriate checklists and flows were accomplished; we both could have missed these switches in the wrong position to start the morning. Double check and thoroughly inspect all panels; especially ones that are not usually touched in normal operations. Those can be most often forgotten about if another crew; or fellow crew member; flipped a switch that they don't operate on a regular basis.
DH8-400 flight crew reported failure to properly configure pressurization system prior to takeoff.