New hire onboarding is a feature that allows you to remove the need to collect paper forms from your team members as they join your team. Using this feature, team members can enter in some of their own details, upload required documents and sign forms electronically before they start their employment.
New hire onboarding saves you time and money during the recruitment process by allowing you to create template documents that you can use over and over again but customise for each new hire you onboard. Templates also provide a streamlined workflow to ensure all of your team members are receiving consistent and appropriate employment information as they come into your team.
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Setting up your default superannuation fund details (Australia only)
Before you can start onboarding you need to enter the details of the default Superannuation fund you offer at your organisation:
1. On the People page, click on Add People and select Onboard new hire.
2. Now click on the Settings button.
3. Please enter the default super fund Name / ABN / USI for your organisation.
Stapled superannuation funds
From 1 November 2021, if your new hires don't nominate a super fund or return the Superannuation Standard Choice Form, you may have to take extra steps to comply with choice of fund rules.
- You will need to request their ‘stapled super fund’ details from the ATO, which takes a few minutes.
- Take action depending on whether the new hire has a stapled super fund:
- If a stapled super fund exists: You will need to pay superannuation into this account
- If a stapled super fund does not exist: you can pay superannuation into their organisation's default fund
Requesting documents to be uploaded
You may have a set of documents that you regularly request from new hires in your organisation.
You can specify the complete list of documents here and then when you start onboarding team members you just need to check a box to request the relevant documents for that new hire.
To configure the list of onboarding documents you want to request:
1. Click on the Add People button on the People page and select Onboard new hire.
2. Now click on either the Settings or Set up documents buttons.
3. Enter the title and description (optional) of the document you require your new hire to upload as part of the onboarding process.
To add another document request just click on Request another document.
Note: If you need the front and back of a document to be uploaded (for a driver’s licence for example) you would need to send this up as two separate documents to upload.
You can request up to 20 documents.
If you need to remove any documents, just click Remove.
Note: Clicking Remove does not affect employees that were previously onboarded and had these documents requested. It just means the document, once removed from this list, can't be requested from future employees being onboarded.
Adding template documents to be signed by your new hire
You can create up to 50 templates for commonly used forms that you send new hires (such as contracts), have them sign them electronically using Hello Sign and upload the signed forms as part of the onboarding process.
To configure the list of onboarding documents you want to be signed and uploaded:
1. Click on the Add People button on the People page and select Onboard new hire.
2. Now click on either the Settings or Set up documents buttons.
3. Click on Enable to start configuring forms. First, you will need to configure the sender settings so that the new hire will know who the forms are being sent from.
If you need to change this later, you can also click on Change Sender.
4. Add the email address and the name or organisation you would like your onboarding email sent from. Click Save.
5. Start creating a form template by clicking on Create template.
6. Complete the Template Name and Description then upload a template file (max size 10MB) in the format:
- JPEG
- PNG
- DOC
- DOCX
Your template file is a previously saved document containing all the fixed information that is NOT likely to change each time you send the document.
You might choose to write this template file in Google docs or Word. When creating a template file be sure to leave sufficient space to later insert the fields that can be customised or completed by the person completing or signing the document.
Click Next.
7. Choose or add the custom fields required to complete this template.
Custom fields are the fields where the text will change each time you send the document. The person sending out the onboarding invites will use these fields to customise the form for the new hire.
The custom fields you create will depend on the type of form you are creating. Some examples of custom fields you might use in a new hire employment contract might be:
-
Employee's name
-
Employee's email address
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Start date
-
Work hours
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Position Title
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Work Location
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Wage
You can choose from the existing list or add new fields by typing a field name in the Search field and clicking Add.
When you are done, click Set up template.
8. You will now be taken to a template generator, powered by Hellosign.
Click OK to begin creating your template.
9. You can now add fields to the template document you uploaded. Depending on which 'Signer' you select the top left-hand side drop-down menu will control who completes the fields you then insert into the template.
- Me (now) - these are fields that you, the creator of the template, want to add to the template such as a tick box (Note: Do not use the Name and Email fields from this option, use the Name and Email address options from the pink Sender signer options)
- Sender - these are the fields that the manager has to complete when they send the new hire the document to sign (Use the Name and Email address fields from this menu)
- Team Member - These are the fields that the new hire signing the document will complete.
10. Go to the menu on the top left-hand side and change the Signers field to Sender. The sender is the person who will be sending out this document or form to new hires.
11. Drag the pink Text Box field to the point in the document where you need it to appear. If it's not showing the correct custom field from the list you configured in Step 7, simply click on the field in the document and a menu will appear on the right-hand side of the window.
You can select the correct field from the menu "What text goes here?". You can also configure other aspects of the text appearance using the panel of setting on the right-hand side if you need.
Note: It's recommended to enter some 'example' free text in the Placeholder text field so that if the manager sending out the document wants to preview the template before sending it, they will get a better idea of how it will look. If you don't add any placeholder text then this field will display as blank during the template preview.
12. Continue to drag pink text boxes into the field and select their purpose from the menu on the right-hand side, until you have placed one in every position where you require a custom field.
13. Click on the Signer sector again and select Team Member.
14. Now drag the blue boxes into the document that represent fields that relate to the team member signing the document such as their name or where you need them to sign.
15. When you are happy with the template click Continue.
Note: you won't be able to edit a template once created. If editing is required, you will need to create a new one.
Hot tip: If you don't need a signature but require an "I agree to terms" or "I have read the terms" checkbox.
Use the "Tickbox" field then change the Signer to "Me (now)" and drag a textbox field to include the declaration.
Note that you can not edit the template once it has been created so please check it carefully before you select Continue.
You will be returned to the Onboarding Settings page where you can see your new template listed.
Managers can click on the document name to see a preview of how it looks, or what the document contains, before sending it to new hires for onboarding. As shown in the example below.
Note: The light grey 'example' text shown in the fields is pre-populated from what the manager setting up the template entered in the placeholder text field in Step 11. If no placeholder text was entered when the template was created then the field will appear blank in the preview as shown in the 'wage' field and 'first shift date' fields below.
Some notes about editing / deleting templates:
- If you need to change the template, you can't edit it but you will need to delete it by clicking the trash bin icon and creating a new template. Note: when you click the trash bin icon, the template is deleted immediately. There is no "Are you sure you want to delete" question to warn you.
- If you do delete a template, any employees that have already onboarded using this template will not be affected, their completed forms will remain on their profile.
Create additional onboarding questions
If you need to ask additional questions as part of the onboarding process, you can!
You can ask questions that are important or specific to your business, from getting to know your new hire better or operational.
Some examples
Do you have any food allergies?
What's your uniform size?
What's your preferred location?
Do you prefer shifts in the morning, afternoon or night?
To create additional questions, navigate to the onboarding settings via Set up questions or Settings and click Create onboarding questions. This will take you to the questions settings screen.
Here you can create your questions.
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Type in the question you want to ask: What is your uniform size?
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Select the question type - short answer, Yes/No, multiple-choice
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Select whether the question is mandatory or not using the “Require a response” checkbox
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Click Create another question to add more questions
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When you’re done, click Save
Hot tip: you can re-order the questions if you need them to be answered in a particular order.
You can preview all the created questions in the settings and/or invite screen to make sure you have all the questions you need before sending an onboarding invitation.
Editing and deleting questions
You can easily edit or delete questions from the onboarding settings screen by clicking Edit. Deleting or editing a question will not update existing onboards. It will only affect new onboards.
Sending additional questions as part of onboarding
Once you have created additional onboarding questions, they will be included in the forms each time you send an onboarding link to a team member. Along with filling out the basic onboarding questions like personal details, banking and tax information, your team member will need to answer the additional questions you’ve created.
Employee view on mobile
Reviewing the additional questions
Once your team member has submitted their onboarding forms including the additional questions, you can view this in the Forms & documents tab of their profile – in Forms.
Once you've set up this information, you won't need to do this again each time you onboard, just hit Save to head back to the Onboard New Hire window. You are now ready to start onboarding a new hire.
Watch a video on how to set up onboarding
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