Remove the need to collect paper forms from your employees with new hire onboarding.
Using this feature, employees can enter some of their details before they start their employment.
In this article, you will learn:
- How does new hire onboarding with Deputy work?
- How much does new hire onboarding new cost?
- How to set up new hire onboarding
- Accessing onboarding
- How to onboard a new hire
- How to onboard an existing employee
- How to track the status and review your new hire’s onboarding
- How to export submitted onboarding information as a CSV
- How to resend onboarding requests or delete requested documents
- How to reset/delete an Onboarding request that has been sent
- Watch a video on HR onboarding and documents
How does new hire onboarding with Deputy work?
New hire onboarding allows you to digitally collect and record vital employee information. Deputy automatically collects the following information during every onboard:
- Personal details
- Emergency contact details
- Bank (payment deposit) information
- Tax details & new starter form (P45)
- [optional] Documents you ask them to provide as part of their employment
- [optional] Documents you ask them to electronically sign such as employee contracts or company information documents as part of their employment process.
Sending a request to your employee to complete their onboarding process will send out an SMS and an email to the specified destinations. You will not be charged for the outbound SMS containing the invitation link.
Once the employee has completed the onboarding process the manager will be sent an email to notify them to review the documents and also the employee will be invited to set up their password to access your organisation on Deputy.
Team members will not be recommended by Deputy to be scheduled on shifts until they have submitted their onboarding forms. Managers will receive a warning during scheduling if they select a team member for a shift who has not completed their onboarding forms yet but are able to override this warning if required.
How much does it cost?
New hire onboarding is part of Deputy HR, which also includes Deputy Hire and Documents.
Read more about pricing for Deputy HR.
Note: you are still able to add employees to your organisation in the usual way without incurring any additional onboarding costs.
How to set up new hire onboarding
Before you can onboard a new hire you will need to go through a series of steps to set up your organisation for onboarding. You will only need to do this the first time and then it will be set up for all subsequent new hires.
The steps involve:
- Specifying which documents you will be asking new hires to upload
- Setting up templates that will be sent to new hires asking them to sign electronically.
Accessing onboarding
There are two ways System Administrators and Location Managers can access onboarding in Deputy:
Add People on the People tab
On the People tab click Add people then select Onboard new hire.
Side navigation menu on the People tab
If you have used Deputy Hire to recruit the team member you can onboard them directly from there. On the People tab, select New Hire Onboarding from the left-hand side navigation menu. Can't see this menu?
Click on Applicants.
Click on the team member you wish to onboard.
Click on Hire or Hired in the Move to drop down menu.
Click on Onboard team member.
Onboarding a new hire
Once you have set up onboarding and accessed onboarding then you are ready to onboard a new hire.
Tip: Ensure you have finished setting up any templates or adding any questions you might need before you begin to enter the new hire's details. If you need to navigate away to reconfigure the settings during the onboarding process you will need to reenter any new hire contact details when you return to the Onboard Team member screen.
Note: the manager who initiates the onboarding of the new hire is the one who will receive the email notifying them that the onboarding form has been submitted.
1. Enter the following details about your new team member:
- First Name
- Last name
- Email Address
- Mobile phone number*
- The name of the main location they will be working at (you can add to or change this later)
- The Deputy access permission level you would like to assign.
* Note: check the contact information very carefully! If you enter the wrong phone number when onboarding, you can't just update it in Deputy and resend. You need to delete the onboarding request and start again.
then continue scrolling down the page.
2. If you need your team member to sign a template document you have uploaded previously, click on Add from list of templates, search for the document you wish to add and click on the name of the document to add it.
3. If the document template has customised fields set up then you will be asked to complete these fields to send the documents to the new hire. Your answers will be populated in the custom fields of the document template when the document is sent.
5. Tick the checkboxes to select any documents for the list that you require them to upload.
6. If you have set up additional questions to ask your new hire they will be displayed.
When you have completed all the fields you can click Onboard team member and the new hire will be sent both an email and SMS with a link for them to complete onboarding.
You will be notified by email when they have completed onboarding and the team member will then automatically be sent an invite to download the Deputy mobile app and join your organisation on Deputy.
Note: if you accidentally entered the wrong email address for your employee when you first sent the onboarding invite, you can update it later and resend the onboarding invitation to the new one. Read more in FAQs.
Onboarding an employee already in Deputy
If your employee is already in Deputy but you’d like them to complete the onboarding process and upload documents you can still do this.
1. Click on their name from the list of team members on the People page then select Onboarding Form from the menu on the left-hand side. Click on Onboard Team member.
Enter the email and mobile phone number of your employee, and follow the steps as described in How to onboard a new hire and click on Onboard Employee.
The team member will be sent both an email and SMS with a link for them to complete onboarding and you will be notified when they complete it.
How to check the status and progress of your employee’s onboarding forms and documents
Once you have sent the onboarding invitation to your employee, you will be able to see the status within the People tab, underneath their name.
You will be able to filter for each of the onboarding statuses to quickly see who’s been sent an onboarding invitation, which onboarding needs to be reviewed and who has been approved.
How to review your new hire's onboarding forms and uploaded documents
You will receive an email letting you know when the employee has completed their onboarding forms.
Note: the manager who initiates the onboarding of the new hire is the one who will receive the email notifying them that the onboarding form has been submitted.
1. To review the information your employee has completed or document uploaded, either click on the Review and approve link in the notification email or else click on their name in the People tab. You can also use the Filter in the People tab to display team members you need their onboarding approved.
2. Click on Documents from the list on the left-hand side to review any documents that have been submitted by the new hire.
If you are happy with the onboarding forms and document submitted, go ahead and approve it by clicking Sync and approve.
Once approved, your team member will receive a copy of any documents they signed.
You can also print the onboarding form to PDF by clicking on the print icon.
3. When you click on the Documents tab you can also download any signed documents you requested or documents that have been uploaded. You can download each document individually or if you have multiple documents you can select them all using the checkbox selection and click Download to download them to your computer as a zip file.
Note:
- Documents stored on Deputy will be available whilst you maintain an active subscription to a Deputy plan. If you are required to store certain records for a specified amount of time to comply with any legislation then it is recommended that you download and store documents in your own document management system.
- A team member's documents will be stored with their profile in Deputy if the team member is archived, however, if the team member is deleted then their documents will also be deleted.
4. If you notice that there is something not correct with what the employee has supplied you can click Request changes on the top right of the Onboarding form screen. You will be asked to type a short message to explain to the new hire what you would like them to correct or resubmit and the employee will receive a new link to update the document.
How to resend onboarding requests or delete requested documents from onboarding forms
If a manager has sent a new hire an onboarding form and then later realise they have requested the wrong form to be signed or documents to be uploaded, the new hire may find they are unable to complete the onboarding form. To correct this, managers can resend the onboarding link and select the correct template or remove the incorrectly requested documents so that the new hire is able to complete the onboarding form and submit it.
Note: The Resend link button only appears once the invitation has been sent and the new hire has not yet submitted it. If your new hire has already submitted the onboarding form and you realise you need to make amendments you can click Reset onboarding.
To resend a link for onboarding to a new hire with amended templates or document requirements:
1. On the People tab, go to the Onboarding forms in an employee’s profile
2. Click Resend link
3. A popup will appear where you can make changes to templates and requested documents. Click Remove for any documents no longer needed, add a comment if required and then click Update and resend.
How to reset or delete an onboarding request that has been sent
- wrong documents were requested/sent
- incorrect email or mobile number was entered (Note: if you enter the wrong phone number when onboarding, you can't just update it in Deputy and resend. You need to delete the onboarding request and start again)
- accidentally sent an onboarding invite
- no longer want to store the data/documents in Deputy
- issues with the onboarding form which requires the updated version to be sent
Reset onboarding
Resetting onboarding will delete any existing onboarding data and documents that have been collected during onboarding and managers will be able to resend a new onboarding invite (with documents).
1. On the People tab, select the employee you wish to reset onboarding for.
2. Select Onboarding form from the menu on the left-hand side and then click on the ... button on the top right side of the screen and select Reset onboarding.
Delete onboarding
Deleting an onboarding request will delete any existing data and documents.
1. On the People tab, select the employee you wish to reset onboarding for.
2. Select Onboarding form from the menu on the left-hand side and then click on the ... button on the top right side of the screen and select Delete.
Watch a video on HR Onboarding and Documents
We would love to hear from you if you have any feedback.
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