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Employee Onboarding

Employee Onboarding (Tenure & Lifecycle)

Help URL: https://smoothhiring.com/help/hrms/tenure/employee-onboarding

Within the Tenure module, Employee Onboarding is the operational heart of pre-boarding: one record per hire, tied to recruitment or an existing employee, powered by templates, and completed collaboratively by HR and the new hire through the Onboarding Portal. This guide expands lifecycle concepts for HR teams working from Tenure — with full procedural detail in the dedicated Employee Onboarding operations guide.

Table of Contents

  1. Where onboarding lives in Tenure
  2. Lifecycle concepts
  3. Record anatomy
  4. Creating onboarding from Tenure
  5. Submit: what happens under the hood
  6. Dual workstreams: HR tasks vs portal
  7. Statuses and progress fields
  8. Portal access and identity
  9. Documents: upload, capture, sign
  10. From onboarding to Employee master
  11. Separation and onboarding contrast
  12. HR actions reference
  13. Governance and compliance
  14. Troubleshooting
  15. Related guides

Where onboarding lives in Tenure

Open Tenure from the desktop (/desk/tenure). The sidebar highlights:

Link Desk path
Employee Onboarding /app/employee-onboarding
Employee Separation /app/employee-separation
Employee Grievance /app/employee-grievance
Employee Lifecycle dashboard Charts (onboarding by status, hiring vs attrition)

Employee Onboarding Template is not a separate sidebar row — open via /app/employee-onboarding-template (Awesome Bar) or from the template field on the onboarding form.

Tenure Settings deep-links to HR Settings hiring/onboarding fields (onboarding_token_expiry_days, onboarding_portal_email_template).

Lifecycle concepts

Think of employee lifecycle in three phases around onboarding:

  RECRUIT / TRANSFER          PRE-BOARDING              ACTIVE EMPLOYMENT
        │                          │                            │
        ▼                          ▼                            ▼
  Job Applicant              Employee Onboarding            Employee (Active)
  Job Offer        ───────►   Portal + HR Project    ─────►  Leave, Payroll,
  Interview                  Signature documents            Performance, etc.
        │                          │
        │                          ▼
        │                   Employee Separation
        │                   (future offboarding)
        └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────►

Onboarding sits between hiring decision and productive employee. It is not payroll processing — it gathers data, policy acknowledgments, and IT/HR checklist completion.

Record anatomy

Employee Onboarding extends the boarding controller shared with separation projects.

Area Contents
Header Job Applicant or Employee, template, company, department, designation, grade, dates
Activities Copied from template → spawns Tasks
Required Documents Portal checklist; may link Signature Template
Portal configuration Sections/fields (from template)
Progress Onboarding Progress %, Documents Completed, Section Status JSON
Identity Employee Name, Onboarding Email, portal_access_sent_on
Flags Onboarding Completed, boarding_status

Validation requires either Job Applicant or Employee. Duplicate active onboarding per person is blocked.

Creating onboarding from Tenure

Path A: External hire (applicant)

  1. Tenure → Employee Onboarding → New.
  2. Select Job Applicant (accepted).
  3. Pick Employee Onboarding Template (filtered by company/department/designation/grade).
  4. Confirm Date of Joining and Onboarding Begins On (offsets HR task schedule).
  5. Verify Employee Name and email from applicant.
  6. Save, then Submit.

Path B: Internal transfer or rehire

  1. Set Employee instead of applicant.
  2. Template may differ (transfer checklist vs new hire).
  3. Submit to open portal for policy re-acknowledgment or data refresh.

Path C: From recruitment desk

Create onboarding from accepted Job Offer / Job Applicant workflows when your site enables quick actions — same record type, same desk path /app/employee-onboarding.

Submit: what happens under the hood

When HR submits Employee Onboarding:

System action Detail
Project + Tasks One project; tasks from template Activities with begin/duration offsets
boarding_status Set to Pending (employee progress tracked separately)
Portal user Creates/updates User with Onboarding User role
Email Sends portal credentials using Onboarding Portal Email Template
portal_access_sent_on Timestamp for audit
Documents initialized Rows copied from template required documents

HR can resend mail with Send Portal Access without re-submitting.

Dual workstreams: HR tasks vs portal

Workstream Owner Where worked Examples
HR Activities HR User / assigned users Tasks on Project Order laptop, badge, payroll setup
Portal sections New hire Onboarding Portal Personal info, banking
Portal documents New hire Portal + /sign/ I-9 upload, offer e-sign

Neither stream alone completes onboarding — define which gates employee submit vs HR Mark as Completed.

Recommended: employee submit = data collection done; HR mark complete = internal readiness done.

Statuses and progress fields

Field HR interpretation
Onboarding Progress Weighted overall % (sections + documents)
Documents Completed Document checklist subset
Section Status JSON map per portal section (complete/incomplete)
Onboarding Completed Employee clicked final submit on portal
boarding_status HR boarding controller status (Pending / Completed / etc.)

Use Preview Portal on the onboarding form to QA what the hire sees before sending access.

Portal access and identity

Mechanism Detail
Role Onboarding User only for hires during pre-boarding
Home route /desk/onboarding-portal (hooks role_home_page)
Email match User login must match applicant/employee/onboarding email
Privileged preview HR Manager / HR User use Preview Portal read-only

After completion, provision Employee role on same or new user — see User roles.

Documents: upload, capture, sign

Row configuration Employee action
Upload only Attach file or camera capture
Capture Assist = ID Document Guided ID scan with variant (license, passport)
Capture Assist = Headshot Profile photo capture
Signature Template set Sign document → public sign page
Either/Or Group Satisfy one document in group

Signed PDFs sync to the document row; progress recalculates. HR sees attachments on the onboarding form.

For envelope/multi-signer PDFs, company signer may sign after employee depending on template roles.

From onboarding to Employee master

Milestone Action
Data collection done Employee Submit onboarding on portal
Field sync Mapped keys in field_values → Employee fields
Master creation Create → Employee from applicant if not already linked
HR closure Mark as Completed on onboarding + tasks
Access upgrade Add Employee role; disable portal-only access when appropriate

Link Employee early if e-sign is required — signing validates employee email on master record.

Full steps: Employee Onboarding operations guide.

Separation and onboarding contrast

Aspect Employee Onboarding Employee Separation
Timing Before / around start At exit
Portal Onboarding Portal May use exit questionnaire web form
Goal Collect hire data Clearance and exit tasks
List path /app/employee-onboarding /app/employee-separation

Both may use project/task patterns from boarding templates — do not confuse the two records on the same person.

HR actions reference

Button When to use
Send Portal Access Resend login / link
Sync From Template Template added documents/activities after submit
Preview Portal QA employee UI
Unlock for Employee Allow edits after employee submitted
Mark as Completed HR checklist done; close project tasks
Create → Employee Convert applicant to employee master

Governance and compliance

Topic Practice
Retention Signed PDFs stored on onboarding + Employee documents
Audit portal_access_sent_on, submit timestamps, sign audit trail
Expiry Onboarding Token Expiry Days in HR Settings
Mandatory policies Use e-sign templates for handbook acknowledgments
Duplicates System blocks second active onboarding per applicant/employee

Coordinate with legal on which documents belong in onboarding vs day-one orientation.

Troubleshooting

Issue What to do
Duplicate onboarding error Cancel/archive old record for same applicant/employee
Portal email not received Send Portal Access; verify SMTP; check spam
No Onboarding Found (portal) Align login email with applicant/employee
Cannot e-sign Link Employee with email; check Signature Template on row
Upload rejected on sign row Use Sign document, not upload
Progress < 100% at submit Complete mandatory sections and either/or groups
HR tasks missing Add Activities to template; Sync From Template
Wrong template applied Adjust company/department/designation filters on template
Project tasks not closing Mark as Completed or complete tasks individually in Project

Integration touchpoints

Module How onboarding connects
Recruitment Job Applicant → onboarding → Employee
Documents & Compliance Signature Template on required documents
Payroll Banking section fields map to Employee; payroll starts post–day one
Leaves Holiday list on Employee; leave policies assigned after active
Shift & Attendance Employee ID required for check-in after start date

Planning checkpoint: payroll should not run until Employee exists with bank details if paying by ACH.

Timeline example (14 days before start)

Day offset HR Hire
-14 Submit onboarding, portal email sent —
-12 HR tasks: create accounts Login portal
-10 — Personal + emergency sections
-7 Review partial progress Upload ID / sign offer
-3 IT task due Banking section
-1 Mark as Completed internal tasks Submit onboarding
0 Create Employee / day-one orientation First day

Adjust Begin On offsets on template activities to match your SLA.

Last updated: May 2026

Last updated 1 week ago
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