Onboarding Hub FAQ
Answers to common setup and operating questions about Onboarding Hub.
For what the app is and how to set it up from scratch, see the
Onboarding Hub Overview.
Setup
Does Onboarding Hub require a licence?
Yes. Onboarding Hub is disabled by default and requires a licence. An admin enables it per business from the Apps Marketplace — nothing is pushed on automatically.
What do I need to configure before onboarding my first new hire?
At minimum, create one active onboarding template (Resources → Onboarding Templates). Without an active template the auto-matcher has nothing to suggest. Beyond that, review the Settings tabs — the defaults are production-ready (reminders on, pre-start portal on, AI features on), but the three automation steps that create employee accounts, create plans, and activate plans on the start date are all off until you turn them on deliberately.
Permissions and access
Who can manage onboarding plans and who can only see their own?
Admins, super admins, app admins, and managers can see the Onboarding dashboard, create and manage plans, and access the Resources and Analytics tabs. Regular employees only see the My Onboarding tab, and only while they have an active plan. Settings are restricted further — only admins, super admins, and app admins can open the Settings tab.
Why can’t my managers see the I-9 Compliance Report or Incomplete I-9s?
The I-9 and work-authorization compliance views expose company-wide federal PII (visa status, work-authorization expiry). Access is limited to admins, app admins, and HR admins. Regular managers are intentionally excluded — they will not see the I-9 links in the Analytics sidebar.
Day-to-day
Can I onboard someone who wasn’t hired through Job Board?
Yes. Create a standalone plan from the Onboarding dashboard by assigning a user directly instead of linking a recruiting candidate. Standalone plans work the same way — tasks, documents, checkpoints, reminders — they just don’t require a Job Board candidate record.
Can a person have more than one active onboarding plan at the same time?
No. The platform prevents creating a second plan for someone who already has a plan in Draft, Preboarding, or Active status. Complete or cancel the existing plan before creating a new one.
How does the auto-matcher choose a template for a new hire?
The matcher looks at every active onboarding template (pre-start experience templates are never picked as the plan’s template). First it asks what happened: a template set up as a pathway for the person’s lifecycle event — a new hire, a rehire, a promotion, a transfer, or becoming a people manager — beats one that names no event, and a rehire also matches a new-hire pathway. Next it asks who the person is: a pathway for an audience (for example Hourly team members) is picked only for people in that group, and beats one for everyone. Then location scope (a specific site, then regional, then headquarters, then any location), a matching role level and a matching department refine the choice. If two templates tie, the most recently created one wins. If nothing matches, the matcher returns no suggestion and the admin picks manually.
In the new-plan wizard’s Direct Assignment mode, choose What is this onboarding for? so the suggestion is the pathway for that event.
What are starter pathways, and what happens if I install them again?
Settings › Load Default Data › Starter Pathways installs four templates, each picked automatically for the right person: Hourly and Salaried new hires (for the Hourly team members and Salaried & leaders audiences, created under Groups if you don’t have them), a New Leader pathway and an Internal Transfer and Promotion pathway — in a standard or a hospitality variant. Installing one variant switches the other variant’s matching pathways off.
Installing again restores any pathway you haven’t changed. A pathway you’ve edited since it was installed — renamed, re-pointed at another audience, a task added or changed — is kept exactly as you left it, and the result names it; delete it if you want a fresh copy. If your task or document library doesn’t have an item a pathway names, that item is left out and the result lists it: load the library seed content and install again.
Hourly and Salaried are read from each person’s FLSA status when it is recorded, otherwise from their pay basis (hourly or salary), which is set from the job when a candidate becomes an employee.
Does a promotion or transfer get an onboarding plan?
Yes, when Create an onboarding plan for promotions, transfers and new people managers is on in Settings › Automation. When a promotion, a move to another department or location, or a move into management (a job title marked as a leadership position, or being marked a people leader) is recorded, a plan for the new role is created from the best-matching template — a pathway set up for that event comes first. The new-hire paperwork (I-9, W-4, employment agreement, direct deposit, benefits enrollment) is not added; it is already on file. The plan follows the same choices as a plan created on hire: it waits as a draft unless Start plan in preboarding immediately is on, and the person is emailed that it is ready unless Email the new hire their welcome is off. These plans are counted as moves, not new hires, in Analytics.
How is “time to productive” measured?
A plan’s final milestone checkpoint — its highest-day checkpoint, such as the 30- or 90-day review — is the sign-off that the person is fully productive. Time to productive is the number of days from the plan’s start date to the day that checkpoint was completed. Analytics averages it over the plans signed off during the period you pick, whenever they started, so a 30-day view shows the people who reached productivity in those 30 days. Plans whose final checkpoint is still open, skipped, or completed before the start date are left out rather than counted as zero.
How do form and document reminders work?
Each business sets its own reminder schedule independently for forms and documents. There are four triggers you can toggle on the Settings → Notifications tab:
- 7 days before due — off by default
- 3 days before due — on by default
- On the due date — on by default
- Daily once overdue — off by default
A master Automated reminders switch gates all of them. When it is off, no automated reminders of any type are sent. Overdue reminders stop automatically after 90 days past the due date so a single neglected item cannot generate mail indefinitely.
When do the surveys on an onboarding plan go out?
On their due date, in your organization’s time zone: the plan’s start date plus the survey’s day offset, or — for a survey scheduled Before start — that many days before the start date. The new hire gets the survey by email and in their Inbox (the Surveys app must be on, and the survey needs questions and, where your organization requires it, approval). Everyone who gets the same check-in in the same stretch of time answers it together, so results reach the anonymity threshold and anonymous answers stay anonymous. A check-in more than 30 days past its due date is not sent automatically — a plan started long ago does not get its early check-ins all at once.
When the new hire submits a survey that is not anonymous, the plan item is marked complete on its own, and one they answered before its due date completes instead of being sent again. An anonymous check-in is never marked complete automatically — that would reveal who answered — so the new hire marks it done themselves.
When does the weekly manager digest go out, and when does it stop?
The digest emails every Monday at 9 AM UTC to each hiring manager who has at least one active plan. It automatically stops for plans whose target completion date (or start date, if no target is set) is more than 90 days in the past, so managers are not emailed indefinitely about hires who started long ago. The digest is gated by both the master Automated reminders switch and the Weekly digest toggle in Settings → Notifications.
What happens when a plan is completed?
The plan status moves to Completed and the completion timestamp is recorded. If the plan was created from a Job Board candidate, the candidate’s status is updated to Hired and their onboarding status to Completed. The hiring manager receives a completion notification. Completion percentage is calculated from required items only — optional tasks and non-critical checkpoints do not block completion.
How do buddy and mentor assignments work, and can I add custom relationship types?
Every plan can name a mentor and a buddy, each with their own assignment notification. Mentor and Buddy ship as system defaults and cannot be deleted. Three additional types — Executive Sponsor, Skip-Level Manager, and Department Lead — are seeded on first use. You can add your own custom relationship types from Resources → Relationship Types with a name, code, and optional required flag. Custom types that are not in use can be deleted; system defaults can only be deactivated.
What are the plan statuses and what transitions are allowed?
A plan moves through five statuses: Draft → Preboarding → Active → Completed, with Paused as a side state. A draft plan can be started (moves to Active) if it has a start date, or moved to Preboarding. A preboarding plan auto-activates on the start date when the Activate the plan on the start date automation toggle is on. Active plans can be paused and resumed. Only active or paused plans can be completed, and completion requires 100% of required items to be done.
When something looks wrong
“My new hire says they can’t see their tasks yet”
If the plan is still in the preboarding phase (before the start date), the new hire only sees items explicitly scheduled as Before start. Tasks, documents, and forms scheduled for Day 1 or later stay hidden until the start date arrives. Check the plan’s start date and the schedule type on each item. If the Pre-start portal access setting is off, candidates cannot access the portal at all before Day 1 — they would need to authenticate on or after their start date.
“Reminder emails stopped going out after I enabled them”
Three things can block reminders even when individual toggles are on: (1) the master Automated reminders switch is off — it gates every reminder type; (2) Onboarding Hub is not enabled for the business in the Apps Marketplace — disabled tenants receive no automated notifications; (3) the template has its own Send Reminders toggle turned off — that overrides the business-level setting for plans created from that template. Check all three.
“The weekly digest keeps going to a manager about a hire who started months ago”
The digest automatically stops 90 days after the plan’s target completion date. If the plan has no target completion date set, it falls back to the start date. Plans with neither date set are included to avoid dropping brand-new plans. To stop the digest for a specific plan immediately, complete or cancel it.
“A plan completed but the candidate still shows as in-process in Recruiting”
If the candidate record could not be updated when the plan completed (for example, because it failed a validation on an unrelated field), the plan completes but the candidate’s recruiting status stays unchanged. Check the candidate record in Job Board for validation errors. The platform logs these failures but does not block plan completion.
Licensing and limits
What are the hard limits I should know about?
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Template duration | 1–365 days |
| Plan name length | 255 characters |
| Active plans per person | 1 (draft, preboarding, or active) |
| Checkpoint satisfaction score | 1–5 |
| Bulk document download | 100 MB per download |
| AI stalled-task nudge window | 24–168 hours (default 48) |
| Overdue reminder cutoff | 90 days past due date |
| Relationship type name | 100 characters |
What file types can new hires upload for documents?
PDF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, HEIC (iPhone camera format), HEIF, DOC, and DOCX. Document types include identification, tax documents, benefits forms, emergency contacts, background check, education verification, employment verification, and custom.
What e-signature providers does Onboarding Hub support?
The built-in native e-signature (requires the E-Signature app to be enabled), plus external providers connected through Integrations: DocuSign, HelloSign (Dropbox Sign), Adobe Sign, and PandaDoc. Select the preferred provider on the Settings → Integrations tab. E-signature packages can bundle multiple PDFs into a single signing request.
More help
- Onboarding Hub Overview
- Ask AI — the assistant answers Onboarding Hub questions from these articles.