With the Onboarding Module in eRecruiter, you will easily prepare a newly hired person to become a fully introduced employee! The Onboarding Module will put all the tasks to be performed by you and the new employee’s supervisor in order. It will also automatize the notifications sent to candidates to request their details and provide them with the essential information about the company before the first day of work.

The Onboarding Module in eRecruiter can be found in the system’s top menu (the “Onboarding” tab”):

All system users have access to the Onboarding Module by default, while Administrators are also authorized to manage onboarding paths and message templates. Administrators can configure the settings to grant and deny access rights to all users with the Recruiter or User role assigned (except for Business Users — a Business User indicated as the supervisor of a newly hired employee is granted access to a special module section for managers and other departments involved in recruitment processes, i.e. the Business Account).

Reading this article, you will learn:

Onboarding message templates enable you to prepare the email messages a candidate will receive before the first day of work for your company. They can include greetings, requests for drawing up or completing the required documents, directions to the office, a schedule of the first day of work, etc. They will help you ensure the best possible candidate and employee experience! You decide which templates to create and use in the onboarding paths. Onboarding paths enable you to automatically send the initially prepared onboarding messages — you will learn more about them in the next chapter.

You will find onboarding message templates in the same place where all message templates are saved: in the “Message templates” section of the system settings.

Note: By default, message templates are accessible only to the System Administrator, who can, however, grant access to other system users as well (which is discussed in detail in the chapter on module settings).

These messages work generally in the same way as other templates. Each of them has a name, a subject, and content. You can add smart data fields, such as:

You can create as many onboarding templates as you want.

You can also add attachments (e.g. questionnaires, presentations, etc.) to your onboarding templates. Multiple files can be attached to a single message. The only limitation is the total size of all attached files (no more than 10 MB) and their format (only PDF files can be attached).

TIP: Allowing PDF files only is justified by security concerns, since it is the only file format that prevents sending malware. Note that most files (e.g. MS Word or MS Powerpoint files) can be easily converted to PDF.

For every template, you have to specify the sender and the recipient, in case the candidate responds to the email message:

Each and every time you can select one of the below persons as the sender:

You can indicate more than one person as the recipient by checking the “Other” option. You can add up to 5 email addresses this way.

Remember to save the complete template!

Onboarding paths ensure coherent high-quality onboarding process for all candidates, regardless of which recruiter or manager conducts the process. They also facilitate collaboration between the recruiter and supervisor in the period between the hiring decision and the first day of work of the newly hired employee.

The button in the top right corner of the Onboarding Module ensures constant access to path management functionalities. The button is visible to every user with access to path management.

Note: Access to the paths can be granted and denied by the Administrator in the settings.

The paths are the same for all users with access rights. It means that every user with access rights can see and use exactly the same paths. For every path, you can see who and when edited it most recently.

When you enter “Path management” for the first time, you will see a sample onboarding path, which will help you learn how to operate the Onboarding Module.

This path will have sample message templates and lists of tasks to be performed by the HR leader, the supervisor, people from other departments and the newly hired employee. The path and tasks can be fully edited and adjusted to your individual needs. You can also copy the path.

Note: changes made to the path settings do not affect the active onboarding process of the candidate who is going through this path at the moment, so when you edit the paths, you do not need to worry about the impact on the currently active onboarding processes.

However, if you want to create a new path from scratch, follow the instructions below:

Click the “Path management” button to enter the path editing option. Click the “+ Add new path” tile to add a new path.

Note: you can have up to 100 paths in the Onboarding Module.

Enter the name of the new path. You can also add its description.

For every path, you can (but do not have to) set:

The instructions on setting each of those lists are presented below.

A list of automatic messages enables you to select a set of email messages that will be automatically sent to the newly hired employee in predefined time intervals. For example, if you want to improve the candidate’s engagement and brand awareness before their first day of work, you can create a path to send the most essential details about your company once a week.

Templates of onboarding messages can be added and edited in the settings, which is discussed in the previous chapter. When creating a path, you need to select messages to be sent and specify the time of automatic mailing. The time is set for each message individually, while the reference point is the moment when the candidate’s stage is changed to “Employed” or the start of work day (messages can be sent both before and after the start of work day, as well as on this day). For example, you can configure an automatic message containing a presentation of your company to be sent 7 days after the candidate’s stage is changed to “Employed” or 3 days before the newly hired employee’s first day of work, while a message with the first assigned task can be mailed 1 day after the first day of work.

TIP: If you want some messages to be sent after a newly hired employee starts work, remember to add their business email address. Otherwise the messages will be sent to the private email address given during the job application process. If a given path makes use of the option to send an email message after the first day of work and no business email address is added for the candidate, the system will display a reminder about adding such an email address. You can add or edit the business email address in the candidate’s details (click the three dots next to the selected candidate in the candidate list and next click “Add business e-mail”).

After you launch the onboarding path, the messages will be sent automatically.

Every message can be edited directly in the path, in case you do not want the changes to be applied to the message template (use system settings to make changes in the template). To do this, click the pen icon next to the selected message in a given path. Editing the message in the path does not affect any already launched onboarding processes that use this path and message. The following message items can be edited directly in the path:

TIP: Messages in the paths are displayed in chronological order, according to the mailing date.

NOTE: If the message mailing time defined in the onboarding path cannot be met, the message will not be sent. Example: the candidate starts work next week. If you assign a path containing a message to be automatically sent 2 weeks before the first day of work, such a message will not be sent to this candidate. Remember that all messages and their statuses (e.g. “sent” or “pending”) can be checked in the candidate’s details in the Onboarding Module.

For every onboarding path, you can create a list of tasks that the HR leader has to complete before a newly hired employee appears at work for the first time.

Each tasks needs a description, a file and execution time.

TIP: Tasks in the paths are displayed in chronological order, according to the execution date.

For every onboarding path, you can also create a list of tasks that the supervisor has to complete before a newly hired employee appears at work for the first time. Those tasks are added in the same way as the tasks of the HR leader. For every task, you can attach files and specify the execution date. After you launch the onboarding process for a given person, their supervisor will automatically get access to the module and see the list of tasks.

If you want to make other departments of your company, e.g. IT or Administration, involved in the onboarding process, use the “Other tasks” option.

Select the department to perform a given task from the list:

After you launch this path, all members of a given department will be notified about the assigned tasks. The person who completed a given task and time of completion will be specified for each and every task.

TIP: How can you define departments and their specific members? It can be done by the Administrator in the “Company departments” section of the system settings. Next, the Administrator can go the “Users” section to add a new user to the selected department or edit the department to which an existing user is assigned:

In an onboarding path, you can also add tasks to be performed by the newly hired employee before or during the first days of work. Those tasks can be added in the same way as the tasks of the supervisor or other tasks. Tasks for the newly hired employee can also be added by their supervisor through the Business Account.

After the onboarding process is launched, the employee will see the tasks in their account (which is discussed in detail here) and will be able to mark them as completed. The HR leader and the supervisor can monitor the progress of completion of the employee’s tasks.

Done! You can now save the path and use it later in your onboarding processes (by selecting it in the “onboarding path” field for the newly hired person).

TIP: You can configure many onboarding paths for different forms of employment or different positions. However, regardless of the number of onboarding paths created in the Onboarding Module, you can use the same message templates for all of them, which ensures that your communication with all candidates is coherent, no matter who creates a given onboarding path and what position a given candidate will hold.

When your message templates and onboarding paths are ready, you can proceed to launching the onboarding process for individual candidates. Enter the Onboarding Module in eRecruiter by clicking the “Onboarding” tab in the system’s top menu. The “New people” section will be displayed, showing all candidates at the “Employed” stage. Here you can decide whether you want to run onboarding of any person in the list and assign them to you.

By default, all candidates at the “Employed” stage are listed in the “New people” section of the Onboarding Module (unless the period of data processing expired). Every candidate who has ever had the “Employed” status assigned appears in the list for onboarding and remains there even if the stage is changed later.

TIP: A candidate can be removed from the Onboarding Module only manually, which is discussed in detail in the next chapters.

Every user who logs in to the system and has access to the module can see all hired candidates in this list. It does not apply to companies with the Company Module: a user representing such a company will be able to see only the candidates hired by the Company to which they are assigned, as well as the candidates with no Company assigned.

If you run the onboarding process for one or several people from the list, select these people and click the “Assign to me” button at the bottom of the screen:

TIP: If somebody indicates you as the HR leader, you will be automatically notified about it by email.

The candidates assigned to you are listed in the “For employment” section. For every person listed in this section, you can select the form of employment and the supervisor from a drop-down menu (these fields can also be filled in when the candidate’s stage is changed to “Employed”). Completing these fields is not necessary for the onboarding process to be launched.

You have to select an onboarding path to launch the onboarding process:

TIP: If you do not know what messages a given path contains, click the candidate’s first name and surname to display their detailed data and select the path you want to use. After a moment the contents of the selected path, i.e. automatic messages and a list of tasks, will be displayed under the candidate’s details:

When you select a path for a given candidate, click the “Start onboarding” button to launch the process.

When you launch the onboarding process:

After the process is launched, the “For employment” list is rearranged. Candidates for whom the onboarding process has been launched are now displayed in the top of the list (the “During onboarding” section), so that you can easily track the progress of onboarding. They are divided according to the months during which they start work. For every candidate, you will see the tasks to be performed by you and the supervisor before the newly hired employee starts work. Simply hover the mouse over the “My tasks” field to display a full list of tasks and check them as completed.

If there are any pending tasks in the list and the candidate is starting work in 7 days, you will receive an automatic reminder that those tasks have to be completed. A similar reminder is sent to the prospective supervisor of the candidate if any of their tasks need completing.

In order to change the HR leader or supervisor of a newly hired employee, enter their data editing screen. Click the pen icon and select new people.

The new HR leader or the new supervisor are notified by electronic mail that a candidate has been assigned to them or that a given candidate has been deleted from their list in the Onboarding Module.

Note that any change of the HR leader or the supervisor does not interrupt the onboarding of a given candidate or reverse the progress of this process.

You can pause the process of onboarding of a given employee. After you pause the process, no automatic messages will be sent until you resume onboarding. To do this, click the icon with three dots and select the “Stop” option.

You can remove a candidate from the onboarding process by clicking the icon with three dots and selecting the “Remove from onboarding” option. Remember that you will lose the entire progress of the onboarding process and the candidate will disappear from the list in the Onboarding Module. In order to add the candidate again (by assigning the “Employed” stage in the selected recruitment project), you will have to select a path and launch the onboarding process from scratch.

Changing the candidate’s stage to any stage other than “Employed” does not result in the candidate’s deletion from the Onboarding Module.

TIP: The HR leader and the prospective supervisor of the candidate will be automatically notified by email when the candidate is removed from onboarding.

The candidate is removed from the Onboarding Module when they are erased from the system upon the expiry of their personal data processing period. Remember that you can extend the data processing period in the “Clauses and consents” of the system settings:

In the “Reporting” section, you can download a list of hired employees based on the first day of work. For example, the June 2023 report will include all candidates whose first day of work is scheduled in June 2023 (except for people erased due to expiry of the personal data processing period), regardless of when they went through the onboarding process.

You can generate reports for up to 6 months after the current date (including the current month) and for up to 12 preceding months. For example, in January 2024 you will be able to generate reports for the periods between January 2024 – June 2024 and January 2023 – December 2023.

Note: the “Reporting” section is available only for people with the role of a System Administrator.

The MS Excel report will contain the candidate’s details, the start of work date, the name of the recruitment project, the form of employment, the HR leader and the supervisor.

Apart from the “Reporting” section, there is also another way to download the list of candidates for a given month in the MS Excel format. Click the downloading icon next to the selected month in the “For employment” section. The list will include all candidates who are currently assigned to a given month (i.e. whose start of work date falls during in a given month).

Note: such a list can be downloaded by any system user with access to the Onboarding Module.

The “History” section is a record of people who have gone through the onboarding process or any of its stages. People who go through onboarding are recorded there automatically after 90 days from starting work (i.e. after the “start of work date” defined upon changing the stage to “Employed”). The tasks recorded in the “History” cannot be checked as completed anymore.

In this section you will find:

TIP: The “History” displays the candidates’ data for up to one year counting from their start of work date.

Every eRecruiter system user can be appointed a supervisor of a newly hired employee. The person appointed a supervisor gains access to the module when the employee’s onboarding process is launched.

The supervisor received an automatic email message with the module details and log–in instructions, and gains access to the module displaying all the candidates to whom they are assigned as a supervisor and who are in the process of onboarding.

TIP: If the supervisor has the Business User role assigned, they will be able to log in to the Onboarding Module (and thus the eRecruiter system), but will see only the section for managers (see below), i.e. the Business Account. In such event the supervisor will not have access to the remaining sections of the system:

Note: the access rights of a Business User using the Onboarding Module will not be cancelled automatically after 90 days, as it is in the case of the Candidate Card. Such access rights can be cancelled by the System Administrator in the settings.

TIP: If the supervisor has a different role the Business User in the system (i.e. the supervisor logs in to eRecruiter and can view selected recruitment projects), they will see a new section for managers named “Business Account” in the main system menu. In order to view the details of the candidates to whom they are assigned as a supervisor, check their tasks as completed, or create a list of tasks for a new person, the supervisor must enter the “Business Account” section and then select “Onboarding”:

A system user appointed a supervisor gains the ability to add tasks for the assigned newly hired employee, e.g. as part of their team or corporate onboarding. To do this, enter the “Business Account” -> “Onboarding” section (or, if you are a Business User, enter the “Onboarding” section immediately after logging in to the system).

In order to add a task, enter the details of the selected candidate (click their first name and surname in the list) and click the “Add task” button:

For every task, you can add an estimated deadline (the number of days before or after starting work) and a PDF attachment.

Every saved task can be edited or deleted by clicking the pen icon or dustbin icon respectively.

The added task will be immediately visible to the newly hired employee in their Employee Account. You can monitor the progress of task completion. You can also select if you want to see all the tasks to be completed by a given employee (including those added directly in the onboarding path by the HR — they will be marked in the list) or only the tasks you have added. To do this, move the slider in the top right corner of the list of tasks:

The account of a newly hired employee in eRecruiter (a space dedicated to employees, where they do not have access to the remaining sections of the system for recruiters) is created upon launching the onboarding process, i.e. when you click the “Start onboarding” button next to the selected person. The employee receives an activation email message with a link to log in to the Employee Account:

During the process of creating an account, the new employee has to set the password. The employee’s private email address is the login:

When you add a business email address to the employee’s profile in the Onboarding Module, it will replace the private email address as the login to the Employee Account. The employee is notified about it by email and from that moment they have to use the business email address to log in to the Employee Account:

Users can log in to the employee account using the following link: https://employee.erecruiter.pl/. If the company has the domain-based authentication enabled, it also covers the Employee Account, so users will log in to their Employee Accounts this way as well.

The Employee Account displays the tasks assigned by the supervisor or the HR leader. The employee can check the tasks as completed (or undo this step, if the task has been checked as completed by mistake). From the moment of starting work, the Account also displays the date of the first day of work:

The employee will receive two kinds of automatic email notifications from their Account:

Notification about new tasks to do

Notification about a pending task, which will be sent one day before the deadline of a given task.

In order to configure the Onboarding Module access rights, enter the “Onboarding” section in the system settings.

Note: this section of the settings is available only to people with the role of the System Administrator. The Administrator has all access rights enabled by default.

​The Administrator can decide on the following access rights:

The list in the settings includes all system users except for Business Users:

General settings of eRecruiter ensure that a candidate is erased from the system after the expiry of the period of data processing, in compliance with the GDPR. It means that such a candidate is also erased from the Onboarding Module after becoming a newly hired employee. In order to avoid losing the employee’s details from the Onboarding Module, the Administrator can extend the period of data processing for employed candidates (i.e. candidates at the “Employed” stage).

To this end, enter Settings -> Clauses and consents -> Data processing time. In the “Data processing in onboarding” section, set the number of months by which you want to extend the data processing time for employed candidates and click “Save”. You can extend the data processing time by up to 12 months:

In the “For employment” section, the Administrator can view all the people that are currently in the onboarding process in the company — you simply need to switch the slider to the icon of a group of people:

After switching to this view, you can appoint yourself or other members of your team as the people responsible for onboarding of a given candidate. This way, if any HR team member is absent, you will be able to take care of the candidates being onboarded by this person.

KEYWORDS: preboarding ; module access rights ; HR leader ; person from another department ; tasks to do ; candidate’s business email address ; employee’s tasks ; candidate’s tasks ; adding a path ; data processing time in onboarding