Looking to streamline your hiring process too? Workforce Hire is our new applicant tracking system where you can create job ads, compile applications and resumes, and link straight into Workforce's Employee Onboarding.
What's covered in this guide?
How it works
Employee Onboarding is the fastest way to collect payroll information from new employees. It gathers the following forms:
Personal details: name, email, phone number, address, date of birth, legal gender
Emergency contact information
Bank details (see the FAQs for specifics)
Tax declaration
You can customize your onboarding setup to include additional documents and questions.
Once you’ve made an offer of employment, add the employee to Workforce.com using paperless onboarding. This will send the onboarding forms directly to the employee’s email. For payroll systems, you'll receive a completion report containing all submitted details.
To see what the process looks like from the employee's perspective, visit the Employee Onboarding landing page.
Send an Onboarding Invitation
Navigate to Workforce > Employee Onboarding > Onboard New Staff.
Enter the employee’s first and last name, email, and (optional) phone number.
Select the teams they’ll be assigned to.
Optionally, upload their employment contract and select a document bundle.
Click Send Invite.
💡 Tip: Always use the employee’s legal name when sending onboarding invitations, as you will be collecting employment-related documentation.
How Addresses are Collected During Onboarding
You can now include the employee’s address in contracts without needing to collect it beforehand.
How It Works:
Include the
emp_addressfield in your contract template.Attach the contract to the onboarding invitation, even if the address hasn’t been provided yet.
During onboarding, the employee will be prompted to enter their address before they can sign the contract.
Once entered, the address will be automatically populated into the contract.
This update means you no longer need to collect address details manually before sending onboarding invitations.
After the Employee Completes Onboarding
Once the employee completes their onboarding forms:
They will receive a confirmation email with a link to view their profile in Workforce.com.
You will receive an email notification with next steps for completing their setup.
You can view the submitted onboarding information via Workforce > Staff > [Employee Profile] > Onboarding tab.
Confirm Onboarding Has Been Sent to Payroll
When onboarding is successfully pushed to your payroll system, a confirmation message will appear on the employee’s profile under the Onboarding tab.
Download a CSV of Onboarding Data
You can export onboarding details for use in other payroll systems.
To export:
Go to Workforce > Staff > Tools > Export > Export Data (CSV)
Customise the Onboarding Process
You can tailor the onboarding process by:
Adding custom forms and questions
Attaching employment contracts to onboarding
Including document bundles and policy agreements
Send Employment Contracts
You can request that staff review and agree to their contract prior to completing onboarding. Use templates to auto-fill contract details for multiple employees.
Enable the setting “Signed Contract Required Before Onboarding” to ensure employees agree to the contract before continuing.
Learn more in the Create a Contract Template guide.
Send Documents and Policies
Upload PDF documents (up to 5MB) and group them into document bundles to simplify sharing and track employee acknowledgements.
Learn more about documents in the Documents and Document Bundles guide.
Add Custom Onboarding Questions
Use the Onboarding Questions tab to collect additional information from new starters, such as uniform sizes or licence numbers.
Employees must complete all questions and acknowledge all forms before submitting their onboarding.
Request Employees Upload Documents
Use the Qualifications feature to request and track important documents, qualifications, or certificates during onboarding.
Please see our guide HERE on how to collect documentation from employees during onboarding as you will need to ensure your account is configured properly.
Control Who Can Send Onboarding Invitations
By default, users with the following permissions can send onboarding invitations:
Admin
Payroll Officer
General Manager
Team Manager
You can customise these permissions via:
Settings > All Settings > Permissions > Show Advanced Settings > Customise Access & Roles
View onboarding history
You can use the Onboarding History section to monitor sent onboarding invite statuses/completions:
FAQs and Troubleshooting
FAQs and Troubleshooting
Can I use this for my existing staff?
Onboarding can be used for existing staff in a particular set of circumstances:
If an employee has been added manually and has an email address in Workforce.com, you can send the employee an Onboarding invitation. The information they enter will then be appended to their existing profile.
If you see this on an employee’s profile, it means they can be onboarded even though they have an existing staff profile:
What happens when I want to change the Onboarding details for my staff?
Once Onboarding is completed and staff have been pushed to payroll any details in the Workforce.com Onboarding tab will be locked from editing.
What bank details do we capture during onboarding?
For UK clients, we collect bank account name, sort code and account number.
For clients based in France, Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands, we collect IBAN and bank name.
What if I onboarded an employee with the incorrect email address?
If an employee has been onboarded with the wrong email address, you will need to unlink their profile and resend the onboarding to the correct email via:
Go to Employee Profile > Personal > Personal Details
At the top of the profile will be a box "Onboarding is in progress for Samantha Witters" > select View Onboarding
You will be taken to the Employee Onboarding/Hire & Onboard page
Go to Onboarding history > select the 3 dot icon next to the sent invitation > select Cancel
Once you've canceled the invitation, navigate back to the employee's profile
Select Remove Employee Access > Confirm on the confirmation pop-up
This will unlink the employee profile to the incorrect email and allow you to update the email address
At the top of the profile select Invite to Workforce to re-invite the employee