Setting up onboarding templates

How to build an onboarding template with phases and tasks, what each task type does, how due dates and prerequisites work, and how a template reaches live candidates.

An onboarding template is the checklist a new starter works through: phases, and tasks inside each phase. You build and edit templates under Settings > Onboarding templates, on the Templates tab. This article covers the template builder and every task option. Building the forms that Form tasks use is covered in a separate article, "Building onboarding forms".

Who can manage templates

System Admins and HR users can open the page, create, edit, duplicate and delete templates. Members, hiring managers and agency users cannot.

The page only exists while onboarding is switched on for your organisation (a System Admin controls this under Settings > Onboarding). If it is off, the Onboarding templates card is missing from Settings.

The template builder

The page heading reads Onboarding. Your templates are listed on the left, each showing how many phases and tasks it has. Select one to edit it on the right. The editor has a Details section, then one section per phase with its tasks inside. Each section has an arrow to collapse it. The Forms tab next to Templates is where onboarding forms are kept.

Create a template

Select Add Template under the list. A template called "New Onboarding Template" is created straight away, with one phase called "Phase 1" and one Content task called "New Task", and a Saved successfully message appears. It already exists in your list, so delete it if you change your mind.
In Details, enter a Template Name (required, up to 255 characters). The Description is optional, up to 2,000 characters.
In Phases, type your phase names separated by commas, for example Compliance, Pre-start, Day 1.
Edit the existing task and use Add Task at the bottom of each phase to add more.
Select Save at the bottom of the editor.

Nothing you change in the editor is kept until you select Save. Selecting a different template first discards your unsaved edits. Save is disabled while the name is empty or there are no phases. A task with an empty title is refused when you save, and so is a task with a custom recipient address that is not a valid email address.

Phases

Phases group tasks so the starter and your team can see progress in stages. A task belongs to a phase by that phase's position in the list, not by its name. Renaming a phase keeps its tasks with it. If you remove or reorder names, tasks stay with the position, so they can end up under a different name, and any task left beyond the last position moves to the first phase. Repeated names are ignored. Check each phase section before you save after changing the list.

Tasks

Each task row has these fields. Add Task puts a new Content task called "New Task" at the bottom of that phase.

Task Title: required, up to 255 characters. It is what the starter and your team see in the checklist.
Type: Content, Form, Email Trigger or Internal. Each type has its own extra settings, below.
Due Offset (days): see the next section.
Dependency: the task that must be finished first. It defaults to None.

To change the order of tasks inside a phase, drag the handle marked Drag to reorder task. Tasks cannot be dragged into another phase. Order sets how tasks are listed. It does not force a sequence: use a dependency for that.

The bin icon at the end of a row deletes the task, and any task that depended on it loses that dependency. This takes effect when you save.

Content tasks

Something for the starter to read.

Content title: up to 255 characters. It is shown exactly as typed. Merge fields are not replaced here, or in the task title or description.
Content body: a rich text editor that accepts formatting, links and images.
Attach a form (optional): lists only forms built with the Create Form source. Choose No form attached to remove it.

Merge fields. Select the field picker beside Content body to insert a field where your cursor is. The starter sees their own details in its place when they open the task. The fields available are candidate name, candidate first name, job title, company name, onboarding link, task title, task due date and phase name. They only work in the body, not in the content title, the task title or the description. A field with no value, such as the due date of a task that has none, is left blank.

Select Preview as candidate under the body to see the text with sample values for the candidate, company and job. If the body uses a field that is not on the list, the template will not save, and the message names the task and the field. Remove or correct the field and save again.

Form tasks

Something for the starter to fill in.

Form Source: choose any form from the Forms tab, whatever its source. No form selected leaves the task without one. If the form's source is Upload, the starter must choose and upload a file before the task can be submitted. See "Building onboarding forms".
Send to candidate email (on by default): when the task becomes available after a prerequisite is finished, the candidate is emailed about it. Turn it off and no email is sent for the task, and it is not included in onboarding reminders either.
Requires review (off by default): the starter's submission moves the task to Pending Review instead of Complete, and the recruiters and hiring managers on the job are emailed, subject to their notification preferences. Your team then selects Approve on the candidate's Onboarding tab. With this off, submitting completes the task.

A Create Form form with no questions in it cannot be completed by a starter, so add at least one field before using it in a template.

Email Trigger tasks

An email Recruit sends for you. The starter never sees the task.

Send to: Candidate, Reporting manager or Custom email address. A candidate email includes the link to their onboarding checklist and is recorded in their communication history. A reporting manager email goes to the address typed in the reporting manager field when onboarding was started. If that field was left empty or holds a name instead of an email address, nothing is sent.
Recipient email: appears for a custom address. It must be a valid email address.
Email template: choose one of your saved email templates, or leave Use default template. The default sends the Onboarding Task Notification template with the subject "Onboarding: " followed by the task title. Task due date and phase are blank in trigger emails.

The email is sent as soon as the task becomes available: when onboarding starts if it has no prerequisite, otherwise when its prerequisite is finished. The task then marks itself Complete, which unlocks anything waiting on it.

Internal tasks

Work for your own staff. Internal tasks do not appear on the starter's checklist.

Assigned to user and Assigned to department: pick either, both or neither. The assigned person or department sees the task on the My Tasks tab of the Onboarding hub. Recruit does not email them when it becomes available.
System Admins and HR users can complete any internal task. A Member can complete only tasks assigned to them or to their department.
Task mode: Content gives the staff member text to read, with a title and body. Form gives them a form from the Forms tab to complete. Switching mode clears what you entered for the other mode.

Due dates

Due Offset (days) is a whole number of days counted from the day onboarding is started for that candidate. It is not the job's start date. An offset of 7 gives a due date one week after onboarding starts, and a negative number such as -3 gives a date before it. Leave the box empty for no due date. A task with no due date is never reminded and never shows as overdue. Reminder timing is covered in "Reminder settings for onboarding tasks".

Prerequisites and locked tasks

Choose a task in Dependency and the task you are editing starts as Locked. It cannot be completed until it unlocks. It unlocks by itself when the prerequisite is Complete or Skipped, and the starter is emailed if it is a Content or Form task with Send to candidate email on. If your team later resets a finished prerequisite to Not Started, the tasks waiting on it lock again.

The prerequisite can sit in any phase. The list shows tasks by title, so give tasks different titles. Circular chains, such as A waiting on B while B waits on A, are refused when you save.

Duplicate and delete

Duplicate makes a full copy with "(Copy)" added to the name, including phases, tasks and prerequisites, and opens it for editing. Delete asks "Are you sure? This action cannot be undone." and then removes the template. Deleting or editing a template does not change onboardings already started or copies held by jobs, as explained next.

There is no default template setting on this page. Templates are chosen on a job's Onboarding tab, on a candidate's Onboarding tab, in the Send Offer dialog, and as an offer type's default template.

How a template applies to live candidates

A template is copied, not linked. Changing it later never reaches anything that already holds a copy.

When you choose a template on a job, the job takes its own copy. Editing the template afterwards does not change the job. Choose the template on the job again to pick up changes.
When onboarding starts for a candidate, it takes a copy of the job's template at that moment. Renaming a task, adding a phase or changing a due date afterwards does not affect anyone already partway through.
An offer sent with automatic onboarding takes its copy when the offer is sent.

To move a candidate who has already started onto the updated version, cancel their onboarding and start it again. There is no refresh or reapply option. See "Starting onboarding for a hired candidate".

When onboarding starts, the candidate is emailed a welcome message with their personal link (if they have an email address on their profile), and the hiring manager on the job is notified. Both can be edited under Settings > Templates, in the Onboarding Welcome and Onboarding Task Notification categories. A template with no tasks completes the moment onboarding is started.

Groups and subsidiaries

If your organisation is part of a group, users with group access see a company selector at the top of the page and can manage another company's templates by choosing it.

A parent company that shares its onboarding forms also shares its onboarding templates. In a subsidiary, those appear in the list marked as shared from the parent. They open read-only, with a notice saying only the parent company can change or delete them, and there are no Save, Duplicate or Delete buttons.