Turning on onboarding and general settings

How a System Admin switches onboarding on or off for the organisation, what changes across Recruit when they do, and what happens to onboardings already running.

Onboarding is controlled by one switch, Enable onboarding, on the general onboarding settings page. It is on by default for every organisation. Turning it off removes onboarding from the product for your whole organisation. Turning it on again brings everything back as it was.

Who can change it

Only System Admins can open this page or change the switch. HR users and Members do not see the Onboarding card in Settings, and if they go to the page directly they are told "Only admins can turn onboarding on or off." Managing onboarding templates is a separate page, open to System Admins and HR users (see Setting up onboarding templates).

Turn onboarding on or off

Go to Settings and open Onboarding. It sits in the Onboarding group, above Onboarding templates.
Use the Enable onboarding switch. The text under it reads "When off, onboarding is hidden for everyone in your organisation."
The change saves as soon as you flip the switch, and a Saved successfully message appears. There is no Save button. If the save fails, the switch goes back to where it was and you see "Couldn't save the onboarding setting. Please try again."

The switch is the only setting on this page. Everything else about onboarding is configured elsewhere, as described below.

The warning when onboardings are still running

If you turn onboarding off while any candidate's onboarding is active, Recruit stops you first with a dialog titled Onboarding is still in progress. It tells you how many candidates are part-way through and explains that your team will no longer be able to review what those candidates submit. Choose Keep onboarding on to cancel, or Turn off anyway to go ahead. If no onboardings are active, the switch turns off straight away with no dialog.

What disappears when it is off

The Onboarding item in the main menu, and the onboarding hub behind it. Anyone who opens the address directly is sent to the dashboard.
The onboarding widget on the dashboard.
The Onboarding tab on every job, and the Onboarding tab on candidate profiles, including the button to start onboarding by hand. Starting one any other way is refused with "Onboarding is disabled for this organisation".
The Onboarding templates card in Settings and the page itself. The general Onboarding card stays, because it holds the switch you need to turn onboarding back on.
In the Send Offer dialog, the Auto-start onboarding on acceptance switch and template choice. In offer types, the Start onboarding automatically and Default onboarding template options. In the offer history, the line showing which template an offer would start.
The Onboarding Reminder card under Reminder Automations, and the onboarding email categories (Onboarding Welcome, task notification and reminder) in Templates.
Onboarding entries in scheduled emails and in a candidate's communication history.

Nothing is deleted. Templates, job template choices, offer type defaults and past onboarding records are all kept, and they reappear when you turn onboarding back on. Other people see the menu and tab changes the next time they reload the page.

Offers that were sent with auto-start on

Automatic start happens when the candidate accepts the offer, so the switch is checked at that moment. If onboarding is off when the candidate accepts, nothing starts and no error is shown. Turning onboarding back on later does not start it retrospectively, so open the candidate's Onboarding tab and start it by hand. The article Starting onboarding for a hired candidate covers both ways of starting.

Onboardings already in progress

Switching onboarding off does not cancel anything. Every active onboarding stays active, and the candidate's personal link keeps working, so new starters can finish their tasks and submit forms. What changes is on your side: your team no longer has the onboarding tab or hub to review those submissions until you turn onboarding on again. Onboarding reminders to candidates stop from the next daily check while the switch is off.

Turning onboarding on again restores the tab, the hub and the reminders (if the Onboarding Reminder is enabled).

Other settings that affect onboarding

These are set outside the general onboarding page.

Templates. Tasks, phases and forms live under Settings, Onboarding templates. A job's template overrides the offer type's default. Changing the switch does not change any template.
Welcome email. When onboarding starts, the candidate is emailed a welcome message with their personal link, provided they have an email address on their profile. You can edit its wording under Settings, Templates, in the Onboarding Welcome category. The hiring manager on the job also gets a notification that onboarding has started.
Reminders. Timing, maximum number, channel and wording of the chasers for overdue and upcoming tasks are covered in Reminder settings for onboarding tasks.
Link expiry. There is no organisation-wide expiry setting. While onboarding is active the candidate's link does not expire. When the last task is completed, the link is set to expire 30 days later, and the candidate's Onboarding tab shows "Portal expires" with the date. System Admins and HR users can select Extend portal access there, pick a new date in the future and confirm. The link stays the same and access is restored if it had already expired. A cancelled onboarding cannot be extended.

If something is missing

No Onboarding tab or menu item. Check the switch. Only a System Admin can turn it on.
Onboarding templates card missing from Settings. It is hidden while onboarding is off, and only System Admins and HR users see it when it is on.
The switch will not turn off. Read the in-progress dialog and choose Turn off anyway.
A candidate accepted an offer and nothing started. Onboarding was probably off at that moment. Start it by hand from the candidate's profile.