1. foundU
  2. Employee Management
  3. Onboarding

Adding, onboarding, and setting up a new employee

Avatar
foundU

Adding, onboarding, and preparing an employee for work

Are you starting a new business or looking to expand your workforce?

Don't worry, we've got you covered. In this article, we will discuss the processes of gathering and screening information collected from potential employees, as well as reviewing and approving them so they are ready for rostering and payroll.

This article will cover: 

  • Background information about onboarding 
  • Adding people to your platform
  • Checking employee onboarding status
  • Screening employee profiles
  • Managing employee profiles (reviewing, declining, reactivating and approving)
  • Suggested next steps
  • Onboarding communications
  • HR Reports

  For a comprehensive review from start to finish, please consult our Core On-Demand webinar for Onboarding and Setting up new Employees.

Registering and Onboarding Employees

Onboarding - Before you start

After a person registers with your platform, they will go through a 5-step onboarding process. This process is customised to meet the specific needs of your platform and is designed to gather essential information from your applicant/ candidate. This information may include:

    • Personal Details
    • Right to Work
    • Medical Questionnaire 
    • Compliances (Qualifications, Licences, Inductions)
    • Financial Details (Bank Account, Superannuation, TFN Declaration) 

If you'd like to update or customise your onboarding journey, please contact support. Our implementation guide lists additional components to give you an idea of what else you could collect.

Types of Onboarding

During the implementation stage, we will discuss which type of onboarding process best suits your business needs. There are two types of onboarding configurations used in foundU:

    • Standard onboarding
    • Candidate application & onboarding

If you're unsure which type of onboarding your platform offers, please see the tabs below, which identify both types. 

Standard onboarding Candidate application & onboarding

When a new employee uses the standard onboarding journey, they will need to complete all 5 steps prior to being approved.  

The basic workflow for this configuration is as follows:
  1. The employee is added/ registered to the platform.
  2. The employee receives an email prompting them to set a password and begin onboarding.
  3. The employee will provide the mandatory (*) information for all 5 Steps. 
  4. Admin users will review the employee details provided and Approve the employee. 

 

  Hot tip: For the best experience, we recommend that candidates and employees complete their onboarding using a computer's Chrome browser.

Add an employee to your platform

When you add a person to your platform, it initiates the process of setting them up as an employee and automatically creates their profile. This also triggers the start of the employee onboarding process, which is essential for capturing other important information about the employee. 

There are two primary methods of adding employees to your platform:

    • Employees can register themselves via a registration link.
    • Admin users can add employees manually.
Employee registering via the link Admin adding an employee to platform

The most beneficial method for our customers to add employees to their platform is for employees to register and add themselves by using the registration link. This will first need to be enabled on your platform.

This option is ideal for businesses using the candidate application and onboarding configuration or mass recruitment, as the link can be embedded in an external employment website (e.g., Indeed, Seek, etc.).

To access the employee registration link: 

  1. Direct interested applicants/ candidates to your company registration link.
    • Your link will be [your domain name].foundu.com.au/register 
  2. Alternatively, create an advertisement on an employment website and use the registration link to enable applicants/candidates to register directly with your platform.

 

  Hot tip: For our customers in implementations, your existing employees can be added in bulk via an import. The import will not trigger the automatic welcome message; however, you can trigger a message from People > Pending People > Bulk Actions > Resend Welcome Email to Selected. 

Manage employee onboarding

Once an applicant/ candidate has been added to your platform, they will begin their onboarding journey. During this process, they can provide and update their details to complete their profile, and they can go back to correct any mistakes they may have made. 

However, once the onboarding is completed (either when paused or after Step 5), the employee will need to be reviewed/ approved before the employee can make any further updates.

You can find and manage your onboarding employees on the People > Pending People page.

 

Managing Pending People

The Pending People page is your central resource for performing key bulk actions for recruitment these include:

Additionally, this page allows you to quickly view the current onboarding progress and status of your candidates/ applicants and whether any action is required by admin users.

Understanding the different onboarding statuses will help you determine your next steps in the recruitment process as an admin user. A pending person can have one of four possible onboarding statuses. 

The following statuses apply to all pending people:

    • Onboarding incomplete
      • The applicant/ candidate has not completed onboarding.
      • If you are using a review point, this status appears after their review. It indicates they must complete the rest of their onboarding.
      • A reminder can be sent to the employee (see Communications sent section below).
    • Ready to approve
      • The applicant/ candidate has completed their onboarding (all 5 Steps).
      • Admin will screen the applicant/ candidate details.
      • Admin users can choose to accept or decline the applicant/ candidate.

The following statuses only apply if your onboarding requires a review:

    • Application incomplete
      • The applicant/ candidate has not yet reached the review point. 
      • A reminder can be sent to the candidate (see Communications sent section below).
    • Ready for review
      • The applicant/ candidate has completed their application up to the review point.
      • Admin will screen the applicant/ candidate details.
      • Admin users can choose to review and progress the applicant/ candidate or decline them.

Screening, Reviewing and Approving Employees

Screening employee details

To ensure that the applicant/ candidate is a good fit for your business, it is recommended that you screen the information provided by them before reviewing/ approving them as employees in your platform.

The employee profile contains all the information collected during onboarding. You can choose to review these details from within the profile or download a summary to review externally.

You can locate an employee's file from People > Pending People > Select Employee's Name.

 

Employee Profile Overview and Download Summary

Each time you access an employee's profile, you will land on the overview page, which contains a summary of key details about the employee that you can view at a glance; these include:

  Hot tip: To assist with screening applicants, you can create custom platform-wide checklists to track your progress.

If you are looking for a quick export to have on hand for an interview, you can download the resume and export your preferred details to PDF from the employee's profile.

To download a summary:

  1. Navigate to the Employee's Profile
  2. Select Manage > Download summary.
  3. Specify your selection from the summary modal.
  4. Select Download - this will download a zip file containing the PDF and resume (if selected). 

 

Navigating the Employee Profile

The employee's profile is the main location for all details about a specific employee, including the information gathered during onboarding. Each employee profile is divided into separate tabs, with each tab containing a specific topic of information.

For a more detailed review of an employee's information, you can review each tab on an employee's profile to find important information for recruitment screening.

Below, we have provided a list of key recruitment information in each tab.

Employee Card Compliance Financial Onboarding Work History

Details

The details field is where you can check and edit an employee's personal details; these include:
    • Name
    • Gender
    • DOB
    • Contact Details (email and phone number)
    • Languages spoken
    • Emergency contacts

 

Custom Fields

Custom Fields are customisable data sets that can be used to collect and store information on your employees. 

When included in onboarding, their information can be accessed and edited from the Employee Card; some examples include:

    • COVID Vaccination Status
    • Uniform Sizes 
    • Survey Questions

Reviewing a person

If your onboarding has a review point, once an applicant/ candidate has completed their onboarding up to the review point, they will be marked as Ready to review.

At this time, you should review all the details and documentation provided by the applicant/ candidate. See the above section, 'Screening or reviewing employee details', for more information about where to find this information.

After the screening process, a decision will need to be made to:

    • Review person - this will continue Onboarding.
    • Decline to end onboarding and move the person to the Declined People menu.
      • People can be declined at any stage prior to receiving their first pay; afterwards, they will need to be terminated. 

To review a person:

  1. Navigate to the employee profile and select People > Pending People > Select Employee's Name.
  2. In the top-right corner, select Manage > Review person
  3. In the first stage of the workflow, you will be informed that a notification will be sent to the employee notifying them to resume onboarding. Select Continue. 
    • You can edit the template for this by selecting the Customise notification button. 

        Please note: Editing the template will apply to all future communications sent using the template, not just to the employee you are approving.
  4. Next, you'll have the option to complete their employment details (this can be done later if you prefer):
    • Employment start date
    • Office code
    • Manager (Active admin user)
  5. Select Save to complete this workflow. 
  6. The onboarding status update to Onboarding incomplete until onboarding has been completed and they are Ready to approve. 

  Hot tip: You can prompt candidates or employees to complete their application/onboarding. Read more in the Communications sent section below. 

Declining and reactivating a person

In order to manage the people menus effectively, it is recommended that you decline any people who may not be a good fit for your business. If you ever need a person to reapply, simply reactivate them.

This will help clear your Pending People menu so that you can focus on managing new applicants/candidates.

Reactivating a person will reset their onboarding progress without deleting any previously provided data. It will simply place the applicant/ candidate back at Step 1, allowing them to review and update any necessary information.

How to decline a person:

  1. Navigate to the employee profile and select People > Pending People > Select Employee's Name.
  2. In the top-right corner, select Manage > Decline person
  3. Select if you require a notification to be sent. 
  4. Select Decline - this will automatically refresh your page and move the employee to the Declined People menu. 

How to reactivate a person:

  1. Navigate to the employee profile and select People > Declined People > Select Employee's Name.
  2. In the top-right corner, select Manage > Reactivate person
  3. Select if you require a notification to be sent. 
  4. Select Reactivate - this will automatically refresh your page and move the employee to the Pending People menu. 

Approving a person

Once you have completed your screening, interview, and any other business processes, any successful applicants/ candidates is successful will need to be approved. 

Once their employment details have been added, the employee can then be rostered and paid. 

The approval process is completed through a workflow which serves two purposes:

    • Approving the employee moving them to the Approved People menu
    • Reviewing an employee for ATO Compliance.

  Hot tip: Contractors also need approval; however, if Contractor was selected as their Employment Type during registration, their workflow will exclude ATO Compliance.

To approve a person: 

  1. Navigate to the employee profile and select People > Pending People > Select Employee's Name.
  2. In the top-right, select Manage > Approve person.
  3. In the first stage of the workflow, you will be informed that a notification will be sent to the employee notifying them of their employment. Select Continue. 
    • You can edit the template for this by selecting the Customise notification button. 

        Please note: Editing the template will apply to all future communications sent using the template, not just for the employee you are approving.
  4. Next is the Employment compliance information section (this will be pre-filled if completed during a review). Review or update the fields below then select Continue. 
    • Employment start date
    • Office code
    • Manager (Active admin user)
  5. Select the Employee's income type (see below for more details), then Continue:
    • Salary and wages
    • Working holiday maker
    • Foreign employment income
  6. Review ATO compliance information - a snapshot of the employee's TFN Declaration. 
  7. Select Save and Approve employment to complete the workflow.

  Hot tip: Any fields with an ATO badge will be reported to the ATO. It is important to make proper selections here, as the employment start date, office code (paying entity), and income type will be reported to the ATO.    

 

Completing the Income Type

When approving an employee, one of the key requirements in the workflow is to specify the employee's income type. The employee's income type is reported to the ATO, and the available options are as follows:

    • Salary and wages

      An employee who is an Australian Citizen, Resident or who is a Foreign Resident for Tax purposes who is working in Australia. 
      • When this option is selected, no further action is required.
      • Select Next to continue.
    • Working holiday maker

      An employee who is working for your business whilst holding a Working Holiday visa permitting them to work.
      • When this option is selected, you will need to specify  'Which country they are from' from the drop-down menu. 
      • Then select Next to continue.
    • Foreign employment income

      An employee is an FEI employee if they are an Australian resident conducting work for an Australian company overseas in a country that is not an Australian territory. 
      • When this option is selected, you will need to select 'In which country they are working' from the drop-down box.
      • Enter the foreign tax rate.
      • Then select Next to continue.

If you need to change an employee's financial information, you can do so via the Employee Profile > Financial. See the 'Screening employee details' section above for more details.

  Hot tip: If an employee's financial details are changed, the relevant information will be reported to the ATO via STP. Changes made to a profile will also be recorded in Activities on the employee profile. 

Next Steps

After setting up your employee, you will need to add a position as a position serves as the connection between the employee, the roster, and payroll. This is the final step before you can roster and pay your employee. 

  For a detailed guide, please refer to our article on Adding a position to a new Employee.

Depending on your business needs, there may be additional tasks to address. Below, we have included some suggested resources:

Communications and Reporting

Communications sent

There are numerous communications that can be sent through the application and onboarding process to both employees and admin. These communications can be sent via email and/or SMS. They can be enabled, disabled, or edited to suit your needs. You can also add more admin users as recipients of any communications that are marked as dynamic. 

Below, you will find the actions that trigger the communication, the communication content ID, and an overview of the default purpose of the communication. 

Navigate to Communication > Communication Content to edit the communications. You can read more about customising communications here. 

Automated Communication

  • Employee is added to the platform manually
ID Recipient Default content
172 Employee Create a password and commence onboarding.
142 Dynamic Notifying designated people that an employee was added to the platform.

  • Employee added through the registration link
ID Recipient Default content
49 Employee Create a password and commence onboarding.
142 Dynamic Notifying designated people that an employee was added to the platform.

 

  • Employee completes their application and is ready for review
    This communication applies to the Candidate application and onboarding configuration only.
ID Recipient Default content
128 Dynamic Notifying designated people that a candidate has completed their application and is ready for review.

 

  • Admin marks employee as reviewed (manage > review person)
    This communication applies to the Candidate application and onboarding configuration only.
ID Recipient Default content
44 Employee Notified of acceptance and prompted to continue onboarding.
173 Dynamic Notifying designated people that an employee has been reviewed.

 

  • Employee completes all onboarding
ID Recipient Default content
73 Dynamic Notifying designated people that an employee has completed all of their onboarding and is ready to be reviewed & approved.

 

  • Admin approves employee
ID Recipient Default content
45 Employee Notify employee that their onboarding is now complete.
147 Dynamic Notifying designated people that an employee has been approved.

  • Admin declines employee
    When declining an employee, you can optionally send this communication.
ID Recipient Default content
145 Employee Notify employee that their application/onboarding has been declined.

 

Manual Communication

  • Send reminder
ID Recipient Default content
48 Employee Reminder that the application/onboarding has not yet been completed. Login to complete.
  • A reminder can be sent to employees that have not yet completed their application/onboarding. This is done from their profile in the top-right corner.
  • You will also see the number of times the reminder has been sent to the employee in the banner on the employee's profile.

  • Resend welcome email
ID Recipient Default content
172 Employee Create a password and commence onboarding.
  • The welcome email (originally sent when manually added to the platform) can be sent to employees manually. 
  • You may need to do this for employees who claim to have not received the email or if you've added employees through a bulk import.
  • This can be sent from Pending People > Bulk Actions > Resend Welcome Email
Employee reports

foundU provides a variety of reports tailored to meet your recruitment and HR needs. Your key reports can be found in your platform from your quick menu,  Reports > Workforce.

Below is a summary of the most helpful reports to help you streamline your processes and gain valuable insights.

    • Exporting from the People Menus
      • Employee information can be exported directly from the People Menus (Approved, Pending, Declined), allowing you to save and create a custom report. Some common exports include:
        • Employee name and contact details
        • Employment Start Date
        • Age / Date of Birth
        • Positions
        • And many more. 
    • Visa Check List
      • The Visa Checklist report is an excellent tool for reviewing the visa status of residents in your employment. Additionally, this report displays employees who have not initiated the initial visa check.
    • Terms & Conditions
      • The Terms & Conditions report lists and timestamps all policies your employees accept.
    • Expiring Documents
      • This report verifies an employee's compliance status (qualifications, licenses, and inductions).
    • Employee Document Report
      • With the Document Builder feature, any document issued to an employee (such as contracts, letters of offer, etc.) can be reported using this report.
    • Position Changes Report
      • The Position Changes Report provides a historical record of when an employee's position has been modified in their profile.  

Articles in this section