Auto-applying a template on hire

How auto-apply works

When you mark a template as Default in Settings > Onboarding, it's applied automatically in two situations:

Accepting an offer through Recruitment

When you accept a candidate's offer, the system does everything in one step:

• Creates the employee record
• Sets up their employment contract with the offer's terms
• Fills the position they were hired into
• Applies the default onboarding template — creates one task per template item, with due dates calculated from the start date

If any of the onboarding tasks are e-sign tasks, the corresponding signature envelopes are also created (in draft — you'll send them explicitly).

Adding an employee manually

The Add Employee form has a checkbox Apply default onboarding template (ticked by default). Untick it if you want to skip — useful for transfers, internal moves, or when you're going to apply a different template manually.

One default at a time

Marking a template as default automatically unticks the default on any other template — you only ever have one default at a time.

When to NOT have a default

• Different templates per role — engineering vs sales vs ops onboarding look quite different. If so, leave no template as default and apply manually based on the role.
• Mixed UK / non-UK teams — UK-specific tasks (right-to-work, P45) don't apply to non-UK hires. Have a separate template per region and apply manually.

Applying manually

You can always apply a template by hand:

1. Employee detail page > Onboarding tab
2. Click Apply template
3. Pick a template from the dropdown

This works whether you've set a default or not.

What happens if I change the default later

Changing the default template doesn't retro-update existing employees' checklists. Their tasks stay as they were. The new default applies to hires from that point onwards.