This article explains how to build onboarding and offboarding workflows. For both workflows, you will need to create steps, templates, and groups.

What are the benefits?

Creating on- and offboarding workflows is important for the following reasons:

• Using the Workflow Hub, you can keep track of on- and offboarding workflows and identify bottlenecks before they cause delays.
• Creating an automated onboarding process ensures that your new joiners are supported in their new position and receive the information they need when it’s most relevant.
• Having automated on- and offboarding tasks means that each person involved is reminded of the actions they need to take and tasks that still need to be completed, thereby increasing the efficiency of the process and saving time.
• Boosting your workflows with integrations enables you to further streamline your on- and offboarding processes. To see an overview of all available integrations that can help you boost your workflows, click on the lightning icon to the right of the Onboarding overview in the Workflow Hub.

Step 1: Create on- and offboarding steps

Tip
When creating your on- and offboarding workflows in Personio, it is useful to think about existing onboarding and offboarding processes at your company and incorporate these into your workflows, along with any steps that might improve the process. See our best practice articles for examples of typical onboarding and offboarding templates and steps.

To set up your on- and offboarding steps, go to Settings > Workflows > On-/Offboarding. Under both the Onboarding steps and Offboarding steps tabs, there is a blank field on the left with a plus icon . You can create two types of steps: a general step and an email action.

General step

You can set up a general step by selecting an item type or by adding multiple item types to the step. The item types are explained in further detail below.

Email action

You can set up an email to be sent at a specific point in a workflow. To set up the parameters of an email action, follow these steps:

1. You can choose from three different sending options, as shown below.

   Sending option	Details
   Send manually	The responsible employee(s) get a reminder to send out the email. You will define the employee or group that is responsible for this step when creating the Onboarding or Offboarding template.
   On due date	The email will automatically be dispatched on a date that will be defined in the specific Onboarding template.
   When previous steps are completed	Personio will generate the auto dispatch only after all the previous Onboarding or Offboarding steps have been marked as completed.

2. For the Sender parameter, select which employee should be displayed as the sender of the email.
   Note
   The email will display the email signature set in Personio for the selected employee. Learn more about setting up an email signature.
3. In the Recipient(s) parameter, select the email recipient. You can choose between the employee who has to complete the step, their supervisor, or all employees. You can also select employees who are part of the Groups you created.

   Ensure that at least one recipient belonging to the On-/Offboarding Team or Employee Team has an active login. This means that one of the following criteria needs to be fulfilled:
   ▶︎ A valid email address
   ▶︎ An active account
   ▶︎ Their login status is either “joined” or “invited”

   Otherwise, the email will not be delivered successfully and a warning message will appear on the page.

4. Select the Email subject and write the content of the email in the Email template. You can use the Insert variable into email dropdown to insert the following into the email: Employee attributes, On-/Offboarding attributes, Profile Picture, Gender split. Upload any documents you want to attach to the email. The maximum file size is 256 MB.
5. Click Save changes.

Step 2: Create on- and offboarding groups

Tip
Once a group is assigned as responsible for an onboarding step, all employees in this group will receive the task notification on their Dashboard; however, only one employee will have to complete the task.

On- and offboarding groups are groups of employees who you assign as being responsible for a specific onboarding or offboarding step. You can also set this group of employees as recipients of an email action.

To create an on- or offboarding group, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Workflows > On-/Offboarding.
2. Click the Groups tab.
3. Under Groups, type the name of your new group into the blank field and click the plus icon .
4. The name of your team will appear on the left, along with two columns. In the left column, click on the names of the employees you want to add or use the filter to find them. The names of the selected employees will then appear in the right column.
   Tip
   To remove an employee's name from a group, click on their name in the right column.
5. Click Save changes.

Step 3: Create on- and offboarding templates

Tip
You also have the option to duplicate existing templates, rename them, and then edit them.

You can now build an on- or offboarding template, using the steps you created previously. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Workflows > On-/Offboarding and click Onboarding Templates or Offboarding Templates. 
2. Enter the name of your new template and click the plus icon .
3. Click Add step.
4. Select the step you want to add, the person, group, or team responsible, and the deadline. The deadline triggers reminders and tasks as follows:
   ▶︎ For General steps
   Seven days before a deadline expires, Personio sends the first notification email to all employees who are responsible for completing the respective onboarding step and creates a task in the Tasks widget on their Dashboard and in their Inbox. Another email reminder is sent by Personio two days before the deadline expires. If any tasks become overdue, the responsible employees receive daily email reminders.
   
   ▶︎ For Email actions
   The deadline defines the email sending date when the option On due date is set in the Email Action on- or offboarding Step.
5. Click Add step to add further steps to the template.
   Tip
   Click on the arrow icon to the left of each step to drag and change the order of the steps.
6. Click on Save changes.

Step 4: Assign templates

Onboarding templates 

See our article Assigning and Managing Onboarding Templates to learn how to assign an onboarding template to individual employees.

Offboarding templates

Offboarding templates cannot be assigned to active employees. The Offboarding tab only appears in an employee's profile once the termination of employment has been entered in their employee profile. Only then can you assign the appropriate offboarding template to the employee.

Note
Check if everything is set up correctly in Quality Check: On- and offboarding before moving on to the next step.