Create and Send a New Hire Packet
How do I create my New Hire Packet?
Purpose: The New Hire Packet helps you get new hire paperwork completed before an employee's first day. This help guide will teach you how to use employee self-onboarding to create a New Hire Packet for new employees.
Table of Contents
- Would you like to watch a video about this topic?
- Add an employee
- Select a template
- Do you want to customize New Hire Packet fields?
- Introduce the employee to the team
- Can I review the Get to Know You questions?
- Payroll Information
- Tasks to Complete
- Preview and send the New Hire Packet
- Save & Send Later
- View, resend or cancel the New Hire Packet
Do you prefer hands-on learning? Our interactive guides will show you through different aspects of your BambooHR experience. We have an interactive guide specifically designed to show you how to create and send the New Hire Packet. You can use the link below to access this guide. All you need to do is modify the "REPLACEME" with your BambooHR subdomain, and you can get started!
https://REPLACEME.bamboohr.com/home?pendo=PK5737R5tuZsvI88DUr0_h14ljU
Add an employee
Employee self-onboarding enables you to create a New Hire Packet to send out to new employees before their first day. For a new employee, the New Hire Packet typically includes information on when and where to be on their first day, basic personal information to fill in, Get to Know You questions, and onboarding tasks to complete before their first day.
Because we understand that some elements of the New Hire Packet vary base on your different locations, divisions, and departments, we've made it possible for you to create different templates that you can use. Learn how to set up those templates here.
To create your New Hire Packet, follow these steps to Add a new employee.:
- Click the checkbox (Send this new employee a new hire packet) at the top of the New Employee page to send it to the employee. This action immediately removes specific fields from the New Employee page because the new employee will fill out the information in the New Hire Packet. If you do not see all of the fields you would like to add for the new employee to fill out in the New Hire Packet, make sure you have added these fields to the Add Employee form. You can do this by clicking Customize Add Employee Form in the top right corner of the New Employee page. Once you add the fields to the form, you can then add them to the New Hire Packet for the employee to fill in using the process described above. You will be able to do this once you are viewing the New Hire Packet. (See below.)
- If you use BambooHR Payroll, you will see an option to check if you would like to pay the employee through Payroll. If you check this box, specific payroll-related* fields will mark as required on the Add Employee form.
- Fill out the basic information for the new employee joining your organization (*be sure to fill out Hire Date and Email Address values).
- Self-Service Access: You don't have to enable self-service access in order for the employee to complete the new hire packet. The New Hire Packet will automatically be available to the employee.
- Click Save & Create New Hire Packet.
*The following payroll-related fields will include on the Add Employee form when you select to pay an employee through Payroll:
- Pay Schedule: The Pay Schedule field will only show pay schedules that sync with Payroll. If you do not check the box to include an employee in Payroll but select a syncing pay schedule, the checkbox will automatically become checked. With the box checked, it will add the employee to Payroll.
- Direct deposit information will be available on the Add Employee form and the New Hire Packet for the employee to fill in.
- A new section for Payroll Information will include State Where Employee Lives and State Tax Withholding Location fields.
- A new section for State Unemployment Insurance will include the Location and State UI Tax Exempt fields.
- Once you fill in the Employee Tax Type and other location-related fields, an option will appear for adding federal and state tax withholding information.
Select a template
Once you click Save & Create New Hire Packet, the new employee automatically adds to BambooHR. You will arrive at the New Hire Packet where the first step is to ensure the employee's email address is correct, and then select the template* you would like to use for this particular employee. You can also customize New Hire Packet fields (see below).
*Note: If you have only created one template, it will default to that one. Once you've created more than one template, you will see the option to choose which one you'd like to apply.
Once you select the applicable template, the When & Where, Other Info, and Get to Know You Info will automatically pull in. If there are any changes you would like to make for the employee, you can customize the individual New Hire Packet at this point without updating the template.
Click Customize New Hire Packet Fields to allow new employees to log in and fill out basic personal information about themselves.* Select which fields to which you want an employee to add information. Notice you even have the option to require the employee to upload a profile photo.
*Please note that a new employee can remove the Education and Emergency Contact fields even if they are marked as required by clicking on the "X" button. If they do not have any education or emergency contacts to add, they can remove the corresponding section and continue with the packet.
If you use Payroll, you will notice that specific personal information and payroll-related fields mark as required in the New Hire Packet when adding a new employee to be paid through Payroll. You will not have the option to remove these requirements.
Introduce the employee to the team
You will set this section up in the template, but you can customize it here when sending the New Hire Packet to a new employee.
Once a new employee completes the New Hire Packet, they will not have the option to edit their answers to the Get to Know You questions. The user who sent the New Hire Packet to the employee will get an email with a preview of the employee's answers to the questions and a link for hiding* the answers. You can click Hide these answers from other employees to remove them from the Welcome email and Welcome widget.
If you choose to hide these answers from other employees, the email will still be sent. Employees with access to the Welcome to Company widget will still see the name, job title, department, hire date, and employee photo of the new employee in that widget and the email.
*Please note you will only have an option to hide the answers if it is before the employee's hire date and sending the Get to Know You email.
The answers will immediately hide from the welcome email and welcome widget on Home. Click Onboarding Tab to review the answers again or edit your change.
Click Answers will be hidden on the New Hire Packet timeline on the employee's Onboarding tab to review the answers or change the setting.
Click Show Answers to now include the employee's answers in the welcome email and welcome widget.
Confirm to have the answers show.
Payroll Information
If you use Payroll and the employee you add is part of a syncing pay schedule, you will see the Payroll Information listed in the New Hire Packet for the employee to fill in for you.
If the employee is not part of a syncing pay schedule, you will be able to check or uncheck a box next to the information above to add or remove it from the New Hire Packet.
Tasks to Complete
Select Import Tasks to automatically copy over all applicable tasks from the Onboarding template in the order of creation within the template. Only tasks that are assigned to the employee and due on or before the hire date will show up in the New Hire Packet.
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Hover: Hover over a task to move it to a different spot in the list. Additionally, you will see an option to edit or delete the task.
- Edit: If you click the edit icon, you will be able to edit the task details for this employee specifically. This includes the option to update the title, due date, file upload option, task description, and attached company files. This will not change the task in the Onboarding template in Settings.
- Delete: If you click the delete icon, you will be asked to confirm you'd like to delete the task from the employee's New Hire Packet. This will not remove the task from the Onboarding template in Settings.
- Signature Documents: Take advantage of BambooHR's eSignature feature and attach signature templates to tasks in order to have the new employee sign all necessary paperwork before their first day.
- Other tasks: Here you can find all other tasks that have been added for the employee but that won't be included in the New Hire Packet. This includes any tasks assigned to the employee that are due after the hire date as well as all tasks that are assigned to other people. Click on this section to see the list of tasks. Simply hover over the task to make edits or delete the task for the employee. The same editing options apply.
- Add Task: Click here to add a new task that is specific to this employee. Any tasks added here will not be added to the Onboarding template in Settings.
- Import More Tasks: This will show you all tasks that have been removed for the employee or that are not applicable to the employee. Simply check the box next to the tasks you'd like to add for the employee.
You can also set a document to be required or optional when attached to a task. If you require a signed document for a task, the employee cannot complete the task until they sign the document. In this way, you can ensure that your new employees complete the documents you need before their first day!
When creating an onboarding task, you can check the box to allow the employee to upload a document to the task. If a task allows for this option, the employee will see a button (Attach Files) to attach files to the task. If it is marked as required, they will not be able to complete the task until the file is uploaded. These files will add to the Employee Uploads folder on the employee's Documents tab. Please note that you must enable employee uploads in General Settings.
Note: Employees can only sign documents that are part of the onboarding process when logged into BambooHR via the web app, not the mobile app. This is by design since new employees do not have access to log in to BambooHR until their first day.
Preview and send the New Hire Packet
- Click Continue to scroll through each section to see what the packet will look like for the new employee.
- Click Send the New Hire Packet to send, or Edit if you want to make any changes.
Once you click the option to send the packet, the following rules apply:
- If the hire date is today, the packet will send immediately.
- If the hire date is in the future, the packet will send immediately.
- If the hire date is in the past, the packet will send the day after you click to send it (i.e., I chose to send it today, but the hire date was last week, and the packet will send tomorrow).
- If the hire date passed fourteen days, the packet does not send.
Do you know that the New Hire Packet is mobile-friendly? Your new employees can fill out the New Hire Packet in the mobile app or the web and have the same great experience!
Save & Send Later
If you choose Save & Send Later, you can send the packet from the specific employee's Onboarding tab. The same sending rules apply as mentioned in the previous step. The Onboarding tab also lets you track the employee's progress* as they move through the New Hire Packet steps. Notice that before sending the packet, you have an option to cancel the New Hire Packet.
Please note that the wording in the automatic email notifications for the New Hire Packet is not customizable.
Once you send the New Hire Packet, you have the option to view, resend, or cancel the New Hire Packet directly from the employee's Onboarding tab in the top right corner.
- View Packet: This allows you to see the packet as the new employee will see it.
- Resend: If you choose to resend the packet, you will receive a prompt to enter the employee's email address to confirm where the packet should send.
- Cancel: Canceling the packet will prompt you to confirm you want to cancel the packet and notify you that you can still create and send a new packet fourteen days after the hire date.
Please note that you will not be able to edit, resend, or cancel a new hire packet once it's completed.