Xemplo Onboard replaces manual, paper-based new-starter processes with a single self-service workflow: HR creates the onboarding, a Signing Manager reviews and releases it, the worker completes every step themselves, and HR performs one final review before the record is handed to Xemplo Employ. The outcome is a consistent, compliant onboarding experience delivered without admins chasing paperwork.

Where Onboard sits in the Xemplo lifecycle

Onboard is the first product in the Xemplo suite. A completed onboarding record becomes the foundation for everything that follows:

• Onboard - new-starter setup, compliance, contract signing
• Employ - ongoing employment records, leave, performance
• Pay - payroll processing
• Bill - timesheets, approvals, client billing

Where Onboard sits in the Product Ecosystem

Per the Xemplo Product Ecosystem - High-Level Outline, Onboard is a Product Group within the Platform layer, made up of three Products:

This guide focuses on the Onboarding product specifically - HR Onboarding and Worker Onboarding - which is what the Onboard role guides and this master guide are built around. Hire and Pre-Onboarding sit upstream and are covered only where they hand off directly into an onboarding record.

The eight core objects - where Onboarding fits

The Xemplo User Guide (Journey-Based) identifies eight objects that recur across the whole suite: Position, Engagement, Assignment, Contract, Worker, Contractor, Host, and Agency. Onboard works directly with three of these — Position, Contract, and Worker/Contractor. Engagement, Assignment, Host and Agency are set up primarily in Bill and read by Onboard rather than created there.

Who this guide is for

This guide covers all three roles involved in Xemplo Onboard: Super Administrator (platform foundation), Company Administrator (company configuration and oversight), and HR Manager (day-to-day onboarding operations). Role-specific extracts of this guide are also available — see Section 13, Resources and Support.

Core Concepts Glossary

Five concepts underpin everything in Onboard. Understanding how they connect — particularly that Position drives the other four — is the single most important thing a new user can learn.

Roles and Access Model

Onboard has three roles. Each has a distinct scope of ownership, and each is deliberately narrower in some areas - the reasons are stated below so the model reads as intentional design, not an arbitrary restriction.

Super Administrator - full platform configuration

Builds the global foundation everything else is built from: activates Onboard for a company, configures Global Documents/Letters/Credentials and Message Templates, manages other Super Administrator accounts, and controls the Xemplo API Library and System Settings.

Intentionally limited: Background Checks, Contracts and Payroll information are view-only for Super Administrators, because they operate across every company in the instance — day-to-day onboarding ownership sits with the company.

Company Administrator - full company configuration

Owns the foundation within their company: Positions, Compliance Rules, Contract templates, Background Check provider setup, and induction Training courses. Manages HR Managers, Recruiters, Team Managers and Signing Manager access. Has full (not view-only) access to every worker record in the company.

HR Manager - day-to-day onboarding operations

Creates onboardings, tracks them to completion, and reviews and approves what workers submit. Cannot modify system configuration (Positions, Compliance Rules, Contract templates) or manage other users’ permissions — that sits with the Company Administrator.

Role Access Matrix

Process Lifecycle

An onboarding moves through six stages from setup to a completed worker record ready for Employ.

Worker self-service - 7 steps

Workers complete the following themselves through the portal, with no admin chasing paperwork:

• Activate account
• Sign contract
• Work rights check
• Complete profile
• Review documents
• Induction training
• Submit for HR review

Step-by-Step Procedures

Procedures are grouped by who performs them and how often - Setup tasks are done once by an administrator; Operate tasks are done repeatedly, mainly by the HR Manager.

SETUP - Activating Onboard for a new company (Super Administrator)

• Navigate to Global Configuration → Product Activation
• Select the company and enable the Onboarding product
• Confirm Xemplo Connect is enabled, if the company needs integrations feeding into onboarding (e.g. background check or ATS providers)
• Hand off to the Company Administrator to begin Position and Compliance Rule setup

SETUP - Configuring global templates (Super Administrator)

• Go to Global Configuration → Global Documents / Global Letters / Global Credentials
• Upload the master templates — standard policy documents, credential definitions — available to every company
• Set Global Message Templates for system-level notifications

Company Administrators will reference these when building company-specific Compliance Rules and Positions.

SETUP - Building a Position with Compliance Rules (Company Administrator)

• Go to Positions and create a new Position
• Attach the relevant Contract template
• Add Compliance Rules — required documents, credentials, training modules and background checks for that Position
• Save — this Position is now ready to be selected whenever HR creates an onboarding

SETUP - Assigning Signing Manager access (Company Administrator)

• Open the user’s account
• Grant Manager access rights
• Confirm they appear as an available Signing Manager option when an onboarding is created

OPERATE - Creating an onboarding (HR Manager)

• Choose worker type — New Worker creates the record from scratch; Existing Worker selects someone already in Xemplo
• Select the correct Position — this determines Compliance Rules and Contract template automatically, the most important choice you make
• Enter contact details carefully — mobile and email drive account activation and 2FA; a typo here locks the worker out
• Assign a Signing Manager — must have Manager access rights; verify during setup, not at go-live
• Review and send — check the auto-populated Contract and Compliance Rules, then send the onboarding to the worker

Status / State Reference

Every onboarding moves through a defined set of statuses. Use the Onboarding Report to see where each one sits and to spot anything stalled.

Stalled Onboard Diagnostic

Onboarding is the highest-volume, highest-confusion moment across the whole Xemplo suite, and a stalled onboard is the single most common support trigger. Use this status-first diagnostic before raising a ticket.

Review, Approval and Governance Actions

Approve All

Use Approve All only once you’ve genuinely reviewed the content submitted — it’s a convenience for when everything checks out, not a default action. Approving everything at once is faster, but it’s also how compliance gaps slip through; spot-check documents and credentials even when the worker has marked them complete.

Mark Incomplete

Use Mark Incomplete on a specific step to send it back to the worker for correction. This keeps the rest of the onboarding in place — you are not rejecting the whole onboarding, just the one step that needs fixing.

What the worker sees

Workers can see their own onboarding status at any time. If a worker contacts an HR Manager for an update, check their step in the Onboarding Report first before investigating further.

Compliance and Monitoring

Ongoing monitoring is what keeps Onboard reliable at scale after go-live, and is owned by the HR Manager with monthly review by the Company Administrator.

• Monitor the Onboarding Report for onboards stuck in Draft, Pending Signing, or HR to Review
• Spot-check completed onboards against Compliance Rules to confirm nothing was missed
• Collect feedback from HR Managers and from the first cohort of workers
• Review and refine Positions and Compliance Rules based on real usage
• Schedule a 30-day check-in to confirm the process is sticking

Hints, Tips and Common Pitfalls

Before you go live

• Position drives everything downstream — get Compliance Rules right before the first real onboarding; fixing them mid-flow is much harder
• The Signing Manager needs Manager access rights to sign contracts — verify during setup, not in go-live week
• Build Compliance Rule templates once per Position, not per worker — this is what makes onboarding fast at scale
• Load induction Training content before go-live so it’s automatically assigned

When you create each onboarding

• Contact details must be 100% accurate — a typo in mobile or email is the single biggest cause of “worker can’t log in” tickets
• You can’t select an existing worker who already has an unfinalized onboarding open — cancel or complete it first
• Choose New Worker vs. Existing Worker deliberately — it changes what’s captured upfront

Worker experience

• A Background Check or Work Rights check can pause the workflow while results come back — set expectations with the worker about timing
• Workers can see their own onboarding status at any time — point them to their dashboard before investigating further

Review and approval

• “HR to Review” isn’t the finish line — it’s a checkpoint; review each step rather than reaching for Approve All by default
• Use Mark Incomplete to send a specific step back, rather than rejecting or restarting the whole onboarding

Document uploads

• File Uploads is one of the most-read Help Centre articles for Onboard — expect workers to have questions about accepted file types, size limits, and how to redo a rejected upload. Set this expectation upfront rather than waiting for a support ticket

Troubleshooting Guide

Most issues trace back to contact details, Signing Manager access, or an existing unfinalized onboarding for the same worker.

Implementation and Go-Live Checklist

Work through each phase in order. Foundation setup must be complete before creating a test onboarding - Positions and Compliance Rules drive everything downstream.

Phase 1 - Foundation Setup

Owner: Company Administrator, with Super Administrator support for global configuration

• Confirm which roles will manage onboarding day-to-day (HR Manager, Recruiter, Team Manager) and who will act as Signing Manager
• Grant Manager access rights to whoever will sign contracts as Signing Manager
• Define Compliance Rules for each worker type
• Build Position templates and link each Position to its Compliance Rules
• Configure Contract templates for each employment/engagement type
• Set up Background Check provider/process if used
• Load induction Training content that should be assigned automatically
• Configure invitation email/SMS templates with correct company branding
• Confirm Global Documents, Letters and Credentials templates are in place (Super Administrator)

Phase 2 - Implementation and Testing

Owner: HR Manager, supported by Company Administrator

• Create a test onboarding for a sample new worker (New Worker path)
• Walk through the worker’s 7-step self-service flow end-to-end
• Test the Signing Manager review → sign → release step
• Test the HR Manager review step — try both Approve All and marking an individual step Incomplete
• Confirm invitation email/SMS arrives and links work correctly
• Validate mobile number and email formatting trigger activation/2FA correctly
• Test onboarding an Existing Worker and confirm the system blocks a worker with an unfinalized onboard already open
• Confirm Background Check and Work Rights steps pause/resume the workflow as expected

Phase 3 - Training and Go-Live

Owner: Head of Enablement / Implementation Lead

• Run the Onboard workshop training session for HR Managers, Recruiters and Signing Managers
• Distribute the role-specific guides: Super Administrator, Company Administrator, HR Manager
• Communicate the new onboarding process to workers
• Agree a go-live date and freeze non-critical configuration changes
• Confirm a support escalation path is in place for go-live week

Phase 4 - Post Go-Live

Owner: HR Manager, reviewed monthly by Company Administrator

• Monitor the Onboarding Report for onboards stuck in Draft, Pending Signing or HR to Review
• Spot-check completed onboards against Compliance Rules
• Collect feedback from HR Managers and the first cohort of workers
• Review and refine Positions and Compliance Rules based on real usage
• Schedule a 30-day check-in

Project Sign-Off

Downstream Asset Map

Per the Xemplo Best Practice User Guide Framework, this master guide is the single source that other Onboard assets are derived from — not rewritten independently. Use this map when producing or updating any of them.

Resources and Support

• Help Centre — support.xemplo.com — step-by-step articles for every Onboard workflow
• Company Administrator Guide — for configuration changes outside HR Manager access
• Super Administrator Guide — for platform activation and global template setup
• Implementation and Go-Live Checklist — the full rollout checklist, used before and after go-live
• Hints and Tips — practical guidance from real Onboard rollouts, organised by stage
• Support ticket — for anything the guides don’t cover, raised via support.xemplo.com

Source material reference (support.xemplo.com)

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