Create consistent, personalised onboarding processes for new joiners with onboarding policies. Use conditions to adapt tasks based on job catalog, workplace, or legal entity, and track their progress from a single Kanban board.

Overview

The Onboarding section in Settings lets admins create and manage onboarding policies for new employees.

A policy defines the steps, tasks, and owners that a new joiner goes through during onboarding. You can use conditions to make the same policy adapt to different job catalog roles, workplaces, or legal entities.

Task statuses also reflect whether the required action has actually been completed in Factorial. This gives admins a more reliable view of each person's onboarding progress.

How to use

Create an onboarding policy

1. In your sidebar, go to Settings
2. Open the Employee onboarding section
3. Create a new policy
4. Add the steps and tasks that new joiners need to complete
5. Assign an owner to each task, where applicable
6. Use variables in tasks when you need the content to adapt to the new joiner
7. Save the policy
8. Assign the policy to the relevant new employees

You can also create a policy using a template or generate one conversationally with ONE.

The template is the recommended way to start. If your company has no published onboarding policy yet, a banner on the People page prompts admins to set one up.

Add conditions to a task

Conditions allow one onboarding policy to adapt to different employee profiles.

Conditions can be based on:

• Job catalog
• Workplace
• Legal entity
• Team
• Contract type
• Disability percentage

For example, you can create an Upload driver license task that only appears for drivers. You can ask ONE to create it just for drivers, and it will only apply to new joiners whose role is Driver. Everyone else skips it automatically.

How to add a condition

1. Open the onboarding policy.
2. Ask ONE to create the task you want.
3. Tell ONE who the task is for and specify the condition, for example, "just for drivers".
4. Check the task ONE created.
5. Save the policy.

Steps don't use conditions. They use time-based triggers, such as when the employee enters the flow, on their first day, or when the mandatory tasks from the previous phase are completed.

Trainings and engagement surveys

• Trainings: assign trainings as part of the onboarding. This works with trainings that have Automatic enrollment enabled.
• Engagement surveys: include engagement surveys in the onboarding.

Edit an onboarding policy

You can make quick changes to tasks directly in the policy editor, without going through ONE. ONE remains available for larger changes.

Edit tasks in the task panel

1. Open the onboarding policy.
2. Select the task you want to change.
3. In the task panel, edit the available fields.

Depending on the task, you can:

• Edit the message the new hire receives: the task title and description, or the email subject and body for email tasks. The editor supports rich text and variables.
• Switch it between required and optional
• Set its due date with Due in and Counted from, as a number of days before or after the start date, assignment, workflow start, trial end or contract end. A task can also have no due date.
• Change its assignees
• For Employee information and Contract information tasks, choose which fields the new hire fills in
• For document tasks, choose the document to sign (a template or an uploaded PDF), the folder for the signed copy and the folder where uploads are saved
• Add or remove a document template on any basic task
• Attach files to the task

Task properties are shown as text. Click a property to edit it. Form tasks list the documents they request in their own Uploads row.

Add variables to a message

• Type {{ or use the add variable button to insert a variable.
• Click a variable to swap it for another one.
• Variables show their name, such as {{First name}}, instead of an example value.

Move, duplicate or delete a task

From the task's … menu, you can move a task to another phase, duplicate it or delete it. A moved task keeps its files and conditions, so you don't need to rebuild it.

In the inbox, sign and fill document tasks show the description you wrote, so new hires see the full message.

Navigate the policy page

• All phases are shown in one list, with filter and search above it, so you can read and filter the whole policy without leaving the page.
• Each phase shows when it starts, and the sidebar follows the phase in view.
• Use the Add task row at the end of each phase to add a task to that phase.

Add files to tasks

Tasks accept videos, spreadsheets, presentations, audio and other files, up to 20 MB per file.

Build the policy with ONE

• ONE opens the policy in a canvas next to the chat, from any page. Edit requests open the editor in one step, and if a request is vague, ONE asks one short question.
• Describe a task and ONE writes it, including who does it. ONE only asks about what is still open.
• Add task and Edit with ONE open with ONE's question and a Suggestions button. Suggestions come as 3 to 5 options to pick from, or you can write your own answer.
• Data tasks collect every field of the category you name. Survey tasks offer to create a new survey.
• If a task needs something that doesn't exist yet, such as a training, survey or custom field, ONE offers to create it in the same conversation, so you don't need to leave the policy. Depending on your account, ONE can also create workplaces and teams.
• ONE reminds you that only a task's assignees can complete it.

Save status and version history

The editor header shows whether your changes are saved, so you always know the status of your policy.

If you publish a change by mistake, you can go back to a previous version:

1. Open the onboarding policy.
2. Go to History.
3. Select Restore version on the version you want to go back to.
4. Review the draft that is created, then publish it.

Data you can request

You can now request additional data from new hires through data-input tasks:

• Disability percentage: ask new hires to declare whether they have a disability. You can then use the answer as a condition to show or skip specific tasks.
• DATEV fields: request DATEV payroll fields in data-input tasks.
• Social security number: request the social security number in data-input tasks.

Track onboarding progress

You can track onboarding progress from the onboarding policy or from Organisation > Activity.

From the onboarding policy

1. Open the onboarding policy.
2. Select View onboardees.
3. Check the personalised onboarding path of the employee in the Kanban.

If a task can't run, for example because the assigned manager no longer exists, the task is flagged in red on the new joiner's timeline instead of being created normally.

Open the new employee's card to see what went wrong and how to fix it, such as reassigning the task to a current manager.

FAQ

1. Can I create a different onboarding policy for every team?
   Yes, but this is not necessary when most of the onboarding process is the same. Instead, use conditions to adapt a single policy based on job catalog, workplace, or legal entity.
   
2. Does checking a task mark it as completed?
   No. A task is considered completed when the underlying action has actually happened in Factorial. For example, a document task is completed when the document has been signed.
   
3. Can tasks use variables?
   Yes. Variables can be used in tasks to personalise onboarding content for each new joiner.
   
4. Can I create an onboarding policy without starting from scratch?
   Yes. Policies can be created from templates or generated conversationally with ONE.
   
5. How can I see who needs attention during onboarding?
   Use View onboardees from the onboarding policy or go to Organization > Activity to review onboarding activity.
   
6. Do I need ONE to make changes to a task?
   No. You can change almost every part of a task directly in the task panel, including its message, documents, files, due date and assignees. Use ONE for larger changes.
   
7. Can I move a task to another phase?
   Yes. Use Move in the task's … menu. The task keeps its files and conditions.
   
8. Does setting up an onboarding policy with ONE use credits?
   No. Configuring the policy with ONE and its clarifying questions are not charged. Other requests in the same conversation use credits as usual.
   
9. Can I undo a published change?
   Yes. Use Restore version in History. It creates a draft, and nothing goes live until you publish it.
   
10. Is there a size limit for files added to tasks?
    Yes. Each file can be up to 20 MB.