Introduction
The Hires feature is your staging area for people who have accepted an offer but haven't started yet. Instead of cluttering your active employee list with future joiners, you can prepare everything they'll need — their personal details, position, employment terms, salary, time-off allowances, onboarding plan, and documents — all in one place before their first day.
When everything is ready and approved, a hire is "activated" with a single click and instantly becomes a full employee profile, with all the information you entered carried over automatically. This keeps your records clean, gives you a clear overview of who's joining, and makes the handover from recruiting to onboarding smooth and reliable.
Use Hires to track upcoming employees before they start.
Getting started
Who can manage hires?
- Administrators can create, edit, approve, decline, and delete hires, and can assign managers.
- Managers can create hires and work on hires they created or that are assigned to them. Depending on your company's setup, managers may submit a hire for approval rather than activating it directly.
You'll find Hires in the main navigation at the top of the admin area, between People and Time-off.
Creating a new hire
1. Go to Hires in the top navigation.
2. Click Create new hire in the top-right corner.
3. Fill in the starting details in the pop-up window.
The create form asks for the essentials to get started. Fields marked with an asterisk (`*`) are required:
Field | Required | Notes |
First name | Yes |
|
Last name | Yes |
|
Personal email | Yes | The private email address |
Phone number | No |
|
Job title | Yes |
|
Department | Yes |
|
Workplace | Yes |
|
Manager | No | Who they'll report to |
Planned start date | No | Can be added later |
4. Click Continue to create the hire and open their full record.
Tip: You don't need every detail to get started — you can create a hire with just the basics and fill in the rest later as information becomes available.
How it works
Building out the hire's record
Once created, you land on the hire's detail page. Here you can complete every part of their profile before they start. The page is organized into clear sections:
- Personal info - name, personal email, phone, work email/phone, national ID, birthday, gender, and home address.
- Position - job title, department, workplace, and manager.
- Employment - planned start date, worker type (e.g. Employee, Contractor, Intern), employment form, contract type (e.g. Full time), and probation end date.
- Salary - amount, currency, and pay period.
- Onboarding - the onboarding template to apply when they start.
- Time off - public holiday calendar and the absence policies that apply to them (Sick, Vacation, Parental leave, Personal days, and so on).
- Hiring notes - internal notes for your team. These are for your reference only.
You can also upload paperwork in the Documents panel using Add document - anything you attach here (such as a signed contract) is carried over to the employee's profile when the hire is activated.
The activation checklist
On the right-hand side, the Activation checklist tracks your progress. It shows how many of the required fields are complete (for example, "8 of 10 required fields complete") and lists each one with a checkmark. The required fields are typically:
- First name
- Last name
- Personal email
- Job title
- Department
- Workplace
- Planned start date
- Worker type
- Employment form
- Employment contract
Click any item in the checklist to jump straight to that field. The **Approve** button stays greyed out until every required field is filled in.
Approving (activating) a hire
When the checklist is complete, the Approve button becomes active. Clicking it converts the hire into a real employee profile — all the details, documents, and the onboarding plan you set up are applied automatically, and you're taken to the new employee's profile.
Note: If your company uses an approval workflow, you'll see a Submit for approval button instead. This sends the hire to the approver for a decision rather than activating it immediately.
Declining a hire
If a hire falls through (for example, the candidate withdraws), click Decline. You'll be asked to confirm and can add an optional reason:
Declining marks this hire as not happening. This can't be undone.
The reason field is helpful for keeping a record of why the hire didn't proceed. Declined hires are moved out of your active list but remain visible for reference.
Keeping track of everyone
Back on the Hires overview, your upcoming joiners are grouped by status so you always know where each one stands:
- Awaiting approval - submitted and waiting for a decision (only shown if you use approval workflows).
- Pending - being prepared, not yet approved or declined.
- Activated - successfully turned into employees.
- Declined - marked as not happening.
The table shows each person's name, job title, department, and manager at a glance.
Best practices and tips
- Start early. Create a hire as soon as an offer is accepted, even with only the basics filled in. You can complete the rest as paperwork comes through.
- Use the activation checklist as your to-do list. It tells you exactly what's still missing before you can activate.
- Attach the signed contract before activating. Documents you add to the hire carry over to the employee profile automatically.
- Set the onboarding template in advance so the new employee's onboarding kicks off the moment they're activated.
- Use hiring notes to leave context for colleagues — these stay internal and don't become part of the employee's visible profile.
- Double-check the planned start date and salary before approving, since these flow directly into the live employee record.
FAQ & Troubleshooting
Why is the "Approve" button greyed out?
Not all required fields are complete yet. Check the activation checklist on the right — any item without a checkmark still needs information. Click it to jump straight to that field.
I see "Submit for approval" instead of "Approve" — why?
Your company uses an approval workflow. Hires must be reviewed and approved by the designated approver before they become employees. Once you've completed the required fields, submit the hire for that review.
Can I undo a declined hire?
Declining is intended to be final — the confirmation warns that it "can't be undone." Depending on your company's setup, a declined hire may offer a Reopen hire or Resubmit for approval option, but in general you should only decline when you're sure the hire isn't happening.
What happens to all the data when I activate a hire?
Everything transfers: personal details, position, employment terms, salary, time-off settings, the profile picture, and any uploaded documents. The onboarding template you selected is applied automatically, and the hire becomes a standard employee profile.
A manager says they can't see a hire — why?
Managers only see hires they created or that are assigned to them as the manager. Administrators can see all hires across the company.
Can I add documents like a signed contract before the person starts?
Yes. Use Add document in the Documents panel on the hire's page. These files move to the employee's profile when the hire is activated.
Where do hires go after they start?
Once activated, they appear under People as a regular employee, and the original hire record moves to the Activated group on the Hires overview for your reference.