Onboard a new employee

This workflow begins after the organisation has agreed the employee’s details and start date. It ends when the employee has a correct profile, can activate their account, has visible onboarding tasks, and can see the first work schedule and attendance screen.

Primary owner: HR.

Contributors: the line manager, contract, insurance, attendance, and access owners, plus the new employee.

Prepare first

Have the employee’s name, email, start date, joining status, position, primary department, contract, and applicable insurance plans ready. If a required position, group, or policy does not exist, complete First-time setup first.

Hand-off points

Stage	Owner	Result to confirm
Employee record	HR	One employee appears with the intended state
Contract and insurance	HR / domain owner	The effective contract and applicable plans are recorded
Account	HR → employee	Rifena confirms the invitation; the employee activates the account
Onboarding work	HR → manager	Clear tasks have owners and visible progress
Attendance	Scheduler / HR → employee	The employee can see the first shift and attendance screen

1. Choose how to create the employee

Open HR → Employees. The create control offers two paths:

• Quick hire creates the basic record and a draft contract, ready for later completion.
• Detailed create moves through Personal information → Contract → Insurance.

For a complete onboarding workflow, open the arrow next to Quick hire and choose Detailed create. This keeps the required hand-off data in one guided sequence.

2. Complete Personal information

1. Enter Last name, First name, and Email. Check the email carefully; it receives the activation invitation.
2. Select the Employee type and enter the required identity and contact information.
3. Under Status on joining, select Official or Probation.
4. Select the Position and Primary department.
5. Add an employee code, tax, bank, and family information only when verified.
6. Recheck every required field, then choose Continue.

Saving this stage creates the employee record. Status on joining is then locked while the remaining stages continue on the same employee.

Choose the joining state before the first save

Do not create an Official employee and expect to switch the locked field back to Probation. Select Probation before the first save when probation is the agreed starting stage.

If the contract starts in the future, the employee appears under Pre-start until that date. This is expected and does not mean the record is missing.

3. Add the contract

Under Contract:

1. Choose Add contract.
2. Enter the contract name, contract type, and legal contract type.
3. Enter the Start date, and an end date for a fixed-term contract.
4. Enter the pay method, pay frequency, base salary, allowances, and weekly hours from the agreed contract.
5. Upload the appropriate contract document.
6. Choose Save contract.
7. Confirm the contract appears with the intended dates and state.

Do not leave while a contract is still being edited. If Rifena asks you to Save contract or Cancel, complete one of those actions before choosing Continue.

Check the first payroll inputs

Recheck base salary, allowances, pay method, and effective date. Payroll will use these values when reviewing the employee’s first payroll run.

4. Select applicable insurance

Under Insurance:

1. Filter the list to find the intended mandatory or commercial plan.
2. Select only plans that actually apply to this employee.
3. Review the employer and employee contribution values.
4. Leave the contribution salary blank when the active contract salary is the approved basis. Enter an override only when a separately verified basis applies.
5. Choose Complete and wait for the saved result.

Rifena does not assign every insurance plan automatically. If the list is empty, configure insurance first; do not choose a similar plan merely to finish the form.

After Complete, Rifena opens the employee profile. Review Personal information, organisation, Contract, and Account before hand-off.

5. Send the account activation link

In the employee profile:

1. Open Account.
2. If it shows No account yet, choose Send activation link.
3. Confirm the employee in the dialog and send once.
4. Wait for the success message stating that the employee should use the email link to set a password.
5. Confirm the tab becomes Waiting for the employee to set up their account and read the Expires time.

Ask the employee to:

1. Open the newest Rifena invitation email.
2. Follow the activation link and complete the hosted password step. The password needs at least 12 characters, including uppercase, lowercase, and numbers.
3. Sign in to Rifena again.
4. Confirm Employee Portal, Schedule, Attendance, and any other assigned self-service items are available.

Each link expires after seven days. If the email is missing or the link has expired, select Resend link. Rifena invalidates every older unconsumed link and begins a fresh seven-day expiry. If the employee should no longer activate the account, select Revoke link and confirm to stop every unconsumed link.

If Rifena reports success but the employee still cannot activate, verify the email, invitation state, and displayed expiry, then use Access and notification support.

6. Create the onboarding checklist

Open HR → Lifecycle, find the employee, and open the detail panel:

1. Find Onboarding checklist.
2. Enter a task under Add an onboarding task… and choose the add action.
3. Use verifiable tasks, such as issue equipment, introduce the manager, confirm policy acknowledgement, or collect an outstanding document.
4. Mark a task only when it is complete and confirm the progress count updates.

The checklist is a hand-off between HR and the manager. Do not mark work complete for another owner before the real outcome exists.

7. Confirm attendance readiness

Before the first workday:

1. HR or the scheduler opens Operations → Timekeeping → Schedule & Shifts and keeps Shift assignment selected.
2. Select the employee, shift, work schedule, and effective dates.
3. Save and confirm the employee appears on the intended dates.
4. Ask the employee to open Personal → Employee Portal → Schedule.
5. Ask the employee to open Attendance and confirm the screen is ready for the first shift. Do not create an invalid clock event as a test.

The workflow is complete when: the profile is correct, contract and insurance have been reviewed, the account is active, onboarding tasks are being tracked, and the employee can see the first shift.

Hand-off checklist

• Email and joining state are correct
• Position and primary department are correct
• Contract dates and pay basis are correct
• Only applicable insurance plans are selected
• Activation link has a valid expiry and the employee can sign in from the newest invitation
• Onboarding tasks exist with accountable owners
• Employee can see the first schedule and attendance screen

Related guides

• Run monthly attendance
• Manage by organisation group
• Career and job changes
• HR event reference