Onboarding and offboarding workflows

A workflow is a list of steps Cadre runs for one person when they join or leave: inviting them to Cadre, sending emails, creating accounts in other systems, sending their contract, and giving HR, their manager or the employee tasks to do.

Who can set up workflows and step in when one needs attention: Owner, HR admin.

Anyone can be given a task by a workflow, and does it from My tasks. See Tasks.

How a workflow starts

Each workflow has a trigger, shown as Starts:

• When someone is hired: starts for each person you add, one by one or by import. Its key date is the person’s start date. It doesn’t start for existing employees an import brings in: people whose start date is before the day of the import.
• When an engagement ends: starts when you end someone’s employment. Its key date is their last day.

Only workflows that are turned on start. A running workflow keeps the version it started with, even if you change the workflow later.

Start with the starter workflows

If your organisation has no workflows yet, go to Workflows, open the Templates tab and select Set up the starter workflow. Cadre adds two workflows you can then change:

New joiner, which starts when someone is hired:

1. Invite to Cadre, straight away.
2. Prepare desk, equipment and access, a task for their manager two days before the start date.
3. Send employment contract for signature, after the invitation. It sends your default contract for the employee to sign, then any HR admin. Without a default contract, the step is skipped with a note saying so. See Their contract.
4. Share KPI targets and role expectations, a task for their manager once the contract is signed.
5. Send a welcome message, an email to the employee after the invitation.

Leaver, which starts when an engagement ends:

1. Hold the exit interview, a task for the HR team three days before the last day.
2. Collect equipment, ID card and keys; confirm handover, a task for their manager on the last day.
3. Disable email, Slack and other system access, a task for the HR team the day after the last day.
4. Confirm final pay and any leave payout in this month’s payroll, a task for the HR team after the handover.

Create or change a workflow

1. Go to Workflows and open the Templates tab. Select New workflow, or select a workflow’s name to change it.

2. Give it a Name and choose when it Starts.

3. For each step, choose:

   • its Name, and a Key (made from the name until you change it);
   • the Action, the kind of step (see below);
   • what it Waits for: the steps that must finish first. A step that waits for nothing starts straight away;
   • when it Runs: When the steps before it are done, plus a number of Days later; or Relative to the start date, with Days from the start date (negative for before, for example -3 for three days before). In a leaver workflow the key date is the last day;
   • Attempts before it needs attention, from 1 to 10.

4. Use Add step for more steps, and the arrows to reorder them.

5. Select Create workflow, or Publish new version for an existing one.

Cadre refuses a workflow whose steps wait for each other in a circle.

To stop a workflow starting for new people, select Turn off on the Templates tab. Turn on starts it again for people hired or leaving from then on.

The actions

Action	What it does
Task for a person	Gives a task to HR team, Their manager or The employee, chosen under Who does it. The step waits until the task is completed.
Wait	Does nothing but wait for its due time, to space steps out.
Send an email or SMS	Sends a message To the employee or their manager, by Email or SMS. The subject and message can include {firstName}, {jobTitle} and {startDate}, filled in for each person.
Invite the employee to Cadre	Gives the person a Cadre login with the Employee role, if they aren’t already a member.
Send a document for e-signature and wait until it is signed	Sends a template, or The organisation’s default contract, to the signers you list, and waits until everyone has signed. Choose the Days to sign, from 1 to 90.
Start a review (probation or 30-60-90 days)	Starts a review for the person. See Review cycles.
Create a work email account	Creates their mailbox in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, using an Address pattern such as {first}.{last} before the @ of your connected domain.
Invite to Slack	Invites them to your Slack workspace, and optionally to channels by their channel IDs.
Post a Slack message	Posts a message in a channel, for example a welcome in #general. The message can include {firstName} and {fullName}. Cadre’s Slack app must be a member of the channel.
Send to a webhook	Sends the event to a webhook you have connected, to start something in another system.

Connecting other systems

The Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and webhook actions need the tool connected first, under Settings → Integrations. Each organisation connects its own. See Integrations.

On Slack plans other than Enterprise Grid, Slack doesn’t let Cadre send the invitation itself. The Invite to Slack step then becomes a task for the HR team, with the exact instruction for doing it by hand.

Follow a running workflow

The In progress tab lists every workflow that has started, with the person, its status, progress and start date. Filter by status. A workflow is In progress, Needs attention, Completed or Cancelled.

Select Open to see each step, what it waits for, who it is assigned to, when it is due, when it finished and by whom, and any error.

When a step fails

Cadre retries a failed step up to its number of attempts. After that, the step shows Failed with the error, and the workflow shows Needs attention. Open it and choose one of:

• Retry: run the step again, for example after fixing a connection.
• Complete: mark it as done yourself, with an optional note. Steps waiting for it then start.
• Skip: go on without it. You must say why. Steps waiting for it go ahead.

A step waiting for signatures also offers Remind, Resend link and Void for the document it sent, and a link to open it. See Send a document for signature.

Tasks

A task step appears in the My tasks of whoever it is assigned to:

• HR team tasks go to the owners and HR admins.
• Their manager tasks go to the person’s manager.
• The employee tasks go to the person themselves, once they have a Cadre login.

Who can complete a task assigned to them: every member, for themselves.

1. Go to My tasks. Each task shows the person it is about, the workflow and when it is due. An overdue task is marked Overdue.

2. Do the task. If Cadre couldn’t do something itself, the task says exactly what to do.

3. Select Complete, add a note if you want to, and select Complete again.

Related

• Add an employee
• Ending employment
• Integrations
• Document templates