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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-03-13
Setup Considerations: Onboarding Plans

Setup Considerations: Onboarding Plans

You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of the Onboarding Plans. It explains:
  • Why to set it up.
  • How it fits into the rest of Workday.
  • Downstream impacts and cross-product interactions.
  • Security requirements and business process configurations.
  • Questions and limitations to consider before implementation.
Refer to detailed task instructions for full configuration details.

What It Is

Workday Onboarding Plans enables you to offer a personalized and engaging experience to new hires at defined stages of their transition from candidates to workers. Onboarding Plans ensures new team members feel informed, connected, and prepared to succeed in their roles. You can use Onboarding Plans for:
  • New Hires
  • Pre-Hires
  • New Contingent Workers

Business Benefits

  • Drives business success by ensuring new hires feel informed, prepared, and supported from the start.
  • Builds a positive workplace culture and boosts confidence from day one.
  • Reduces first-day no-shows, improves staff retention and lowers turnover costs.
  • Improves productivity by helping new hires adapt to their tasks quickly.
  • Strengthens employee engagement by fostering a sense of connection to the company culture.
  • Enhances managers and HR efficiency by centralizing administrative tasks related to the creation and maintenance of onboarding.
  • Supports the 4 core pillars of onboarding: connections, compliance, clarification, and culture.

Use Cases

  • Bridge the gap between candidate and worker until they receive Workday access. Example: Provide videos about your organization's history, mission, and values.
  • Send a welcome message to keep new hires excited about their new role and reduce the risk of ‘no shows’.
  • Give new hires access to forms and documents to review and complete.
  • Collect essential documents. Example: Signed offer letters or identification documents.
  • Set up payroll, benefits, and other compliance requirements using business process tasks
  • Provide ongoing support and resources to help new hires integrate successfully. Example: Connect them with a co-worker.

Questions to Consider

Question
Considerations
How do you want to set up Onboarding Plan?
To configure when Onboarding Plans become available to new hires, you can setup the Onboarding Plan Assignment as a step on these business processes:
  • Employment Agreement
     (Recruiting customers only)
  • Hire
  • Offer
    (Recruiting customers only)
Do you need unique onboarding plans for different onboarding groups?
You can use the
Maintain Onboarding Plan Audiences
 task to assign plans to audiences.
You can create
Audiences
using condition rules to send individualized content to groups of new starters based on set criteria.
Do you want to manually assign onboarding plans?
You can also use the
Assign Onboarding Plan
 task to manually assign an onboarding plan outside of a business process.
The onboarding plan assignment respects the plan audience configuration, which means you cannot manually select a specific plan for a person. However, you can select a person, and if the person has multiple eligible events, Workday will prompt you to select the correct event.
Do you want to inactivate an onboarding plan?
You can inactivate Onboarding Plans, ensuring they can no longer be mapped to an audience. You can still edit, copy, or preview inactivated plans.
You can inactivate Onboarding Plans from the related actions menu of the plan by selecting
Onboarding Plan> Inactivate
.
You can also inactivate
Onboarding Plans
 from the
Plans
section of the Onboarding Planner report and selecting
Inactivate
from the
Edit
 prompt.
You cannot Inactivate a plan if it is assigned to an
Audience
. You can remove the assigned
Audience
using the
Maintain Onboarding Plan Audiences
 task.
You can also inactivate specific plan assignments using the
Inactivate Onboarding Plan Assignment
 task.
You can also inactivate a plan assignment from the related actions menu for a specific plan assignment. You can use this task to rectify an incorrect plan assignment.
A user can have only one active plan assignment. You must inactivate a plan assignment before reassigning another one.
What type of onboarding content do you wish to create for your onboarding audience?
You can use the Create Onboarding Content task to create:
  • You can create a Day 1 Overview Card and add it to an Onboarding Plan providing the new joiner with the key information they need in advance of their first day. You can include these details on the Day 1 Overview Card:
    • Work Location
    • Work Location
    • First Day Start Time
    • Orientation Location
    • Orientation Start Time
    • Instruction Overview
    • Orientation Facilitator
You can manually enter the information on each section of the card or use an External Field.
For external fields you can create a Calc Field to get to specific information from any of these business objects:
  • Job Application
  • Job Requisition
  • Supervisory Organization
  • You can create a
    Message
    that will default to a Highlight when configuring an Onboarding Plan. This can be:
    • A welcome message
    • A message providing context on the organization or their new role.
      To keep these messages short and engaging within the Highlights experience, Workday limits the messages to 228 characters for the body, and 36 characters for the title.
  • You can create a
    Video
    that you can add to the
    You Might Be Interested In
     slider on the
    Onboarding Plan
     or as a
    Highlights
    .
    Highlights enable you to spotlight videos or messages to improve engagement with onboarding content.
    Only video titles, limited to 36 characters, are shown in Highlights.
    You can use the
    You Might Be Interested In
     slider to showcase longer, optional video content with descriptions on videos limited to 240 characters.
    There is no length limit to the videos but Workday recommends using shorter videos in
    Highlights
     to improve engagement. New hires can view the
    Highlights
     and
    You Might Be Interested In
     videos multiple times within their plan.
    For recommended guidelines on uploading videos, see the Media Cloud documentation:FAQ: Uploading and Viewing Videos
You can create an Announcement to include in an Onboarding Plan. You can embed links, custom reports, messages, images and videos into Announcements which will feature on the onboarding plan, allowing new hires to engage with multiple content types.
  • You can configure Notifications for each stage of the Onboarding Plan to let new hires know when new content is available.
  • Access the Edit Tenant Setup-Notifications task to configure routing rules to deliver Notifications using:
    • Email
    • SMS (Workday Messaging customers only)
  • You can use notification templates in Workday Notification Designer to customize Email notification with your organization's branding.
You must have Workday Notification Designer enabled to use Email notifications with Onboarding.
You might need to take additional steps to enable this feature based on your organization's subscription service agreement. Please reference this Community Announcement for more information.
How do you want to inform new hires about new onboarding content?
You can create an Onboarding Card to show on the Workday homepage to help new employees track their onboarding progress and quickly access their plans.
Do you want to display Required Learning content to new hires?
You can use the
Maintain Onboarding Section Configurations
 task to display the
Required Learning for You
 section on onboarding plans. In this section you can display preconfigured learning content using up to 20 cards, making it easy for new hires to access and complete essential training. To display content on the
Required Learning for You
 section, you need to:
  • Configure Required Learning.
  • Assign Required Learning items to the person receiving the onboarding plan.
Requires the Learning SKU.
Do you want to help new hires build connections by suggesting coworkers during onboarding?
You can use the
Maintain Onboarding Section Configurations
 task to display the
Connect with a Coworker
 section on onboarding plans. This section leverages machine learning to suggest colleagues for the new hire to connect with, helping them build relationships, navigate their new environment, and feel part of the team quickly.
Requires the Talent Optimization SKU.
Do you want to help new hires stay on track and engaged by displaying
Journeys
 during their onboarding?
You can use the
Maintain Onboarding Section Configurations
 task to display the
Journeys for You
 section on onboarding plans.
Journeys
 organize key tasks and resources into a single, easy-to-navigate space, helping new hires access what they need quickly, stay on track, and remain engaged during their first weeks and beyond. This personalized experience helps them build confidence from day one and navigate their onboarding more effectively.
Requires the Journeys SKU.
Do you want to use your organization's branding?
You can use the
Create Onboarding External Brand
 task to maintain consistent branding for external preboarding by uploading your organization’s:
  • Logo
  • Banner.
See the Recruiting Career Site documentation for recommendations on best sizing for these images: Setup Considerations: Branding for External Career Sites
Internal Onboarding experience takes its branding from Tenant branding. See recommendations for image sizing: Reference: Recommended Image Sizes for Tenant Branding
Data Purging
You use the
Has Active Onboarding Plan Assignment
 report field on the
Job Application
 and
Candidate
business objects to purge the candidate or the candidate job application or both.
Do you want to dynamically generate and distribute documents to New Hires?
You can configure the
Generate Document
action step in the
Onboarding
business process to use documents dynamically created with Workday Docs.
You can then use the
Review Document
 step to distribute these documents to new hires during onboarding. Example: Offer letters.

Recommendations

If you're using both External Preboarding and the Internal experience, Workday recommends that you configure audience condition rules for both the job application and the worker to ensure new hires retain access to content when they become workers. Once a worker exists, Workday ignores job application rules and uses only worker audience condition rules. (Recruiting customers only)

Requirements

External preboarding relies on the use of an external career site. (Recruiting customers only) Onboarding can be used on these business process:
  • Employment Agreement
     (Recruiting customers only)
  • Offer
    (Recruiting customers only)

Limitations

  • New hires can only move forward in their onboarding plan and cannot navigate back to previous stages.
  • Not supported for these business processes:
    • Change Job
    • Add Additional Job
    • Start International Assignment
  • We currently do not support Social Sign-On (SSO) on external preboarding.

Tenant Setup

There are two
Onboarding
tasks used to access the existing
Onboarding Dashboard
 and
Onboarding Plans
 (from global search or homepage menu items). One is conditional and impacted by the
Disable Onboarding Dashboard
 check box on the
Edit Tenant Setup - HCM
 task, while the other will always point to the existing
Onboarding Dashboard
.
For the conditional task, when you leave the
Disable Onboarding Dashboard
 check box unselected, Workday directs users with an active
Onboarding Plan Assignment
, or users that have ever had an active Onboarding plan including rehires, to the new
Onboarding Plan
 homepage. Users without an assignment will continue to see the existing
Onboarding Dashboard
.
When you select the
Disable Onboarding Dashboard
 check box, Workday directs all users to the new
Onboarding Plan
 homepage.
  • For users with no active plan and who have never had a plan, when the
    Disable Onboarding Dashboard
     check box is not selected:
    • Both static and dynamic tasks direct to the existing Onboarding Dashboard.
  • When the
    Disable Onboarding Dashboard
     check box is selected:
    • The static task directs to the existing Onboarding Dashboard.
    • The dynamic task directs to the new Onboarding Experience.
  • For users with an active plan or who have ever had a plan including rehires, when
    Disable Onboarding Dashboard
     check box is not selected:
    • The static task directs to the existing Onboarding Dashboard.
    • The dynamic task directs to the new Onboarding Plans experience.
  • When the
    Disable Onboarding Dashboard
     checkbox is selected:
    • The static task directs to the existing Onboarding Dashboard.
    • The dynamic task directs to the new Onboarding Experience.

Security

Domain
Considerations
Set Up: Onboarding
Enables Administrators to access tasks on the Onboarding Planner.
Self Service: Onboarding
  • Enables external Pre-Hires access to external pre-boarding self service tasks. [Recruiting customers only]
  • Enables Pre-Employees and Pre-Contingent Workers access internal Onboarding Plan tasks before Day 1.
  • Enables Workers and Contingent workers to self service Onboarding Plan tasks from Day 1.
View: Onboarding Plans Preview
Enables users to preview configuration of Onboarding Plan details for a person or Plan Assignment.
Manage: Onboarding Audience Condition Rules
Enables users to manage condition rules for audiences for Onboarding Plans.
Worker Data: Onboarding
Enables access to reports associated with onboarding plans.

Business Processes

You can configure the
Onboarding Plan Assignment
 service step to these business processes to establish the starting point point from which an Onboarding Plan can be made available to new hires:
  • Employment Agreement
     (Recruiting only)
  • Hire
  • Offer
     (Recruiting only)
When a new hire reaches a stage in a business process with a configured
Onboarding Plan Assignment
, step they are immediately:
  • Assigned their Onboarding Plan Assignment.
  • Placed into the most recent eligible stage you have configured.
  • Receive any eligible notifications configured for that stage.
A new hire will only have access to one active onboarding plan at a time. Workday will grant access to this plan once the new hire reaches the first configured stage.

Reporting

Reports
Considerations
Onboarding Plan Assignments
You can use this report to get an overview of onboarding plan assignment details for workers or pre-hires assigned the plan
Onboarding Business Process Status Summary
Managers can use this report to view a summary of a recently hired worker’s onboarding status for a supervisory organization. Example: The worker's contact information, hire date, position, hiring manager, and the status of their Onboarding business process.
Onboarding Advisories
You can use this report to address potential issues during the onboarding process, such as any new worker or pre-hire that may be missing an onboarding plan assignment.

Integrations

No impact.

Connections and Touchpoints

Feature
Consideration
Manager Insights Hub
With Manager Insights Hub, managers have direct visibility into the onboarding progress of their new hires through the following:
  • Overview Page Cards:
    • Tasks Overdue
      : Displays the two most overdue tasks across your team.
    • Tasks Due Soon
      : Displays the two tasks with the nearest upcoming due dates
Selecting
View All
 opens the
My Team’s Onboarding Tasks
 modal, where managers can toggle between
Overdue
and
Due Soon
 tasks, sort columns, and view all pending onboarding tasks for their team.
  • Worker Profile:
    • The
      Requires Attention: View Onboarding Tab
       card displays the single most critical onboarding task for a specific worker, based on the following priority order:
      • Overdue Required tasks
      • Due Soon Required tasks
      • Overdue Optional tasks
      • Due Soon Optional tasks
Note:
Required
tasks take precedence over
Optional
tasks, even if the
Optional
task is overdue.