Employee Onboarding and HR App Development

What onboarding involves in a real company

Onboarding looks simple on an org chart and messy in practice. Between an accepted offer and a productive employee sit a dozen handoffs. HR sends tax forms and the handbook. Payroll needs a W-4, a state withholding form and direct deposit details. Someone must examine identity documents for Form I-9 within the deadline, and run E-Verify if you participate. IT creates accounts and ships a laptop. Facilities issues a badge, a uniform or a locker. The manager plans the first week. Compliance assigns required training, such as harassment prevention training that states including California and New York mandate.

Shift based and multi location employers feel this most. A healthcare group hiring nurses must verify licenses and immunizations before a first shift. A logistics company hiring drivers must collect a CDL, a motor vehicle record and a DOT medical card. A restaurant group may hire dozens of people a week across sites, most of whom do not sit at a computer and will complete everything on a phone.

When this runs on email and checklists, things slip: a laptop that arrives on day three, a badge that does not work, a form missed until an audit finds it. Tepia builds onboarding apps that turn each handoff into a tracked task with an owner and a due date.

An onboarding timeline the app runs for you

Tepia models onboarding as a timeline triggered by one event, usually the offer accepted in your applicant tracking system or a new hire record in your HRIS. Each task is due relative to the start date and adjusts automatically if the start date moves.

Every owner sees their own task list, and HR sees a board of every new hire with anything overdue highlighted. Templates vary by role, location and employment type, so a part time cashier and a salaried engineer get different paths from the same engine.

Integrations that make onboarding work

An onboarding app is mostly an orchestration layer. It is only as useful as its connections, and Tepia connects to the systems that already hold each piece:

• Applicant tracking: Greenhouse, Lever or iCIMS, so the hire event starts the timeline without retyping.
• HRIS and payroll: Workday, BambooHR, ADP, Paylocity, Rippling or UKG, which remain the system of record for the employee.
• Identity: Microsoft Entra ID or Okta using SCIM provisioning, so accounts are created before day one and disabled at separation. See single sign on and identity integration.
• Background and license checks: providers such as Checkr, plus license verification for regulated roles.
• Electronic signature: DocuSign or a built in signature flow for offer letters and acknowledgments.
• Learning: your LMS for required courses, with completion pulled back into the timeline.

For Form I-9, Tepia can support remote document examination under the DHS alternative procedure for employers enrolled in E-Verify, with the steps and records that procedure requires. Expiring documents and licenses are tracked after hire too, which ties into our compliance and certification tracking work.

When your HR system’s onboarding module is enough

Most modern HRIS platforms include onboarding features, and for many companies they are the right answer. If you hire salaried office staff in one or two states, your HRIS covers forms and a checklist, and IT handles accounts manually without delay, Tepia will tell you to configure what you own.

A custom onboarding app makes sense in specific situations:

• You hire shift workers at volume across many locations, and the experience must work on a phone in a few minutes.
• Roles need license, certification or medical clearance checks before a first shift.
• You run more than one HRIS after acquisitions, and need one onboarding experience across them.
• IT, facilities and security tasks span systems the HRIS cannot trigger.
• You want a branded, welcoming first impression rather than a generic forms portal.

A hybrid is common: the HRIS stays the employee record and the custom app handles the experience and orchestration. After onboarding, many clients extend the same app into a day to day employee app for schedules, pay and news.

How Tepia approaches employee onboarding apps

Tepia follows its six phase process, with a US based project manager working alongside HR, IT and compliance.

1. Discovery: a map of every onboarding task by role and location, interviews with recruiters, HR, IT, managers and recent hires, and a review of ATS, HRIS, payroll and identity APIs. Deliverables are an Investigation Summary, an Interview Summary and User Stories such as a new driver uploading a CDL and medical card from a phone.
2. Design: onboarding templates by role, the task timeline, data handling rules for personal information, and wireframes of the new hire, manager and HR views.
3. Development and Testing: an Alpha for one role at one location and a Beta across roles and states, with test plans for deadline logic, provisioning and accessibility to WCAG 2.1 AA.
4. Training: sessions for HR administrators on templates and for managers on their tasks.
5. Launch: a start date for new hires only, migration of in flight onboardings, and support reps during the first hiring waves.
6. Support: updates when forms or state rules change, bug tracking and new templates.

Typically Discovery takes 1 to 3 months, development and QA 2 to 6 months, and launch about a month. Read about our process or contact Tepia to map your onboarding.

Frequently asked questions