Onboarding & Offboarding

Introduction

Managing employee lifecycle processes, onboarding and offboarding, requires completing multiple tasks on time, such as sending forms, creating Jira work items, or notifying managers. Automation simplifies these processes by triggering actions based on employee profile changes, saving time, reducing errors, and improving compliance.

Key use case: Automating actions triggered by profile attribute changes (joining date or last working date) to streamline onboarding or offboarding processes.

Note: Both onboarding and offboarding workflows can be configured in a similar way. In this article, we are focusing on the offboarding workflow.

Use Case Explanation

Offboarding automation enables:

1. Sending exit forms automatically to departing employees.

2. Creating Jira work items for IT or facilities to process access revocation, asset collection, and other tasks.

3. Notifying managers and HR of successful or failed actions.

Scenario:

• An employee from the Engineering Department is leaving. HR wants the offboarding process to automatically trigger all necessary actions, ensuring nothing is missed.

Challenges without automation:

• HR manually tracking multiple tasks across different tools (forms, Jira, email).

• Risk of delayed access revocation or missed exit forms.

• Lack of transparency for managers.

Pre-requisites

Before creating the automation:

1. Profile Attributes: Ensure Last Working Date is accurate for all employees.

2. Forms & Templates: Exit surveys and offboarding forms must be ready.

3. User Segments: Predefine segments to target the automation correctly.

Example:

• Department: Engineering

• Last Working Day: Is in next 30 days

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This ensures the automation only runs for relevant employees at relevant timings.

Offboarding Automation Flow

Step 1: Create a New Rule

• Navigate to the Automation Rules section in UpRaise.

• Click Create New to start defining a new automation rule.

• Basic Details

  • Name: Provide a meaningful name for your rule (e.g., Engineering Offboarding Automation).

  • Enable Toggle: Use the toggle to enable or disable the rule as needed.

  • Select a Trigger
    UpRaise provides three trigger types to choose from:

    • Manual Trigger: Run the automation manually whenever needed.

    • Scheduled at Interval Trigger: Automatically execute the rule on a recurring schedule.

    • Profile Attribute Change:

      • Selected Attribute: Last Working Date

      • Automation triggers whenever an employee’s last working date is updated.

  • Notifications on Success/Failure
    Decide how you want to be notified about the execution of the rule:

    • Notify Only When Rule Fails to Execute (default).

    • Notify For Every Rule Execution.

    • Do Not Notify.
      By default, the user creating the rule will receive the notifications, but you can also select additional users if required.

  • Save & Proceed
    Once the above details are filled in, click Save and Next to move to the Pre-condition step, where you will define the segment of users (e.g., employees with upcoming offboarding will receive the form and the checklist task will be assigned to the respective HR).

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Step 2: Precondition Step

• Once you have created the appropriate user segment(s), during rule creation you will have to simply select the relevant segment in the Precondition step.

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Step 3: Add Action - Action 1: Create Work Item

• In the offboarding workflow, we will add two actions in sequence:

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• Once you have selected the user segment in the Precondition step, the next step is to define what happens when the rule runs.

• Add Action

  • Click on Add Action.

  • From the list of available actions, select Create Work Item.

This opens a configuration panel where you can define all details related to the work item that will be created automatically when the automation runs.

• Configure Action Details

  • Action Name

    • Use a name that makes it easy to identify the purpose of the work item later.
      Example:

      • “Offboarding Checklist for Engineering”

      • “New Employee Setup – IT Tasks”

• Select Work Template

  • This is a dropdown list containing predefined templates that help standardize work item creation.
    Examples of available templates include:

    • Employee Onboarding Checklist

    • Employee Offboarding Checklist

  • If we’re configuring the automation for an offboarding flow, select Employee Offboarding Checklist.
    Once selected, the Summary and Description fields below will automatically populate with predefined content that includes essential offboarding tasks. These can be customised later if needed.

• Project

  • Select the Jira project under which the work item should be created.

• Work Type

  • Choose the type of Jira issue or work item to be created.
    Common options include:

    • Task

    • Sub-task

    • Story

    • Bug

    • Epic

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• Assigning the Work Item

  • The Assignee section allows you to decide who will receive the created work item.

    • Select a Specific User

      • Choose this option to assign the work item to a fixed user.
        This option is ideal when all offboarding tasks should always go to a specific person or HR member.

• Trigger User

  • Selecting this option assigns the work item to the user who triggered the automation.
    For example, if the automation is triggered when an employee’s last working day is updated, that employee becomes the trigger user.

• Related User

  • When selected, a Select Attribute dropdown appears, where you can choose any user attribute such as Manager, Project Manager, HR Partner, etc.
    Example: If you choose “Manager”, the work item created by this automation will automatically be assigned to the manager of the employee who triggered the rule.

• Summary and Description

  • Summary

    • This field represents the title of the Jira work item.
      You can either use the prefilled value (from the selected template) or customize it.
      Additionally, you can insert variables using the variable selector icon to dynamically include user-specific details such as Employee Name, Department, or Last Working Date.

  • Description

    • The description is automatically populated based on the selected work template (for example, with offboarding checklist items). However, it can be customised to add or remove details as needed.

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• Save the Action

  • Once all details are filled in:

  • Click Save to confirm the configuration.
    The Create Work Item action will now be listed under your automation rule.
    When the rule is triggered (for example, when the employee’s Last Working Date changes), this action will automatically create a Jira task with all defined parameters.

After adding both actions, save and activate the automation rule. The offboarding process is now fully automated for the Engineering Department.

Step 4: Add Action - Action 2: Distribute Form

Now that we have successfully added the “Create Work Item” action, the next step in our offboarding workflow is to distribute exit forms automatically to the relevant team members and HR users.

• Select the “Distribute Form” Action

  • From the automation setup screen, click on Add Action once again.

  • From the available list of actions, choose Distribute Form.

  • This action will allow us to automatically send out a form (for example, an Employee Exit Form) whenever an employee’s Last Working Date is updated in their profile.

• Define the Action Details

  • Action Name

    • Give this action a clear, recognizable name.

  • Select Form Template

    • From the dropdown, select the form template you want to send.

    • For this use case, we will pick Employee Exit Form.

  • Note: Only those form templates that are enabled for distribution through automation will appear here.

• Configure Form Completion Settings

  • You can also define the Form End Duration, which determines when the form should close relative to the start date.

  • For example:
    If the form starts on 2nd October, and you set End Duration as 7 days, the form will automatically end on 9th October.

• Add Reminder

  • Finally, you can enable the Add Reminder toggle.
    When turned on, the system will automatically add reminder dates based on the overall form duration, ensuring that reviewers and HR users get timely follow-ups before the form deadline.

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• Save the Action

  • Once all configurations are done, click Save.
    Your Distribute Form action will now be added as part of the offboarding automation workflow.

Practical Outcome

Scenario: Alice from Engineering is leaving.

1. Alice’s Last Working Date is updated in the system.

2. Automation triggers:

   • Jira tasks created automatically for IT and facilities

   • Exit survey and asset return forms sent to Alice

3. HR and Alice’s manager receive notifications of successful actions

Result:

• HR spends minimal time managing offboarding

• IT and facilities get timely Jira tasks

• The employee experiences a smooth exit process

Tips for Optimization

• Test automation with a small user segment before rolling out company-wide

• Keep profile attributes up-to-date to avoid missed triggers

• Regularly review Jira integrations and form templates

• Use notifications to quickly address any failed actions

Conclusion

Automating onboarding/offboarding workflows ensures:

• Timely and consistent execution of exit processes

• Reduced manual effort for HR, IT, and managers

• Transparent tracking of tasks and form completion

Call to Action: Set up your first onboarding/offboarding automation for your department today, automate Jira task creation, exit form distribution, and notifications all in one go!