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Build an employee onboarding workflow in under 10 minutes

A step-by-step walkthrough of building a real onboarding process in Atomic Work: collecting details, running background checks, provisioning accounts, and sending a welcome kit — all automated.

SV

Saeed Vaali

Founder

14 April 20268 min read

What we're building

A complete new-hire onboarding workflow with five stages:

  • Collect personal and banking details (INPUT step)
  • Trigger a background check via webhook (HTTP_REQUEST step)
  • Provision accounts in your HRIS and directory (MANUAL_TASK for IT)
  • Send a personalised welcome email (SEND_EMAIL step)
  • Notify the hiring manager that onboarding is complete
  • Total build time: under 10 minutes. Let's go.

    Step 1: Create the workflow

    Go to Studio → New Workflow. Name it "New Hire Onboarding". Set the trigger to "Manual" for now — you can connect it to your ATS later.

    Step 2: Collect details (INPUT step)

    Add an INPUT step. Assign it to the starter (the HR person who initiates the run). Add these fields:

  • Full legal name (text)
  • Personal email (email)
  • Start date (date)
  • Job title (text)
  • Team (dropdown: Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance)
  • Preferred laptop OS (dropdown: macOS, Windows)
  • Bank account for payroll (text — mark as sensitive)
  • Mark the sensitive fields, and the system will mask them in logs automatically.

    Step 3: Background check (HTTP_REQUEST step)

    Add an HTTP_REQUEST step. This is an AUTO step — it runs immediately after the INPUT is submitted.

    Set the URL to your background check provider's API endpoint. Use {{new_hire_name}} and {{personal_email}} to inject the values collected in Step 2. Set a webhook callback URL so the check result flows back automatically.

    Step 4: IT provisioning (MANUAL_TASK step)

    Add a MANUAL_TASK step, assigned to your IT team. The checklist:

    Create Google Workspace account
    Add to relevant Slack channels
    Order laptop (reference: `{{preferred_os}}`)
    Grant access to core tools (Notion, Jira, etc.)

    This step will pause the workflow until IT marks it complete.

    Step 5: Welcome email (SEND_EMAIL step)

    Add a SEND_EMAIL step. Set the recipient to {{personal_email}}. Write a warm welcome message referencing {{first_name}}, {{start_date}}, and {{team}}. This fires automatically once IT completes their task.

    Step 6: Notify hiring manager

    Add a final MANUAL_TASK or SEND_EMAIL step addressed to the hiring manager. At this point, all accounts are provisioned and the new hire has their welcome email. The manager just needs to do the Day 1 orientation.

    The result

    A repeatable, auditable onboarding flow that takes HR about 5 minutes of active time. Everything else runs automatically or routes to the right person. No emails asking "has their laptop shipped?". No new hire starting Day 1 without system access.

    Publish the workflow, share the link with your HR team, and you're done.

    #HR#Onboarding#Tutorial

    Ready to automate your operations?

    Build your first workflow in under 10 minutes. No engineers required.

    Atomic Work - The Atomic Engine | B2B Workflow Automation