Onboarding
Step-by-step procedures, required forms and approvals, and designated owner for each onboarding milestone, with standard timelines for background checks and benefit enrollment.
A written manual reduces ambiguity, supports legal compliance, and provides a single source of truth for HR processes. It improves consistency in hiring, discipline, benefits administration, and termination actions while making audits and investigations easier to handle.
Teams that draft or rely on an HR Functions Manual range from in-house HR to legal and executive stakeholders.
Distribution commonly includes people managers, payroll administrators, and retained counsel to ensure the manual is actionable and enforceable.
Step-by-step procedures, required forms and approvals, and designated owner for each onboarding milestone, with standard timelines for background checks and benefit enrollment.
Instructions for payroll authorization, benefit enrollment deadlines, payroll change requests, required approvals, and records to retain for tax and audit purposes.
Templates for reviews, escalation paths for corrective action, measurable timelines, and the process for documenting outcomes and signatory approvals.
Exit procedures, last-pay calculations, COBRA/benefit notices, return-of-property protocols, and required signoffs for final payments and clearances.
Recordkeeping rules, mandatory notices, privacy controls for sensitive employee data, and procedures to meet federal and state regulatory requirements.
A table that lists which roles can hire, terminate, change compensation, or approve leave and who is authorized to sign HR documents on behalf of the organization.
| Field | Configuration |
|---|---|
| Signer Order | Sequential signing by role: HR > Legal > CEO |
| Authentication | Email + SMS code or SSO for internal signers |
| Required Fields | Signatures, printed name, title, and date are mandatory |
| Retention Location | Secure cloud folder with access controls |
Choose a platform that meets authentication, retention, and integration needs for HR workflows.
Annual review recommended; update dates must be recorded in the version history.
Complete background checks and paperwork before the employee start date where required.
Submit compensation changes by payroll cutoff dates to avoid processing delays.
Retention periods begin on effective or termination dates depending on document type.
Immediately flag records for retention when litigation or audit is anticipated.
Assemble policies and templates into a single draft for stakeholder review.
Gather feedback from HR, legal, and operations and reconcile comments.
Obtain signatures from authorized executives recorded with timestamps.
Publish the signed manual and archive the master with retention metadata.
The team centralized HR templates and signatures to standardize onboarding
NetSuite integration automated approval routing from HR to payroll
As the organizational delegate for HR policy, the CHRO typically holds authority to approve substantive policy changes and sign high-level HR agreements on behalf of the company.
Named individuals with delegated signing authority (e.g., VP of People, General Counsel) who are documented in the approvals matrix to validate personnel actions and contracts.
| signNow | DocuSign | Adobe Sign | PandaDoc | HelloSign | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $8/user/mo | $15/user/mo | $14/user/mo | $19/user/mo | $15/user/mo |
| Free Trial | 7-day free trial | Varies | Varies | Varies | Varies |
| Bulk Send | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Audit Trail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Envelope Cap | No envelope cap | 100 envelopes/user/year | Varies | Varies | Varies |