How to Hire a Group of Employees Using Onboarding Groups

About this article: Onboarding Groups let you hire large numbers of employees — H-2A and domestic — efficiently. Employees receive an onboarding application on their phone, complete it remotely, and submit it for your review and approval. Note: access to Onboarding Groups depends on your Onboarding Contract with PickTrace. Consult with you PickTrace representative if you are interested in Onboarding Groups.

Step 1: Create an Onboarding Group

1. Go to Employers page > Onboarding Groups.
2. Select required settings: Name, Employer, Messaging Number, Employee Group, Job Category, and Start Date.
3. Select optional settings as needed:
   1. H-2A Contract, Crew, Compensation
   2. Disable document photo upload (if selected, prevents employees from uploading photos in their onboarding application
   3. Prevent Employees from modifying saved SSN (if selected, employees cannot edit or change the SSN already saved in their profile.)
   4. Enable emergency contact section by default (if selected employees will see the add emergency contact information on their application)
   5. Require employees to fill out passport information (if selected makes passport information required)
   6. Require Date of Birth to access onboarding link (if selected the employee must authenticate with their date of birth to open their onboarding application and documents)
4. Choose which additional documents employees must sign (I-9, W-4, and applicable state forms are included by default).
5. Save the group.

Step 2: Add Employees to the Onboarding Group

1. Open the Onboarding Group and select Add Members.
   1. Use the down arrow on the search bar for an advanced search. Filters help you add employees to an Onboarding group by first filtering accordingly. Common filters include: Crew, Employee Groups, H2A Contracts.
2. New hires show a green Add button. Returning employees show a red Rehire button.
   1. Best practice is for Returning Employees to be archived (since they are not currently working), so in the "Add Members" page, you might have to select the gear icon, select "Record Status", and toggle to "Archived" or "All Records" to see your currently archived (inactive) returning employees
3. For H-2A workers, bulk upload using the border crossing report is the fastest method.

Step 3: Send Onboarding Links

1. Select employees in the group, then click the Send Onboarding Link icon.
   1. Note you can use the select all checkbox (top left corner of the employee table) to select all employees
2. Review the preview message and press Continue.
3. Add an optional message, then press Continue again.
4. Optionally open the Ping channel to send follow-up messages to the group or confirm receipt.

Step 4: Monitor and Approve Applications

1. Track Hire Status as employees progress through the flow.
   1. See the Application Status Flow Table below:

   2. From Status	Trigger / Event	To Status	Notes
      Prospect	Send Onboarding Link	Onboarding Link Sent	Employee receives SMS link.
      Onboarding Link Sent	SMS delivery failed	Onboarding Link Failed to Send	Check employee phone number.
      Onboarding Link Sent	Employee opens link	Onboarding In Progress	Employee started the application.
      Onboarding In Progress	Employee submits	Pending Approval	Awaiting employer review.
      Pending Approval	Approve	Hired with Onboarding	Docs signed and complete.
      Pending Approval	Reject	Rejected	Application declined.
      Prospect	Manual hire (no link sent)	Hired without Onboarding	No documents signed.

2. Once employees reach Pending Approval, right-click and select Review Onboarding Profile.
3. Review employee info and document photos. Edit if needed (note: edits to personal info may require re-signing).
4. Select Approve or Reject.

Rehiring Employees with Onboarding Groups

Onboarding Groups support rehiring returning employees alongside new hires in the same group. Follow these best practices to ensure a smooth rehire process.

Best Practice: Archive Inactive Employees Between Seasons

When employees stop working — end of season, end of H-2A contract, etc. — archive their profiles. Archiving preserves all of their history (timecards, production records, onboarding documents) while removing them from active views. Archived employees can be rehired at any time.

• To archive: Employees page → select employees → right-click → Archive employee(s).

Adding Returning Employees to an Onboarding Group

When searching for employees to add to an Onboarding Group, archived or previously hired employees will show a red Rehire button (as opposed to the green Add button for new hires). Clicking Rehire on an archived employee:

1. Unarchives the employee profile, restoring them to active status.
2. Triggers the Rehire Date — the system sets the rehire date at the moment the employee is added to the group.
3. Resets their Hire Status to Prospect for that onboarding group, so they proceed through the standard onboarding link flow.

The employee then receives their onboarding link, re-signs required documents (I-9, W-4, and any applicable forms), and their application moves through the standard approval flow.

Manually Verify the Rehire Date

Although the rehire date is triggered when the employee is added to the group, it is not always automatically populated on the employee profile. After completing the rehire, verify the Rehire Date field on the employee profile and enter or correct it manually if needed.

To update: Employee Profile → Employment Information section → Edit Employment → update the Rehire Date field.

⚠️ Do Not Rehire Employees Who Are Actively Working

Initiating a rehire (via the Rehire button) for an employee who is currently checked in or has open timecards in an active pay period will archive the original employee card and create a new record under the same profile. This can cause production records and timecards to display errors.

Best practice: Perform rehires during a period when employees are not actively checked in — such as after the close of a pay period or on a day employees are not working.

Important Notes For Hiring with Onboarding Groups:

• Onboarding Groups is not remote hiring, but rather a tool to speed up hiring in groups.
  • If you edit personal info during review (name, DOB, address, dependents), the employee must re-sign affected documents.
    • Any information that lives in federal or state forms (such as the I9 for example) that gets edited will require the employee to resign. 
• Applications that fail to deliver change to Onboarding Link Failed to Send — verify the employee's phone number.
• Employees must have a phone number on their profile to receive an onboarding link.