Audience

Customer Admins, HR operations, Recruiters

Overview

Eightfold’s preboarding uses a three-tier building block system: questions, tasks, and packages. Understanding this hierarchy is essential for administrators who configure preboarding workflows and for anyone who needs to troubleshoot or modify existing setups.

Each level builds upon the previous: questions are individual data fields, tasks are forms composed of questions, and packages are complete workflows containing multiple tasks. This modular design allows organizations to reuse components across different new hire populations while maintaining consistency.

The three-tier hierarchy

Preboarding components follow a clear relationship:

Questions: The foundation

Questions are the atomic units of data collection. Each question captures a single piece of information from the new hire or a hiring team member. Questions are stored in a Question Bank and can be reused across multiple tasks.

Question properties

Each question can be configured with the following properties:

• Required: Task can't be submitted until this question is answered.
• Confidential: Response is masked and visible only to users with confidential permissions.

Note: Question properties are set at the question level and apply globally. If a question is marked Required or Confidential, that setting applies to every task that includes the question.

Protecting sensitive data

Questions containing sensitive information such as SSN, SIN, or other personal identifiers should be marked as Confidential. When a question is marked Confidential:

• The response value is masked and displays as 'CONFIDENTIAL' to most users
• Only users with the perm_onboarding_view_confidential_task_responses permission can see the actual value
• Only users with the perm_onboarding_edit_confidential_task_responses permission can modify the value
• Task assignees can always view and edit their own assigned task responses, including confidential fields

Note: Masking is controlled by the Confidential toggle on the question, not the question type. An SSN question is only masked if it is explicitly marked as Confidential.

Tasks: forms built from questions

Tasks are the forms that new hires and hiring team members complete. Each task contains one or more questions from the Question Bank. Tasks are stored as Task Templates that can be reused across multiple packages.

Task assignment

Each task must have an assignee, the person or role responsible for completing the form. The system supports two types of assignees:

Position-specific roles

These roles resolve to the specific person assigned to that role on the position. For example, if a task is assigned to 'Hiring Manager,' it goes to the hiring manager listed on that specific job requisition.

Your organization may have additional position-specific roles configured based on your hiring workflow.

Note: If a position doesn't have someone assigned to the role (Example, no hiring manager listed on the requisition), the task falls back to role-based matching. This means the task will appear for all users with that role across the organization, which may cause confusion. To prevent this, ensure each position has the appropriate hiring manager, recruiter, and other team members assigned before assigning a preboarding package.

General roles and direct assignment

These assignees aren't tied to a specific position. They're system-wide roles, meaning the task appears for all users who hold that role across the organization.

Your organization can customize which roles appear in the assignee dropdown.

Note: When using general roles (without position-specific assignment), the task appears in the My Tasks tab for everyone with that role. Use position-specific roles when you want the task to go to a specific person.

Common task assignments

Task due dates

Due dates are based on the start date or offer acceptance date. Administrators can choose whether the due date is calculated before or after the reference point.

Due dates can be set as days before the reference point. If no due date is configured, the task has no deadline.

Packages: complete preboarding workflows

Packages are the top-level containers that bundle multiple tasks into a complete preboarding workflow. When a new hire begins preboarding, they are assigned a package, not individual tasks. The package determines which forms they see and which forms the hiring team must complete.

Package assignment

Packages are assigned to new hires by the hiring team from the pipeline or Preboarding Center. When assigning a package, the hiring team member selects:

• The package template to assign
• The new hire (candidate)
• The position (While assigning from Preboarding Center)
• The start date (While assigning from Preboarding Center)

Note: A new hire can only have one active package per position. A new package can only be assigned after the previous one is completed or canceled.

Package statuses

Packages move through the following statuses during their lifecycle:

Typical lifecycle: Open > In Progress > Candidate Finished > Completed

How changes happen

As components are linked, changes at one level can affect others (this includes older completed packages as well):

Note: Test changes in a sandbox environment before applying them to production packages. Changes to questions and tasks are immediate and will reflect on the candidate portal (PCS). Proceed with caution while making any edits to packages/tasks/questions as this would impact all previously completed/in progress packages.

Best practices for organization

• Use clear naming conventions: Include context in names (Example, 'US - Personal Information Form' vs. 'Canada - Personal Information Form').
• Maximize reusability: Create questions and tasks that can be shared across packages to reduce duplication and ensure consistency.
• Document dependencies: Before editing shared components, identify all packages and tasks that reference them.
• Mark sensitive questions as Confidential: Any question collecting sensitive data (SSN, SIN, bank details) should have the Confidential toggle enabled to ensure proper masking.
• Plan for regional variations: If supporting multiple countries or languages, create separate packages for each region from the start.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I use the same question in multiple tasks?

A: Yes. Questions are stored in a centralized Question Bank and can be added to any number of tasks. However, if the question is marked as Required or Confidential, that setting applies to all tasks that include it.

Q: What happens if I edit a question while new hires are using it?

A: The change takes effect immediately for all new hires who have not yet submitted the task containing that question. New hires who already submitted will see their original responses preserved.

Q: Can a new hire have multiple active packages at once?

A: No. A new hire can only have one active package per position at a time. However, they may have previously completed or cancelled packages in their history.

Q: How do I create region-specific forms?

A: Create separate packages for each region (Example, US Package, Canada Package). Within each package, include only the tasks relevant to that region. When assigning packages, select the appropriate one for the new hire's location.

Q: Who can see responses to confidential questions?

A: Only users with the 'View Confidential Responses' permission can see the actual values. All other users see the response masked as 'CONFIDENTIAL.'