The Onboarding Agent hands every new onboarding to ONE, which follows instructions you write about how your company welcomes new hires. Use it when you want each onboarding opened, tracked and pushed forward for you, with your team only stepping in where the agent has no tool.

Feature/Functionality

Overview

You describe your onboarding process once: the steps, the person in charge of each, the dates and the reminders. You can write it yourself or build it with ONE. From then on, for each new hire the agent:

• Opens a single onboarding ticket.
• Adds one task for each step in your instructions.
• Carries out the steps it has tools for.
• Gives every other step to a named person as a task.

This article is about the agent only. Onboardings that run without it use your onboarding settings instead (see Understand onboarding settings).

What you need

Permissions

What the agent relies on

• Equipment policy and Purchasing policy, both published. The agent only buys inside them. If either is missing, it buys nothing and creates a task for the IT owner.
• A connected email provider, so it can create work mailboxes (see Connect your email provider).
• Published provisioning rules for the mailbox and SaaS accounts it creates.
• A synced HR system, so each new hire arrives in Factorial IT with a start date and a personal email address (see Set up HR sync).

You can set the agent up without any of these. Whatever it cannot run turns into a task for a person.

How to use

Go to People > Settings and open the Onboarding tab. The Onboarding Agent card is at the top.

Click Setup agent. A creation page opens, already filled in:

• Fixed by Factorial IT (shown in grey): name, description, Model tier, the Employee onboarding created trigger, the Factorial IT tools the agent uses, and the Equipment and Purchasing policies under Knowledge.
• Yours to change: the Instructions (prefilled with the Factorial IT template in your console language, English or French), Web access, and any extra Connectors.

Adjust the instructions: swap the names in brackets for real people and match the steps to your process. You can also ask ONE to draft them with you from your current onboarding settings (see Write or rework the instructions with ONE below).

Click Create. You see Agent created and enabled. and the agent page opens.

When the agent is on

• The card shows On. Click it to reach the agent page.
• A banner says Full Agentic Onboarding is on. The Ticket information and Onboarding tasks sections underneath turn grey, because the instructions now take their place.
• The agent runs every onboarding created after this point, whether it comes from your HR system, the Add an employee form or the public API.
• Onboardings that existed before you switched it on keep the classic settings until they finish. If one has no ticket yet, clicking Start onboarding passes it to the agent: The Onboarding Agent takes the onboarding from here and opens its ticket.

You will also find the agent under AI Agents > Agents, listed with the type Factorial IT agent.

Edit the instructions

Open the agent page, either from the Onboarding Agent card or from AI Agents > Agents. Change the Instructions field and click Save.

The new text is used from the agent's next run onwards, and that includes onboardings already under way.

Write or rework the instructions with ONE

ONE can draft the instructions with you, whether the field is blank or already has text. Click the ONE button at the far end of the Instructions toolbar. A chat opens beside the form and gives you two starting points:

While it works with you, ONE:

• Begins from your existing onboarding settings. For each question it suggests the answer those settings give (when the ticket opens, which steps you run, who owns them, their dates) and tells you where it found it.
• Asks a single question at a time, with options and a suggested choice, in English or French.
• Checks your data before writing a rule: each owner must be an employee in Factorial IT, both policies must be published, it looks up which SaaS apps have a published provisioning rule, and whether an email provider is connected.
• Compares existing text with what the instructions require, such as the eight template sections and an owner and date on every step, and lists the gaps.
• Warns you when you ask for something the agent cannot do, such as setting up the device through MDM, and suggests the nearest rule it can follow.

You can also make requests in plain words: add a step, change an owner, shorten the text or translate it.

ONE only writes into the field. If text is already there, it asks whether to overwrite it or keep yours. The agent sees nothing until you click Save (or Create on the creation page).

The sections of the template

The template is split into the sections below. Keep the headings and change what sits under them:

Add your own step

Duplicate a step under Steps, in this order and complete its lines. Here is an example for a badge and a desk that your office manager sorts out:

5. Badge & desk:

- Owner: Sam Martin. When: 2 days before the start date.
- Done when: the badge is ready and the desk is assigned.

Each onboarding ticket then gets a task for Sam. When the agent has no tool for a step, that step always goes to its owner as a task; the agent never attempts it. Remove a step and it stops being created.

Owners and timing

• Pick one Factorial IT employee for each role. Any role you leave blank goes to the IT owner.
• The IT owner is mandatory. They are the ticket's assignee and get every hand-over. If none is set, the agent asks for one and passes every step to the new hire's manager in the meantime.
• All dates are counted from the start date, which is also the onboarding's due date.
• Out of the box, the agent sends two reminders for the same request, 48 hours apart, and then creates a task for the IT owner. It stops contacting the new hire three days before they start.

The onboarding ticket

For every onboarding the agent opens one ticket named First Last - Onboarding and tagged Onboarding. The IT owner is the assignee, the due date is the start date, the new hire is the requester and the agent is attached.

On that ticket the agent:

• Writes the description: start date, role, workplace and anything still missing.
• Adds a task for each step in your instructions, assigned to itself when it can do the work and to the named person when it cannot.
• Sets the ticket to In progress the first time it runs.
• Finishes each run with a single internal comment covering what it did, what is pending and with whom, a mention of everyone who needs to act, and when it will check back.
• Closes the onboarding with a brief summary when the final task is complete.

It never creates a second ticket for the same onboarding.

What the new hire receives

If the new hire works remotely, the agent emails them by default at the personal address from your HR system or from the Add an employee form, asking them to confirm the home address for their equipment. If they work on site, the equipment goes to the office linked to their workplace.

• Emails are plain text, sent by ONE from support@factorial.it, and signed by your IT team (for example Acme IT team). You choose the signature under How to talk to the hire.
• Emails use the language set in your instructions. If none is set, or the choice is left to the IT owner, the agent asks the IT owner in its ticket comment and sends the new hire nothing until it has an answer. After two working days without a reply, it writes in English. It never infers a language from the person's name, country or company.
• If the new hire replies in a different language, the agent switches to theirs.
• The new hire does not need a Factorial IT account. Emails contain no prices, no internal notes and no links that require signing in.
• Replies from the new hire appear on the ticket as comments, and the agent reads them.
• If there is no personal email address, the agent sends nothing and creates a task for the IT owner.

What the agent does alone and what it passes on

Using the default template, the agent places orders inside your published Equipment and Purchasing policies without asking anyone to approve them. It tries stock first, then the catalogue. It also creates the mailbox and the SaaS accounts your provisioning rules cover.

Everything else turns into a task for a person: an order that falls outside a policy, a policy that does not exist, an account with no rule, or a new hire who has not answered by the deadline. Each task explains what is blocked, who was asked and since when, and what is needed to move on.

There is no approve button. To get the agent moving again, reply in a ticket comment or complete the task. The agent continues from there.

Add a new hire by hand

With the agent on, these entry points open a short Add an employee form: Onboard in the left menu, Add on the Employees and Onboardings pages, and Create onboarding in the command menu. Fill in:

• First name, Last name and Emails: at least one address, which the agent uses until the work mailbox exists. Click Add email for more.
• Onboarding date: the start date. It is required. If Anything else mentions a different date, this field takes priority.
• Anything else: role, team, manager, remote or on site, written in plain words.

Click Create onboarding. ONE reads the form, creates the onboarding and the agent carries on from there. It asks for anything the form leaves out. A hire added this way is never pushed to your HR system.

When a run does not finish

Nothing falls back to the classic settings. Once the agent is running an onboarding, it keeps it, on its single ticket.

Every new onboarding triggers one run. You can see it in AI Agents > Runs and in the Runs tab of the agent page, with Onboarding as its Subject.

Onboarding Agent runs have no Re-run option. The agent always picks up again through its ticket.

Turn the agent off

1. Open the agent page from the Onboarding Agent card or from AI Agents > Agents.
2. Click ⋯ > Disable agent.

The card switches to Off. Any onboarding created after that uses your Onboarding settings again, exactly as you left them.

Onboardings the agent had already started stay with it but are paused. The agent does nothing on them, and their ticket and tasks remain with their owners, who can carry on manually. To switch it back on, click ⋯ > Enable agent. Each paused onboarding restarts at the next activity on its ticket, such as a new comment or a completed task. Reminders that were due while it was paused are not sent afterwards; add a comment on the ticket if you want the agent to restart straight away.

You cannot delete the Onboarding Agent.

Follow what the agent does

• The ticket holds the complete history: each comment, task, email and order, all authored by the agent.
• The Runs page (AI Agents > Runs, or the agent's Runs tab) shows the run started by each new onboarding. Later work, triggered when a reply or a finished task wakes the agent up, appears on the ticket.
• AI credits: as with custom agents, the AI credits column shows what each run used. Credits measure usage and are not charged for now. The ONE chat that helps you write instructions, and reading the Add an employee form, also use credits.

Limits

• The agent orders the device with automatic enrolment and sends the enrolment invitation. It does not set the device up: no MDM controls and no EDR (see Zero Touch for Apple).
• There is no offboarding agent. Offboardings follow their own settings (see Automate your offboardings).
• Factorial IT has no approval step: an escalation is always a task for a person.
• You cannot start the agent manually, and its runs cannot be re-run.
• Name, description, model tier, trigger, required tools and policies are fixed by Factorial IT.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Troubleshooting

• The agent ordered nothing. One of the two policies is not published. The agent page names the missing one under Knowledge, and the IT owner has a task.
• The new hire received no email. There is no personal email address on their record, or the agent is still waiting for the IT owner to choose a language. Check the ticket comment and the IT owner's tasks.
• A run shows Not done. Open the run and read the Needs you callout, then answer in a comment on the onboarding ticket.
• A run shows Didn't finish. Comment on the onboarding ticket to restart the agent. If no ticket was created, contact support.
• An onboarding is stuck and a comment does not restart the agent. Contact support@factorial.it with:
  • The new hire's name and start date
  • The link to the onboarding ticket, if there is one
  • The link to the run (Actions > Copy link to run in the run details)
  • What you expected the agent to do
• The agent is off but old onboardings did not move. That is expected. They stay paused with the agent until you enable it again and something happens on their ticket.

FAQ

1. Does the agent order equipment without my approval?
   By default, yes, as long as the device and the order fit both your published Equipment and Purchasing policies. Anything outside them becomes a task for the IT owner, with the reason and the options.
    
2. What if my Equipment or Purchasing policy is not published?
   The agent orders nothing and creates a task for the IT owner. A message under Knowledge on the agent page names the missing policy.
    
3. I changed the instructions. Do onboardings in progress use the new version?
   Yes. Saved text applies from the agent's next run on every onboarding it handles, including those already under way.
    
4. Can I go back to the classic onboarding settings?
   Yes. Click ⋯ > Disable agent on the agent page. New onboardings use the classic settings again, and the ones the agent was handling pause until you re-enable it.
    
5. Does the new hire need a Factorial IT account?
   No. The agent emails their personal address and they reply to that email.
    
6. Why can't I see the onboarding ticket yet?
   In People > Onboardings, the onboarding shows Ticket being prepared while the agent creates the ticket, then Starts on with a date until the onboarding begins. By default that is 30 days before the start date, set under Timing. Nothing happens on the ticket before then.
    
7. What happens to someone who has already started?
   By default, if the start date has passed, the agent closes the onboarding without ordering or provisioning anything, marks the person as active and notes it on the ticket. If equipment is still needed, it creates a task for the IT owner. You can change this under People already in post.
    
8. Does the Onboarding Agent use AI credits?
   Yes. Each run is counted in AI credits, as with custom agents; see the AI credits column in its Runs tab. Credits measure usage and are not charged for now. The ONE chat for writing instructions and reading the Add an employee form also count.