# Automate new hire onboarding from SAP SuccessFactors

> Every weekday morning, upcoming starters get a Slack welcome, their manager gets a first-week checklist, and IT gets a setup ticket matched to the role.

- Workflow type: agent
- Services: SAP SuccessFactors, Slack Bot, Jira
- Categories: HR & People, Operations
- Published: 2026-08-09

## What it does

- Checks your HR system each weekday morning for anyone starting in the next seven days, including future dated hires that normally stay hidden until their first day.
- Posts a welcome announcement to a channel like #new-hires with the starter's role, team, location, start date, and who they report to.
- Sends the hiring manager a direct message with a first week checklist so nothing gets forgotten before day one.
- Opens an IT setup ticket with equipment and system access matched to the person's department, job title, and location instead of one generic list.

## What you'll need

- An SAP SuccessFactors account with permission to read employee job and employment records
- A Slack workspace where the assistant can post to your announcements channel and send direct messages
- A Jira project where setup tickets should be created
- The name of the Slack channel you want welcome posts to go to

## Prompt

Every weekday at 7am, check SAP SuccessFactors for employees whose start date falls within the next seven days, and run a full onboarding fan-out for each one.

Find the upcoming starters using List Job Information (EmpJob) and List Employment Records (EmpEmployment). Both entities are effective-dated and return the record as of today by default, so pass fromDate and toDate covering today through seven days ahead. Without that date window, future-dated hires will not come back at all. Keep the query bounded with a filter on the start date and select only the fields you need. From EmpJob, read each new hire's manager, department, job title, location, and company.

Resolve display names with List Personal Information (PerPersonal) or List Persons (PerPerson), and resolve work email addresses with List Email Addresses (PerEmail). You need the email for both the new hire and the manager, because the manager field on EmpJob is a user ID and Slack lookups are done by email.

Before announcing anyone, make the run idempotent. Read the recent history of the announcements channel with Get Channel History and skip any new hire who already has a welcome post there. This workflow runs every weekday while a start date approaches, so the same person will appear in the query on several consecutive days. A rerun must never produce a duplicate announcement, a duplicate manager message, or a duplicate provisioning ticket.

For each new hire who has not been announced yet, post a welcome announcement to the new hires channel (for example #new-hires) using Send a Message. Include their name, job title, department, location, start date, and who they report to. Keep it warm and short, and use Slack mrkdwn formatting rather than standard markdown.

Then message the hiring manager directly. Use Look Up User by Email to find their Slack account from their work email, Open a Conversation to get the direct message channel, and Send a Message containing a first-week checklist: confirm the laptop and accounts are ready, book a day-one welcome call, share the team introduction, schedule the first one-to-one, line up an onboarding buddy, and set thirty and sixty day goals.

Create a provisioning ticket in Jira with Create Issue. Tailor the requested equipment and system access to the new hire's department, job title, and location rather than using one generic list. A finance analyst, a field engineer, and a designer need different hardware, different software licences, and different system permissions, and location drives things like regional payroll access, office badge, and local delivery of hardware. Put the new hire's name, start date, department, job title, location, and manager in the ticket description, and set the due date before the start date so IT has time to act. Remember that the Jira description field uses Atlassian Document Format.

Handle incomplete records gracefully. If a record is missing a manager or a department, still post the welcome announcement, but clearly flag the specific missing field in the Slack message so HR can correct the record before day one. Skip the direct message when there is no manager to send it to, and when the department is missing, still create the Jira ticket but note that access could not be fully scoped and needs a human to confirm. Never drop a new hire silently just because their record is incomplete.

## How to customize

- Change the timing or the look ahead window, for example run it Monday only, or look two weeks ahead instead of one.
- Swap the announcement channel, or route different departments to different channels.
- Adjust the equipment and access lists for each department, job title, or office so tickets match how your IT team actually works.
- Edit the first week checklist the hiring manager receives.

## FAQ

### Will it announce the same person twice?

No. Before posting, it reads the recent history of your announcements channel and skips anyone who already has a welcome post. That means it can safely run every weekday while a start date approaches without repeating itself.

### What happens if a record is missing the manager or department?

It still posts the welcome announcement, but flags exactly which detail is missing so your HR team can fix the record before the person's first day. Incomplete records never silently disappear.

### Why does it run on a schedule instead of reacting instantly?

SuccessFactors is a system of record rather than a live notification service, so the assistant checks it each morning. Because it looks a week ahead, you still get plenty of warning before anyone actually starts.

### Can it handle several people starting on the same day?

Yes. Each new starter gets their own announcement, their own manager message, and their own setup ticket, so nobody gets bundled into a single post and overlooked.

### Do the setup tickets really differ by role?

Yes. The assistant reads each person's department, job title, and location, then asks for the equipment and system access that role actually needs, rather than sending IT the same checklist for a designer, a field engineer, and a finance analyst.

Use this prompt in General Input: https://www.generalinput.com/prompts/automate-new-hire-onboarding-from-sap-successfactors