---
title: Manage Onboarding Roles
slug: manage-onboarding-roles
createdAt: 2026-09-11T08:15:24.807Z
---

Onboarding Roles in Ashby's People Workflows allow you to automate ownership and eliminate manual task routing. Whether you need to assign actions to defined individuals like an Onboarding Coordinator or Buddy, or to functional teams such as IT, Roles ensure the right work reaches the right people. By configuring roles tailored to your organization, Ashby Workflows unlock automatic task assignment, smoother cross-functional collaboration, and a more scalable onboarding experience.

:::hint{type="warning"}
Ashby's People Ops module is currently available through restricted early access. The following documentation is provided for design partners participating in that program.
:::

# Permissions and access

To configure onboarding roles, you need view and edit access to the workflow. Your permission set grants this access to either all workflows or specific workflows.

:::hint{type="info"}
Learn more about Ashby's People Ops permission sets: [Configure Permission Sets](docId:7apvU1qei2QWWO4SL6UOI).
:::

# Built-in onboarding roles

Ashby includes three built-in roles in People Ops, each automatically populated from the Hiring Team assignments on the new hire's Job Consideration in Ashby Recruiting:

- **Hiring Manager**
- **Recruiter**
- **Recruiting Coordinator**

When a candidate moves to the **Hired** stage, the first individual assigned to each role is mapped into People Ops.

## How built-in roles sync from Ashby Recruiting

The Hiring Manager, Recruiter, and Recruiting Coordinator on the Job Consideration serve as the source of truth for People Ops. When a new hire is enrolled in a workflow, these individuals are automatically applied to any steps that reference those roles.

Any custom roles you have configured in Ashby Recruiting will also sync over with the Custom tag but not be available to assign by default. To make these roles available to assign to a step within a workflow, you an do the following:

1. Navigate to **Workflows** and click on any onboarding workflow.
2. Click `View Workflow Template`.
3. Click `Edit`, then `Manage Roles`.
4. Enable the `Available to Assign` toggles for the custom roles you'd like to make available for onboarding workflows.

![The screenshot shows the open Manage Onboarding Workflow Roles menu with the options to make custom roles available to assign.](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/A_IlgarCuFCn48L1X6v_9_onboarding-workflow-workflows-ashby-2026-09-22-at-102028-am.jpg)

:::hint{type="info"}
Before enrolling a new hire in a workflow, confirm that the Hiring Manager, Recruiter, Recruiting Coordinator and any custom role assignments are accurate on the Job Consideration and that each is assigned to a single individual, not multiple.
:::

# Create a custom onboarding role

To create a custom onboarding role in People Ops, navigate to your workflow's configuration and select **Manage Roles** in the upper right corner.

![Screenshot of the Workflow configuration page with the Manage Roles button highlighted in the upper right corner](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/LxPfLxzR3auH5991fw1tZ_screenshot2025-12-08at50234pm.png)

1. Select `+ Add Custom Role` in the upper right corner.
2. Enter a **Title** and **Description**, and specify whether the role should function as a Group Role.
   - Group Roles allow a single task to be assigned to multiple individuals.
3. Click `Submit` to create the role.

![Screenshot of the Add Custom Role dialog with Title, Description, and Is Group fields](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/gjSpFkbCVVD9b3dW00UXQ_screenshot2025-12-10at11655pm.png)

## Common use cases

Below are some of the most commonly configured Custom Onboarding Roles:

- **People Ops Coordinator**
- **Onboarding Buddy**
- **IT Team**

# Assign a workflow step to a custom onboarding role

Once a Custom Onboarding Role is created, you see it as an `Assignee` option when assigning a step. To send a Workflow Step from a Custom Onboarding Role, select the role associated with the sender. Group Roles cannot be selected as the sender, as messages must come from a single individual.

![Screenshot of a workflow step with the option to add the Assignee](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/S1nDU6BMQIJVW7eYVPFAV_screenshot2025-12-16at84409am.png)

## Set a default assignee for a custom onboarding role

After assigning a Custom Role to a Workflow step, you can designate a Default Assignee. The Default Assignee automatically receives the task each time the Workflow reaches that step.

To set a Default Assignee:

1. Navigate to **Manage Roles** and select **Default Assignees**.
2. Locate the applicable Custom Role, then search for and select the individual who should automatically be assigned any Workflow steps associated with that role.

![Screenshot of the Default Assignees tab in Manage Roles with a Custom Role and assignee selected](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/y8tWp-cOglq10hy_UvKVd_screenshot2025-12-10at13607pm.png)

## Assign an onboarding role via a survey step

If you don't know who will be assigned to a Custom Onboarding Role at the time a new hire is enrolled in a workflow, you can collect that information using a workflow Survey step. Configure a Survey step and assign it to the internal team member responsible for determining the assignee of the Custom Onboarding Role. In the survey question, select `Assign the [Custom Role Name] role`.

![Screenshot showing a survey step configured to assign a Custom Onboarding Role](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/wjwxqfy_QGJtGLRKdO--8_screenshot2025-12-16at104120am.png)

Set any subsequent steps assigned to the Custom Onboarding Role as dependent on this survey step.

### Common use cases

A common use case for Custom Onboarding Roles is assigning an Onboarding Buddy. Configure a workflow Survey step assigned to the Hiring Manager to select the appropriate Onboarding Buddy for the new hire.

Any tasks or communications configured to be assigned to, or sent from, the Onboarding Buddy are routed to the individual selected in the Assign Onboarding Buddy survey step.

![Screenshot showing the Onboarding Buddy survey step configured in the workflow with the dependency setting](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/kqTv-qHfTk4-KAgZCmU2g_screenshot2025-12-16at104522am.png)

To prevent assignment errors, set the survey step used to collect the Onboarding Buddy as a dependency for any subsequent steps assigned to the Onboarding Buddy role.

![Screenshot showing the workflow steps with the Onboarding Buddy role assigned and the dependency on the survey step visible](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/7ArLCGp2pccSyGqy1ojhF_screenshot2025-12-16at104930am.png)

# Overwrite default assignees

If there are one-off changes to default assignees, you can edit those assignments when enrolling an employee in a workflow, or on a workflow that's already in flight.

## When enrolling a new hire

For workflow enrollments with [No automation](docId\:lJOs22PR72IwGv0gSfd3d) or [Automation with review](docId\:lJOs22PR72IwGv0gSfd3d), update default assignees or the individuals assigned to built-in roles directly within the workflow enrollment wizard.

1. Navigate to the **People Ops Home** page.
2. Select `Enroll in Workflow` or `Review Workflow` next to the employee. The option you see depends on your [Configure Onboarding Workflow Automations](docId\:LId8DgTDMUQ0VwPSirDUQ).
3. Continue through the wizard to `Confirm Workflow`.

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4. Update the assignee for any role, including built-in roles like Hiring Manager and Recruiter that sync from the employee's job consideration.

::Image[]{src="https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/Dpw8xFv6P-HziWqtAYbsa_screenshot2026-08-19at90639pm.png" size="100" alt="Screenshot of the role assignment step in the enrollment wizard with Hiring Manager and Recruiter fields" isUploading="false" width="878" height="442" darkWidth="878" darkHeight="442" showCaption="false" indent="1"}

5. Select `Continue`, review the steps, then select `Start Workflow`.

## In-flight workflows

You can also swap assignees on a workflow that's already running. Ashby reassigns every pending and future step tied to that role to the new assignee. Steps that are already complete and emails that have already been sent aren't affected.

1. Navigate to the employee's workflow and review assigned workflow roles.

::Image[]{src="https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/Ap2qzmGdkP__HMDPYb89b_screenshot2026-08-19at90914pm.png" size="100" alt="Screenshot of the employee's workflow view with assigned roles listed" isUploading="false" width="2502" height="482" darkWidth="2502" darkHeight="482" showCaption="false" indent="1"}

2. Select `Users` to review and reassign workflow role assignments.

::Image[]{src="https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/eg4Rg5_kjwNuYt9cRvxxX_screenshot2026-08-19at91045pm.png" size="100" alt="Screenshot of the Users panel for reassigning workflow role assignments" isUploading="false" width="1696" height="650" darkWidth="1696" darkHeight="650" showCaption="false" indent="1"}

:::hint{type="info"}
Overwriting an assignee on an enrollment applies to that employee only. It does not change the workflow template. To change who owns a role for every future enrollment, update the default assignee on the workflow's onboarding roles.
:::

# FAQs

### For Group Custom Roles, what happens if one person marks a task as complete, or completes a survey?

When a task or survey is assigned to a Group Custom Role, it appears on the task list of every individual in that group. Once any one person completes the task or survey, Ashby automatically marks it complete and removes it from the task lists of all group members.

### What happens if I have multiple individuals assigned to Hiring Manager and Recruiter roles in Ashby Recruiting?

If you often have multiple hiring team members in the Hiring Manager or Recruiter roles, you can create a custom hiring team role to represent the hiring manager who should own workflow tasks using the steps at [Create a custom onboarding role](docId\:oHcr9HtGWWtm8us1IUYdg).

### I don't see my new Custom Role as an option when assigning Default Assignees. Am I doing something wrong?

Custom Roles must be assigned to at least one workflow step before they appear as an option for Default Assignees. If your Custom Role isn't listed, confirm that you've added it to at least one workflow step.