How to create document templates and initiate e-signing
Do you have important documents in need to be signed by the employees? Use our e-signing to create signing processes with your custom templates or choose one from the many templates provided by our partner Wndy.
We offer our users a secure and smooth way to have their documents electronically signed either with your Simployer One’ account or BankID (Sweden only). Send your documents for signage through Simployer One and have it automatically uploaded directly to the system as well.
Some common use cases for e-signing in Simployer One:
Employment contracts to candidates
Changes or renewal of employment contracts
Changes or amendments to Job descriptions
Confirmation of company policies e.g. IT & Security, Data Protection & Privacy Policy, Code of Conduct
End of contract agreement or separation notification
Currently you need to be an Owner and Admin to create a signing process however this can also be activated for Managers. They will then only be able to use and see existing document templates and not edit or create their own templates.
To activate the option for Managers to create signing processes then go to Settings > Documents.
A signing process includes, aside from the document content itself, four parties: a target employee, signers, observers and the signing process creator.
Please note only Signing parties, Observers and Signing process Creator will be able to access the signed document uploaded in Simployer One. To allow an employee to see the document, they need to be at least any of these three.
Target employee: In short, the target employee is the person who the document is about. It’s the person whose data will replace any variables that have been added to the document content. This field is optional but adding a Target employee automatically adds that person as a Signing party (this can be manually removed if needed).
Keep in mind: You can only add one employee as a Target employee in a process.
Signing parties: Every person added to the list of signers will be asked to sign this document once sent. Once all parties have signed the document, it will be sealed, and the document process will be complete. You need to add at least one signer. You can add as many Signing parties as you want. Signing parties will be added with Read access to the PDF when it’s uploaded to Simployer One.
Observers: This optional list of observers allows you to add people that have an interest in this signing process, and want to follow its progress. Observers can see the document, and follow the progress as signatures come in. You can add as many Observers as you want. Observers will be added with Read access to the PDF when uploaded to Simployer One.
Signing process creator: The person who initiated the signing process is called the signing process creator. This person can revoke a signing process and follow along in all steps. This person will also be the owner of the created PDF when uploaded to Simployer One.
For the rest of this article, we will show you how to set up document templates as well as signing processes for both candidates and current employees.
If you want to create your custom template to send out to an employee or candidate then you can go to Documents > Document templates > + New template. This is only available for Owners and Admins.
Choose a name for the template, e.g. Employment Contract or Policy - Code of Conduct
Add your content and allow for it to be customized with the help of our variables. These variables act as placeholders and will be replaced with their real data once in use, given they are added to the employee profile.
If needed, preview your template to see how it would look like with an employee’s profile data.
Make sure to hit “Save” when you are done. You can always edit a template afterwards however these changes will only apply for any signing processes triggered after the edit. New changes will not be reflected in ongoing signing processes.
Do you perhaps have a candidate who either has or is about to accept an offer? You can create a candidate card in Simployer One and from there send them an offer letter or employment contract.
First we need to create a candidate card for the individual in question. Keep in mind that a candidate card in Simployer One is not the same as an employee profile. A profile can only be created after moving the candidate to “New hires”.
Go to People > Employees > Candidates > Add candidate
Fill in information about the employee such as name, email, phone number etc. None of these fields are mandatory to create a candidate-card. Email is however required if you want to use our e-signing.
When you are done, click “Save”.
From here you can choose to make edits to the candidate card if needed but with the help of the three dots in “Action” you can also:
Send documents for signing (Email required)
Move them to “New hires” to create an employee profile (Email required)
Delete their candidate card
Head over to Documents > Signing processes > + New signing process
Name this specific signing process, e.g. “Amendment of Employment Contract - Bill Dexhart”
Choose your template or create it from scratch from here.
Add your Target employee from the list. Candidates can be found at the bottom of the list. You can also search for the person in question.
Add the Signing parties and Observers, e.g. the Manager, CEO or a Team Leader etc.
In case of larger signing processes, you can turn off the “New signature”-notifications for individual signing processes, to avoid spam as signatures start flooding in.
Preview if needed otherwise hit “Send”. You can also save it as a draft to complete it later.
When a signing process is sent out for signing, it will be considered “Sealed” once all signers have submitted their signature.
At this point, the document can be downloaded as a PDF, and it will also automatically appear under “My documents”/“Shared documents” depending on your role in the signing process.
Note: For candidates, don't forget to move them from "Candidates" to "New hires" instead when you are done with your signing process. This way, an employee profile will then be created for them and you can then onboard with your onboarding setup as per usual.
Sometimes you make mistakes - or things happen that make it important for you to revoke a signing process. A Signing process creator can easily revoke a signing process via the overview.
Go to the tab "Active" and click the three dots, then hit Revoke signing.
During the signing process we send out emails about events. These notifications are:
Document signing process has started
This is sent to Observers in the signing process and includes a link to the document.
New document to sign
This is sent to Signing parties in the signing process and includes a link to sign the document.
New signature
This is sent to Observers, Signing parties and the Signing process creator of the signing process when someone has signed the document. This notification can be disabled during the creation of the signing process.
Document signed by all parties
This is sent to Observers, Signing parties and the Signing process creator of the signing process when all signing parties have signed the document.
Signing process revoked
This is sent to Observers, Signing parties and the Signing process creator of the signing process if a signing process is revoked by the Signing process creator.
