Worked examples / A new starter
Six things before her first shift, from three different people.
Marsden Care has offered Bethan Idowu a job as a care worker, starting on 22 September. Before she can work a shift, the office needs her right to work, her DBS certificate, two references, an occupational health form and her details for the contract. The references come from people who have never heard of Marsden Care and owe it nothing.
Marsden Care is invented. So are Bethan, Fairhaven Lodge and everyone else here. The shape of a new starter is real; the names are not.
Three weeks, the way it usually goes
Six things, three people, and an office that is also covering the rota.
Bethan Idowu
Three weeks before her start date, by email
Offer accepted
The office emails a starter pack
Note: Five attachments and a covering list
Two days later
Bethan sends her passport
Note: A photograph with the corner cut off
The same week
Two referees are emailed
Note: From the office inbox, with a form attached
Week two
One reference comes back
Note: Printed, signed and scanned
Her details come back
Note: The sort code has eight digits
Somebody rings Bethan about it
Note: And writes the answer on a printout
Week three
The second referee has not replied
Note: Nobody noticed until now
The occupational health form
Note: Still in the starter pack, unopened
The Friday before
Somebody asks whether she can start
Note: Answered by going through an inbox
One file, and everyone who owes it something
The office starts Bethan’s pack from the “New starter” template and adds what a care role needs on top: the DBS certificate, the occupational health form, and a request for each reference. Bethan gets a link to her own requests. Each referee is added with a link to the one request that is theirs, and sees nothing else of Bethan’s.
- The file says four of six in, and which two are not
- The second reference is chased on its own, without chasing Bethan
- The occupational health form is a form in the pack, not an attachment to print
Bethan Idowu
Pre-employment file · starts 22 September
4 of 6 in2 outstanding
DBS certificate
In on 1 September
Second reference
Chased twice · Fairhaven Lodge
Occupational health form
Six questions · not started
Sent back, not rung about
Bethan’s details arrive with an eight-digit sort code. The office sends the form back with a note saying what is wrong; she corrects the one field and sends it again. The whole exchange stays on the request, so nobody writes the right number on a printout.
New starter details
Marsden Care · sent back for one correction
The Friday question
Can she start on Monday? It is one screen: four of six in, and the two that are not, with who owes each. The answer used to take an inbox and a phone call.
What does not change
Somebody still reads the references and decides whether they are good enough, and somebody still checks the DBS certificate. Docsroom does neither. It makes sure the six things arrive in one place, and that the one still missing is obvious a week before it matters.
Start the next new starter from a link.
Free for 14 days, no card. Try it on whoever starts next month.