Invite and onboard staff
Getting one person into Herding Cats is easy. Getting forty in — with their home airports, shirt sizes, frequent flyer numbers, and who they like rooming with — is the real job. This page is about doing it in bulk and doing it once.
The order to do things in
- Import your roster first
Whatever list you already keep — a spreadsheet, a Google Sheet, a PDF — bring it in from Staff Directory → Import. Extra columns you have that we do not become custom fields rather than being thrown away. A PDF with no text in it (a scan, or a form printed to PDF) is read from pictures of its pages; the review then says Read from page images — check names and numbers closely before you import.
This creates a profile for each person. They do not have an account yet, and nobody is emailed.
- Decide what onboarding should ask for
Do this before you invite anyone. Details below.
- Invite them all in one go
From Staff Directory → Bulk invite.
- Approve what comes back
Whatever they change about themselves lands on your Approvals page.
Anything already on someone’s profile turns up prefilled in their onboarding, and they only have to check it. That is a much shorter, much friendlier first experience than an empty form — and you get better answers.
Choose what onboarding asks for
Go to Staff Directory and press Bulk invite. The page is headed Invite staff to Herding Cats.
On the right is a card headed What onboarding asks for. This is a company-wide setting: it applies to every invitation you send, including single ones sent from the Users page.
At the top of that card is Positions — who decides which positions each person works:
- Staff choose their positions (the default) — Onboarding asks which positions they can work. Their picks go live, and you review them in Approvals.
- We assign positions — Onboarding skips the positions question. You set positions when you invite someone or on their profile.
This one saves the moment you pick it, applies to everyone (including people already invited), and only an admin can change it. Coordinators see which one is on.
Legal name and home airport are always collected and cannot be turned off. So is which positions they can work, unless you chose We assign positions.
Everything else is optional, grouped like this:
| Group | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Basics | Phone number, Home address |
| Logistics | Secondary airport, Shirt size, Dietary restrictions, Driving preference, Local-driver availability, Preferred roommates |
| Travel documents | Date of birth, Gender on ID, Known Traveler Number (TSA PreCheck), Frequent flyer numbers |
| Travel preferences | Seat preference, Monday travel preference, Sunday travel preference |
Tick what you actually need. If you change the selection, a Save as company default button appears — press it to make your choice stick for next time.
Already onboard staff with a Google Form or a survey? Import its questions instead of setting this up by hand. Onboarding questions at the top of the page shows everything onboarding asks, with the helper text under each question.
Every extra question is another reason someone abandons the form half way through. You can always nudge people for a missing detail later. You cannot un-annoy them.
That said — Preferred roommates is worth asking for. It saves you an enormous amount of rooming grief.
Add a cover page
Most companies open their staff survey with a welcome page: who you are, what the season looks like, what to have ready (photo ID, frequent flyer numbers), the deadlines, and who to contact. You can put that page in front of onboarding.
On the Invite staff to Herding Cats page, press Cover page at the top. The button reads Cover page: on while staff are seeing one.
- Switch it on
Turn on Show a cover page. When this is off, onboarding starts straight on the first question, as it does today.
- Give it a title (optional)
For example Welcome to the 2027 season. Left empty, staff see Before you start.
- Write the page
Type into Page text. The buttons above it add a Heading, a Subheading, Normal text, Bold, Italic, a Bulleted list, a Numbered list, Insert link and Remove link. Links open in a new tab; web addresses, email (mailto:) and phone (tel:) links work.
Pasted text comes in plain, so paste first and then add the formatting. Images aren’t supported.
- Check the preview, then press Save
Preview as staff on the right shows the page as a new staffer sees it on a phone, including your unsaved changes. Press Save to make it live, or Discard to go back to what is saved.
Only an admin can change the cover page. Coordinators can open it and see the preview. Every save is recorded in your audit trail under Staff onboarding.
When the cover page is on, onboarding opens on it: Welcome to {your company}, your title, your text, and a Get started button. Back on the first question returns to it. Long pages scroll inside the card so the button never disappears.
After onboarding, staff can read it again from My Profile → Welcome from {your company} → Read it.
A cover page that is switched on but has no text is not shown.
Send the invitations
On the same page, the left card is headed Never invited — Staff without a Herding Cats account and no invitation on the way yet.
- Tick who you want
Use Select all, or tick people one at a time. The heading keeps a count. Freight drivers are marked with a Freight badge.
- If you assign positions, pick them
With We assign positions on, each person shows the positions they already have, or No positions yet. Pick positions under Positions for this batch and they go to everyone selected who has none — people who already have positions keep them. Invite people who need different positions in separate batches.
- Press Invite {number} staff
The button names the number so you can double-check before you send.
- Look at the results
You get a card headed {number} invitations sent, with a badge on each row: Invitation sent, Email failed — share link, Already invited, or Already signed up.
Any row reading Email failed — share link has a working invitation that never reached them. Press Copy link on that row and send it to them yourself.
If you leave it, that person simply never appears in the system and you find out in October.
Chasing the ones who go quiet
The same page has a card headed Invited, not finished — Invitations that haven’t been accepted yet, and people who signed up but haven’t completed onboarding.
Each row carries one of three badges:
- Invite pending — the email went, nothing happened yet.
- Expired — more than 7 days passed.
- Onboarding incomplete — they signed in but abandoned the form.
With We assign positions on, anyone who still has no positions also shows No positions yet · Set positions. Click it to land on their profile with the positions editor open. Nobody with no positions is suggested or assignable for any position when you staff an event, so set them before you do.
Rows also tell you how long it has been: sent 4 days ago, accepted, hasn’t finished onboarding.
Press Resend to send it again, or Copy link to chase them another way.
When you resend, the old link stops working. If someone says “the link doesn’t work”, it is usually because a newer one exists in a more recent email. Tell them to look for the latest one.
To cancel an invitation entirely, go to Company → Users → Pending, open the three-dot menu on the row, and choose Revoke.
What your staff actually fill in
When someone accepts, they land on a page headed Set up your profile: A few quick questions so we can staff you on the right events. This takes about 3 minutes. A Step {n} of {n} counter runs along the top.
If you added a cover page, they read that first and press Get started.
If you imported their details first, the first step carries a banner: Your company already provided some of your details — they’re filled in below. Just check they’re right and correct anything that isn’t.
The steps, in order:
- About you
Use your legal name as it appears on your ID — this is used for flight bookings.
Legal name (required), Nickname (optional), and Phone if you asked for it.
- Where are you based?
Used for flight bookings and clustering ground transport.
Home airport (required), plus Secondary airport and Home address if you asked for them. The address is used to work out mileage when driving beats flying.
- What positions can you work?
Select every position you’re qualified and willing to take. They tick from your list of positions — Judge, Event Manager, Show Director, Announcer, Stage Manager, Photographer and the rest.
Freight drivers see it too, as Any on-site positions you can also work? It’s optional for them — they tick any event positions they also work besides driving, or press Skip for now.
If you chose We assign positions, nobody sees this step. Instead, the first step shows the positions you set, read-only — Your positions: Judge, Announcer — set by {your company} — or nothing about positions if you haven’t set any yet. They can’t change their positions anywhere; ask them to tell a coordinator if something’s wrong.
- Any time off you already know about?
A calendar for marking time off. You’re assumed available for the season, so if there’s no time off to mark, just continue.
- Event logistics
Only appears if you asked for any of it: Shirt size, Driving, Dietary restrictions, whether they can act as a local driver (pick up teammates from the airport), and Preferred roommates.
- Travel details
Used for booking your flights. Date of birth, Gender on ID, Known Traveler Number (TSA PreCheck), their Frequent flyer numbers by airline, Seat preference, and their Monday travel and Sunday travel preferences.
- A few questions from {your company}
Only appears if you have set up your own custom questions.
They press Finish and land in their portal.
It really is about that long when their details are prefilled. Say so when you chase people — it is a much easier ask than “fill in your profile”.
Approvals
Your staff cannot change their own key details directly. When they change something — including picking different positions during onboarding — it becomes a request for you to look at.
Go to Approvals in the left menu. The page reads Review profile changes submitted by your staff, with a card headed Pending Profile Changes (n).
Each row shows the old value crossed out and the new value in green. Rows that came from someone’s onboarding carry a From onboarding badge.
Press Approve or Reject.
Position picks made during onboarding come through here. Until you approve them, that person is not properly tagged for those positions — which means they will not be suggested when you staff an event, and you will wonder why your judge pool looks thin.
Your dashboard shows a count of anything waiting. Clear it weekly.
Adding one person
For a single hire, use Add staff on the Staff Directory. It opens the full staff form: fill in what you know — only first name, last name and email are required; the home airport and positions can wait — leave Invite them to sign in ticked, and press Create staff member. Their new profile opens with a short note saying the invitation was sent. When they accept, onboarding shows them what you filled in to confirm, and asks for the details your company collects.
If the note says the invitation couldn’t be sent, the profile is still saved: send it from Bulk invite, where they are listed under Never invited.
To invite someone without filling in their details first, use Company → Users → Invite user, covered in Invite your team.
What to do next
- Staff availability — getting people to tell you when they cannot work.
- Staff an event — putting them on events.