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.
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.
Three things are always collected and cannot be turned off: legal name, home airport, and which roles they can work.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
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 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 roles can you work?
Select every role 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 skip this step.
- Any dates you already know you’re out?
A calendar for marking time off. You’re assumed available for the season, so if there’s nothing 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 roles 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.
Role picks made during onboarding come through here. Until you approve them, that person is not properly tagged for those roles — 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, or Company → Users → Invite user. That is the short version, 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.