feature_set: guest-console-preboarding feature: hr-admin-deterministic-transactions status: draft owner: Harshitha (@handle unconfirmed) product-manager: Michelle Trudo (@handle unconfirmed) issue-url: https://github.com/Novaworks-ai/Roadmap/issues/321 source: Preboarding Guest Console PRD v0.5 — Features 4 (HR Admin workspace), 5 (recruiter hand-off/ATS readiness), 6 (deterministic task engine), 11 (orchestration layer), and the HR-Ops-facing half of 12 (contract renewal: expiry tracking, renewal workflow, EDM status label, payroll-data visibility); GitHub issue #321 "HR Ops and Admin" design: Not yet available

FEATURE SPEC¶

HR Admin & Deterministic Transactions¶

Novaworks AI | HR Admin workspace + Core HR schema (HR-Ops-facing)

Parent Feature Set: ../concept.md.

Major Change History¶

Version	Date	Author / Notes
1	2026-08-12	Ravi Buddharaju — Initial draft, derived from the Preboarding Guest Console PRD v0.5 and GitHub issue #321. Split from the PRD's candidate-facing capabilities, which live in the sibling `new-hire-preboarding-console` Feature.

Problem Statement¶

HR Ops today re-enters data manually across BambooHR and HRSD, tracks 20+ pre-boarding tasks in spreadsheets across HR, IT, Payroll, and Benefits owners, gets no proactive signal when a task stalls, and must hand-customize tasks per worker type. Recruiters can't pass candidate-specific context (accommodation needs, unique offer terms, start-date sensitivities) downstream in any structured way, so it's lost after the offer. Contract renewals for contingent workers are tracked manually by the Account Manager with no system reminder, so engagements can lapse before a new contract is signed.

Use Cases¶

Use Case 1: HR Ops uploads an offer letter and resume for a candidate with no ATS integration. Today this means manual re-entry into BambooHR and HRSD; here the system extracts key fields (name, role, start date, worker type), creates the pre-boarding record, auto-generates deterministic tasks by business rule, and flags non-deterministic tasks for human assignment — replacing spreadsheet tracking with a single workspace view.

Use Case 2: A recruiter hands off a candidate with a structured special-instructions note (accommodation needs, unique offer terms, sensitivities). The ATS integration isn't built yet, so this Feature stands up the special-instructions field in the Core HR schema and the REST API endpoint that will receive it — the data has a home the moment the integration (SmartRecruiters, expected end of Q3) is connected.

Use Case 3: A contractor's contract nears its end date. Today the Account Manager tracks this by hand with no reminder; here the system notifies HR Ops per policy and generates a renewal task workflow between HR and the manager, triggering the contractor's re-entry into the console (owned by the sibling Feature). HR Ops retains access to the contract amount, with payroll-data visibility governed by contractor sub-type policy.

Use Case 4: During a merger or acquisition, HR Ops needs a single view into every candidate in the console and exactly where each sits on their task list — including document open, read, and sign status — instead of checking in with each one individually.

Scope¶

HR Admin workspace (deterministic transactions). A dedicated workspace where HR Ops executes all deterministic transactions and gets a candidate-by-candidate view: who's invited, who's in progress, and exactly where each candidate sits on their task list, including document open/read/sign status.
Deterministic task engine. Business rules and policy define pre-boarding tasks by worker type, jurisdiction, and role across HR, IT, Payroll, and Benefits owners (welcome email, offer storage, background check, work-authorization/tax forms, direct-deposit setup, progressive Okta access tied to task completion, IT provisioning, HRIS record creation, benefits enrollment, pre-reading, onboarding kit, document signing/EDM storage, buddy assignment, manager assignment). Rules are configurable by HR Ops or Admin per worker type, including contractor-specific policy. Where rules don't cover a worker-type/jurisdiction combination, the record gets universal tasks only and HR Ops is notified to assign the rest.
Recruiter hand-off and ATS readiness. Defines the structured special-instructions field in the Core HR schema and stands up the REST API endpoint that will receive it from the future ATS integration (SmartRecruiters, end of Q3) — the integration itself is out of scope, see below.
Manual entry fallback (no ATS integration). HR Ops uploads an offer letter/resume through the HR Admin workspace; the system extracts key fields (name, role, start date, worker type), creates the pre-boarding record, and generates tasks per the deterministic engine above. Low-confidence extraction is flagged for HR Ops review rather than creating an incomplete record.
Orchestration layer. Onboarding, Document, Policy, and Payroll agents, coordinated by a Super Agent, retrieve, assign, and automate tasks and communicate over an event-bus pattern. Build dependency chain: Orchestration → Context → Companion → Readiness (readiness itself is scoped to what's needed for HR Ops's own workspace view here — broader readiness dashboards are out of scope, see below).
Contract renewal — HR-Ops-facing half. Tracks contract end date for Ateko-project contractors and contingent workers; per policy, notifies HR Ops ahead of expiry and generates a renewal task workflow between HR and the manager, which triggers the contractor's console re-entry (sibling Feature). HR Ops has access to the contract amount; payroll-data visibility is governed by contractor sub-type policy (pending the open Ateko architecture review). Updates the EDM document-status label (active/expiring/renewal in progress/superseded) on the renewed contract.

Out of Scope¶

The candidate-facing Guest Console UI — task list, bulk upload, HR Concierge agent, and the candidate's own contract-renewal signing flow — see ../new-hire-preboarding-console/spec.md.
Building the actual ATS integration (SmartRecruiters) — this Feature only prepares the field and endpoint it will write to.
Manager and HRBP readiness dashboards, proactive nudges, and any report/insight capability from the Manager Workspace and HRBP Workspace PRDs — deferred, not in scope this quarter, per parent concept.md's Related PRDs. The HR Admin workspace's own candidate-by-candidate view above is the only "readiness" surface this Feature builds.
EDM classification/extraction internals and document taxonomy — owned by worker-document-management.

Value¶

Replaces spreadsheet-tracked, manually re-keyed pre-boarding administration with one configurable, rule-driven workspace — HR Ops customizes task rules once per worker type instead of hand-building a checklist every time, and gets exception-based oversight (non-deterministic tasks surfaced, stalled contract renewals flagged) instead of daily manual checking.

Delivery¶

UX Description¶

An internal, ServiceNow-adjacent-or-portal-native (Open Question 2) workspace for HR Ops: a candidate list with drill-down into task status, a task-rule configuration surface, and exception queues for non-deterministic tasks and stalled items.

Key User Flows¶

Manual candidate entry → HR Ops uploads offer letter/resume → system extracts fields, flags low-confidence extractions for review → HR Ops confirms → pre-boarding record created, deterministic tasks generated → exit: candidate appears in the workspace list ready for console invitation.
HR Admin oversight → HR Ops opens the workspace → sees every candidate's position on their task list → executes a deterministic transaction directly or assigns a flagged non-deterministic task → exit: candidate record and task list update.
Contract renewal trigger → system detects a contract approaching its end date → notifies HR Ops and generates a renewal task workflow with the manager → contractor's console re-entry is triggered (sibling Feature) → exit: on signing, EDM status label updates and HR Ops sees the renewal closed in the workspace.
Task rule configuration → HR Ops/Admin defines or edits a business rule for a worker-type/jurisdiction combination → exit: future candidates of that type get tasks generated from the updated rule.

Human Override & Fallback Strategy¶

Low-confidence extraction: when the system can't reliably extract key fields from an uploaded offer letter, it flags the record for HR Ops review rather than creating an incomplete record.
Task rule gaps: if business rules don't cover a worker-type/jurisdiction combination, the system creates the record with universal tasks only and notifies HR Ops to assign the rest.
Integration fallback: if the future ATS hand-off fails or times out, the record queues and HR Ops falls back to the manual-entry flow above.
Contract renewal edge case: if a contractor's contract end date is missing or ambiguous, the system alerts HR Ops rather than generating a renewal workflow on incorrect dates.

AI Feedback Loop¶

HR Ops can override any auto-generated task (edit, reassign, remove, add); overrides feed rule refinement.
Recruiters can flag when hand-off/special-instructions data was incomplete.
Implicit signals: task completion velocity per worker type, frequency of HR Ops overrides — both inform where a non-deterministic task can become a deterministic rule.

Acceptance Criteria¶

HR Ops can view, for any candidate in the console, exactly where they sit on their task list, including document open/read/sign status, from a single workspace view.
A deterministic task rule configured by HR Ops for a given worker type and jurisdiction auto-generates the correct task set for every new candidate of that type, without HR Ops re-entering it by hand.
When no rule covers a worker-type/jurisdiction combination, the candidate's record is created with universal tasks only and HR Ops receives a notification to assign the remainder.
HR Ops uploading an offer letter/resume with no ATS integration gets a pre-boarding record with extracted key fields (name, role, start date, worker type); any field the system can't confidently extract is flagged for HR Ops review rather than silently populated.
The special-instructions field and its REST API endpoint exist in the Core HR schema and accept a structured note, independent of whether the ATS integration has been connected yet.
When a contingent worker's contract approaches its end date, HR Ops receives a notification and a renewal task workflow is generated with the manager, triggering the contractor's console re-entry.
HR Ops has access to a renewing contractor's contract amount; broader payroll-data fields are shown or hidden per contractor sub-type policy.
A contract end date that is missing or ambiguous alerts HR Ops instead of generating a renewal workflow.

new-hire-preboarding-console (sibling Feature): consumes this Feature's task rules and pre-boarding record creation to render the candidate's task list, and this Feature's contract-renewal trigger to invite the contractor's re-entry.
worker-document-management (Feature Set): the EDM whose document-status-label mechanism this Feature's contract-renewal workflow updates.

Risks¶

Risk	Severity	Mitigation
No ServiceNow scoped app is confirmed to host this workspace/task engine yet (Open Question 2 on the parent concept.md)	Medium	Resolve before implementation-plan.md is written — don't assume `x_novaw_corehcm` by default.
Contract-renewal payroll-data visibility depends on an open Ateko architecture review of contractor sub-types	Medium	Ship contract-amount visibility only; gate broader payroll fields behind the sub-type policy once confirmed.
Deterministic task rules across HR/IT/Payroll/Benefits owners span systems this Feature doesn't own (e.g. actual Okta provisioning, actual payroll direct-deposit setup)	Medium	Scope this Feature to task orchestration and status tracking, not to owning each downstream system's execution — confirm integration boundaries in implementation-plan.md.

Open Questions¶

Which ServiceNow scoped app (if any) hosts this workspace and task engine — see parent concept.md's Open Question 2.
What's the actual trigger/timeline for the ATS integration (SmartRecruiters) this Feature is preparing the endpoint for — see parent concept.md's Open Question 3.
What specific interface does the orchestration layer's event-bus pattern use to talk to the Document (EDM) and Payroll systems — not yet specified in the source PRD beyond naming the four agent roles.

For internal engineering review only.

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