Onboarding Specialist

The Onboarding Specialist is responsible for delivering a consistent, welcoming, and compliant onboarding experience for new team members across Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia & the CSRA (GIMG), Helms College, and Edgars Hospitality Group. This role manages the employee journey from accepted offer through successful transition into active employment, ensuring new hires are prepared, connected to the organization’s mission, and equipped to succeed in their roles. As a member of the Talent Development team, the Onboarding Specialist serves as a key liaison among candidates, hiring managers, Human Resources, Payroll, Information Technology, and operational leaders. The position coordinates pre-employment requirements, orientation logistics, new-hire communications, employment documentation, and initial system access while maintaining a high standard of service, accuracy, confidentiality, and regulatory compliance. The Onboarding Specialist also owns core HRIS administration and data-management responsibilities. This includes entering, maintaining, auditing, and updating employee records; processing personnel transactions; supporting employee-status changes; generating workforce and compliance reports; and ensuring data integrity across GIMG’s human-resources systems. The role identifies opportunities to improve onboarding workflows, strengthen the employee experience, reduce time-to-productivity, and provide leaders with reliable workforce data for decision-making.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & CORE COMPETENCIES

• Coordinate the end-to-end onboarding process for new hires across GIMG, Helms College, and Edgar’s Hospitality Group, from accepted offer through completion of the introductory employment period.

• Serve as the primary onboarding contact for candidates and new hires, providing clear, timely, professional communication regarding next steps, required documentation, orientation, work schedules, benefits, policies, and first-day expectations.

• Prepare and distribute offer-related, pre-employment, and onboarding materials in partnership with Talent Acquisition and Human Resources.

• Monitor completion of required pre-employment activities, including background checks, drug screens when applicable, employment eligibility verification, references, credentialing, licensing, and other position-specific requirements.

• Coordinate new-hire orientation schedules, materials, presenters, facilities, technology, and attendance records.

• Deliver or support orientation content that introduces employees to GIMG’s mission, values, culture, safety expectations, policies, benefits, and resources.

• Partner with hiring managers to ensure new employees have confirmed start dates, work locations, schedules, job expectations, technology access, uniforms or equipment, and appropriate first-day support.

• Create and maintain accurate employee records in the HRIS, applicant-tracking system, learning-management system, payroll system, and other assigned HR technology platforms.

• Process personnel actions and HRIS transactions, including new hires, rehires, transfers, promotions, manager changes, department changes, pay changes, leaves, status changes, and separations.

• Conduct routine HRIS and employee-record audits to identify missing, inaccurate, outdated, or inconsistent information and resolve discrepancies promptly.

• Maintain electronic personnel files and onboarding records in accordance with organizational policy, record-retention requirements, and applicable federal and state regulations.

• Prepare recurring and ad hoc reports related to headcount, new-hire activity, turnover, onboarding completion, employee demographics, employment status, compliance documentation, and other workforce metrics.

• Support payroll, benefits, compliance, and finance teams by providing accurate employee data and timely updates that affect pay, eligibility, deductions, reporting, or employment status.

• Track onboarding metrics, including time from offer acceptance to start date, pre-employment completion rates, orientation attendance, new-hire retention, and early-tenure engagement.

• Identify opportunities to streamline workflows, improve data accuracy, enhance new-hire communication, and strengthen the overall onboarding experience.

• Assist with HR compliance activities, including I-9 documentation, personnel-file audits, reporting requirements, and preparation for internal or external audits.

• Protect confidential employee, candidate, compensation, medical, and organizational information in accordance with policy and applicable law.

• Provide administrative and project support to the Talent Development and Human Resources teams as assigned.

• Demonstrate core values of Goodwill Industries by modeling service, ownership, accountability, and respect.