As of 13 August 2026, AI can create a process for collecting new starter documents.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open your current onboarding, information security, retention and privacy policies, and copy the relevant sections into a working document without including any new starter's personal data.
   2. List the approved HR, payroll and document systems, the people responsible for requesting and checking documents, the secure submission channel and the deadlines your organisation uses.
   3. Paste those details into the prompt, ask the model to keep mandatory and conditional documents separate, and generate the process, email, checklist and status table.
   4. Open GOV.UK guidance on right-to-work checks and compare the drafted check steps against the current official guidance, marking every legal or policy point that needs HR confirmation.
   5. Ask your HR or data protection lead to confirm the document list, lawful collection route, access permissions, retention period, deletion method, exception handling and escalation owner.
   6. Replace any unapproved system names or invented requirements, then copy the approved email and checklist into your HR workflow and test the status table with a dummy starter record.
   7. Send the process for internal approval, publish it in the approved staff location and give new starters only the final secure collection instructions.

   Prompt

   Create a UK new starter document collection process for [organisation type] with [number or range of staff] and [remote, hybrid or office] working. Use the policy and system details below, and do not invent requirements, systems or legal conclusions.
   
   The process must cover:
   - what to collect before the start date, on the start date and after the start date;
   - identity and right-to-work checks, with a clear instruction to follow current GOV.UK guidance rather than copying legal rules from memory;
   - payroll and payment information;
   - emergency contact details;
   - DBS or other role-specific checks only where the role and our policy require them;
   - reasonable adjustment information, with an optional and privacy-conscious route;
   - who requests, receives, checks and approves each item;
   - deadlines, reminders, missing-document escalation and a final completion record;
   - the secure approved channel for sending documents, access controls, retention and deletion rules based on our stated policy;
   - a new starter email written in plain UK English;
   - a checklist and a simple status table that HR can use.
   
   Flag every item that needs confirmation by our HR or data protection lead. Separate mandatory items under our policy from conditional items. Do not ask new starters to email identity documents unless our stated policy explicitly permits it. Do not include sensitive personal data in the example fields. Make the result practical for a small UK employer and state where our own policy or current GOV.UK guidance must take priority.
   
   Organisation and policy details:
   [Paste approved HR, onboarding, information security and retention policies here]
   
   Systems and roles:
   [Name the approved HR, payroll and document systems, and the roles responsible for each step]
   
   Current collection method and deadlines:
   [Describe the approved secure channel, timing and escalation rules]
   
   Return the answer with these headings: assumptions to confirm, process overview, document matrix, step-by-step procedure, new starter email, HR checklist, status table, privacy and security controls, exceptions and escalation, and approval questions.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.