--- title: "Tutorial: pre-boarding to a personal email" description: Build a pre-boarding automation that reaches new starters at their personal address in the week before they begin, and nudges their manager to be ready on day one. sidebar: order: 1 area: flows feature: automations appPath: /flows/home lastVerified: 2026-10-22 version: "2026-10-16" audience: admin related: - flows/automations/configure-a-date-trigger - flows/automations/set-the-audience - flows/automations/handle-late-enrollments - flows/steps intercom: - id: "12691830" title: How to Set up the First Day (Onboarding) Flow (Pyn 2) url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/12691830-how-to-set-up-the-first-day-onboarding-flow-pyn-2 note: draws on - id: "16729197" title: When a start date changes after someone is enrolled (Pyn 2) url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16729197-when-a-start-date-changes-after-someone-is-enrolled-pyn-2 note: draws on - id: "8563275" title: Send to Personal Email Address url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8563275-send-to-personal-email-address note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference" --- **Goal:** every new starter hears from you before day one, at an address they can read, and their manager has a checklist in hand. **Time:** about 40 minutes. **You will end up with** one automation, **Pre-boarding**, with four email steps: three to the new starter's personal address and one to their manager. [Video: Pre-boarding: trigger, audience and the first email step.](https://support.pynhq.com/media/flows/automations/flows-automations-tutorial-pre-boarding.mp4) ## Before you start - Your HRIS sync provides **Personal Email Address** and **Start Date**. Open a recent joiner in **Directory** to check both fields are filled. Without a personal address, a step to **Employee (Personal)** has no valid recipient and is marked invalid. - An email sender is connected under **Settings** > **General** > **Senders**: your People team's Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 mailbox, or a verified email sender. - You are an admin or owner. ## Chapter 1: create the automation with the Pre-onboarding trigger The **Pre-onboarding** trigger runs on **Start Date**, starts **1 week before** and keeps watching through the start date itself. That window is what makes it reliable: a record that reaches your HRIS only three days before someone starts is still picked up, and the steps already due send straight away. 1. In Pyn, open **Flows** in the left navigation, then **Automations**, and select **Create New**. 2. Under **Employee Lifecycle**, select **Pre-onboarding** ("Prepare the employee prior to starting employment."). The editor opens with the trigger drawer on **Configure**. 3. Select the title **(Untitled)** at the top left and type `Pre-boarding`. 4. On **Configure**, leave **This flow starts** at **1 week before** and the recurrence at **just once**. The reference date for every step is the start date. ## Chapter 2: set the audience to joiners Before their start date, people are in the **Joiner** lifecycle stage, not **Current**. An audience without Joiner enrols nobody. 1. Select the **Audience** tab in the trigger drawer. 2. Under **Lifecycle**, select **Joiner**. Add **Current** too, so someone whose start date was corrected to today is still enrolled. 3. Under **Excluded**, add any groups that should not receive the sequence, for example a **Contractor** demographic group if your HRIS provides one. 4. Check **Audience Preview**. It lists everyone in those stages and groups today, which for a healthy workspace is your upcoming joiners. ## Chapter 3: write the three messages to the new starter Each step is **Send Email to Employee** with the recipient **Employee (Personal)**. That option appears only on email steps, because Pyn cannot reach a personal address over Slack or Teams. 1. Select **Add a step**, then **Send Email to Employee** under **Communication**. 2. In the step drawer, set the sender to your People team mailbox, set **To** to **Employee (Personal)**, and set the schedule to **1 week before** the reference date at **09:00** in the **Recipient Timezone**. 3. Title the step `Welcome and what to expect`. For the subject, type `Welcome to @company.name, @principal.preferredName`. A message a good People team would send: > Hi @principal.preferredName, > > We are so pleased you are joining us on @principal.startDate. Over the next week you will get a couple of short emails from us at this address: what to bring, where to go and who will meet you. > > Your manager is @manager.preferredName. They will be in touch before your first day, and they are the right person for any question about your role or team. > > If anything about your start date or paperwork changes, reply to this email and we will sort it out. > > See you soon, > The People Team 4. Add a second **Send Email to Employee** step to **Employee (Personal)**, scheduled **3 days before** at 09:00, titled `Your first day plan`. Cover the practical things: arrival time and address (or the video call link), what to bring for identity checks, dress code, where to collect equipment, and lunch. Open the step's **Advanced** tab and turn on **Skip if overdue at enrollment**: a first-day plan that arrives after the first day is noise, so a late enrollment skips it. 5. Add a third step to **Employee (Personal)**, scheduled **the day before** at 15:00, titled `See you tomorrow`. Keep it to four lines: the time, the place, the name of the person meeting them, and a warm sign-off. > **Tip:** Select the preview icon in the editor toolbar, pick an upcoming joiner, and use **Send a test to yourself**. The test uses that person's data, so you see exactly how the tokens resolve. ## Chapter 4: nudge the manager 1. Select **Add a step**, then **Send Email to Employee**. 2. Set **To** to **Manager**, schedule it **1 week before** at 09:00, and title it `@principal.preferredName starts in a week`. 3. Write the checklist, for example: > Hi @manager.preferredName, > > @principal.preferredName joins your team on @principal.startDate. Three things to do this week: > > 1. Confirm their laptop and accounts are requested. > 2. Book a 30-minute welcome for 9:30 on their first morning and a lunch with the team. > 3. Send them a short personal note; their personal address is on their profile in Pyn. > > Pyn has already sent them our welcome email and will send the first-day plan three days out. 4. Add a button or acknowledgement to the message and open **Reminders** to add a reminder **2 days after send**, so a manager who has not actioned it is nudged once. ## Chapter 5: publish, verify, then automate 1. Select **Publish**. 2. Select the mode button, then **Change Mode**, then **Verification**. 3. Over the next week, open **Activity** > **Enrollments** > **Needs Review** as joiners are enrolled. Open one, select **Verify**, read the four messages with their dates, and select **Unpause**. 4. When two or three have gone out as you intended, return to the automation, select the mode button, **Change Mode**, then **Automated**. ## What you should see Each upcoming joiner appears under **Enrollments** with their start date as **Reference Date** and four steps: three to their personal address and one to their manager. A joiner whose record arrived late shows the welcome delivered within minutes of enrollment, the first-day plan skipped, and the remaining steps on their dates. ## Next steps - Add a **Start of Onboarding** automation for the first day and first weeks, to the work address this time, and attach both to the **Pre-onboarding** and **First day** moments on your [Journey](https://support.pynhq.com/journey/) map. - Add the buddy nomination from the [Buddy programme](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/tutorial-buddy-programme/) tutorial as a step to the manager. - Read [Handle late enrollments](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/handle-late-enrollments/) for the other ways to treat overdue steps. ## Related - [Configure a date trigger](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/configure-a-date-trigger/) for offsets and windows. - [Set the audience for an automation](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/set-the-audience/) for lifecycle stages. - [Handle late enrollments](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/handle-late-enrollments/) for Skip if overdue at enrollment. - [Steps and messages](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/) for senders, tokens, reminders and previews. ## Related Intercom articles - [How to Set up the First Day (Onboarding) Flow (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/12691830-how-to-set-up-the-first-day-onboarding-flow-pyn-2) — draws on - [When a start date changes after someone is enrolled (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16729197-when-a-start-date-changes-after-someone-is-enrolled-pyn-2) — draws on - [Send to Personal Email Address](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8563275-send-to-personal-email-address) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference