Oscar is BrightPay’s employee onboarding AI assistant tool that lets you collect new starter information quickly and securely, directly from your employees. Instead of manually chasing forms and entering data yourself, you can send an onboarding invitation and your employee enters their own details online. These details then flow straight into BrightPay for you to review and approve.

What is Oscar?

Oscar is an integrated onboarding feature in BrightPay and the BrightPay Client Portal. It allows you (or your clients, if you are a bureau) to:

• Create an onboarding request for a new employee
• Automatically send the employee an email and WhatsApp invitation
• Let the employee securely enter their own personal and employment details online
• Review and approve the information in BrightPay before the employee is set up on the payroll

Oscar helps reduce data entry, improves accuracy and provides a simple, modern experience for new starters.

How does Oscar work?

1. Create an onboarding request

In BrightPay, go to Employees > Employee Onboarding and select Onboard New Employee.
To start the onboarding process, you enter some basic details: first name, surname, job title, start date, mobile number and email address. You can also add notes such as pay details if required.

You then review the information on a summary screen and select Create Onboarding Request. A deadline is automatically set for two weeks’ time, but this can be edited.

2. Employee receives an invitation

When you create the onboarding request, Oscar sends:

• An email to the employee
• A WhatsApp message with a link to start the onboarding process

The employee is advised by email that they will receive a WhatsApp message to complete their details.

3. Employee completes their details

The onboarding request appears in BrightPay (and, if enabled, in the Client Portal) with the status In Progress. The employee uses the link in their WhatsApp message to enter their information securely.

If an employee deletes their email or WhatsApp message in error, you can resend the invitation at any time.

4. Review and approve in BrightPay

Once the employee submits their details, you receive an email notification to let you know that an onboarding request needs to be approved. In BrightPay, the status of the onboarding request changes to Review now on the Employee Onboarding screen.

You can then review the information, make any necessary updates and complete the process of setting the employee up on the payroll.

Managing onboarding requests

From the Employee Onboarding screen in BrightPay, you can manage each request using the spanner icon opposite the employee’s name. This allows you to:

• Resend invitation – if the employee deletes or does not receive the email or WhatsApp message.
• Cancel – if the onboarding request is no longer required or if an incorrect phone number was entered.
• Edit onboarding details – update items such as the deadline date, start date or employee email address while the request is in progress.

This gives you full control over each onboarding request from within BrightPay.

Using Oscar through the Client Portal

If you use the BrightPay Client Portal, your clients can also onboard employees themselves, once you give them permission.

To enable this in BrightPay, go to:
Employer > Client Portal > Settings

• Ensure the relevant users are set up to access the employer on the Client Portal
• Under Permissions, tick Enable employee onboarding for
• Choose whether to allow this for all users or super users only
• Select Save

When a user logs into the Client Portal with this permission, they will see an Employee Onboarding option under the Employees section, and can create onboarding requests in the same way as in BrightPay.

Pricing

Oscar is currently available free of charge, but there will be an additional cost to use this feature in BrightPay in the future.

Summary

Oscar is BrightPay’s built-in solution for onboarding new employees. It:

• Sends automated invitations via email and WhatsApp
• Lets employees enter their own information securely
• Notifies you when an onboarding request is ready to review
• Can be used both in BrightPay and via the Client Portal (with permissions)

This helps you streamline your onboarding process, reduce manual data entry and provide a better experience for new starters.