Purpose
Adding a prospective employee is the first step of every hire in UZIO. You create a lightweight record — name, gender, personal email — and then choose whether to send a formal offer letter for signature or move the person straight into onboarding. Nothing about payroll, benefits, or access is created yet; the prospect becomes a real employee record only when onboarding finishes.
Who can do this: Users whose role grants Hire Prospect, Send Offer Letter, and Run Background Checks, under Hiring and Termination in the role editor. The Employer Administrator has it by default. It is a separate permission from Prospect Onboarding, so a recruiter can be allowed to create prospects and send offers without being given the onboarding steps. See Understanding Roles and Access.
Use this when you have someone you intend to hire who has no UZIO record yet. Don't use it for a rehire — start from the existing employee record instead, so service dates and benefit eligibility carry over. Don't use it for a 1099 contractor — contractors are added in Payroll, see Managing Contractors.
Steps
- Employees > Prospective Employees tab > click Hire Prospect (above the grid).
- Enter the basics — Name, Gender, Personal Email — and Save and Continue.
- Choose: send an offer letter, or add without one.
With an offer letter:
| Page | What you do |
|---|---|
| Offer Details | Pick the offer letter template (from your Hiring Documents) and set the offer expiry date |
| Invitation Email | Customize the offer invitation email (defaults to your configured template) |
| Job Details | Date of Hire, Employment Type, Pay Type, Pay Frequency, a Special Hire flag (see the note below), plus any custom fields |
| Review | Final check, then send the offer |
Note: If your template or email uses Smart Fields, the referenced prospect fields must be filled before the offer can be shared.
Note — Special Hire is a benefits setting, not a job title. Marking a hire as a Special Hire applies a different benefits waiting period to them than your plan's standard rule — the usual reason is a negotiated day-one or shortened wait. It changes nothing about payroll, time tracking, or their offer letter; it only affects when their benefits eligibility begins. Leave it off unless benefits told you to set it. The flag follows the person onto their employee record and shows as Yes/No on census exports. See Benefits for how waiting periods work on your plans. (Flagged for a live screen check: the control's exact label and placement on the Job Details page are rendered by the Phix portal and are not verifiable from this workspace.)
Without an offer letter: after the basics you go straight to Job Details, then save — and immediately choose to onboard the prospect yourself, set up self-onboarding, or do it later.
Note — prospects created for you. If your company connects an applicant tracking system, prospects can appear on the list without anyone running this wizard. When a candidate is marked Hired in Greenhouse, UZIO creates the prospect in Draft status with whatever fields mapped successfully; a value that doesn't match one of your UZIO lists is left blank for you to fill in. If the incoming email matches an existing employee, UZIO flags a possible rehire instead of creating a duplicate.
What happens next
With an offer out, the prospect's status tracks the journey — Shared, Viewed, Accepted (they sign online), Rejected, or Expired if the expiry date passes (re-share to revive). Once accepted (or for no-offer prospects, immediately), the Onboard and Setup Self Onboarding actions appear against their name.
Common problems
The prospect never got the offer email
Check the personal email on the prospect record first — a wrong or stale address is by far the most common cause, and the invitation is sent to whatever is stored there. Then re-send from the prospect's action menu on the Overview tab; you can send to a new email address without recreating the record. See Per-prospect actions.
Why can't I share the offer?
A document containing Smart Fields can't be shared until every prospect field it references has a value — the letter would otherwise go out with gaps where the personalization should be. Fill in the missing details on the prospect record, then share again. See Smart Fields.
The offer expired before they signed
The status flips to Offer Expired on the expiry date. Nothing is lost — re-share the offer to revive it, and everything already entered on the record is kept. If you're routinely running out of time, set a longer expiry date when you build the offer.
Can I set a standard salary on the offer template?
No. Compensation is entered per prospect every time, because pay differs per hire. What you can templatize is the letter body, its Smart Fields, your custom fields, and the company signature — see Building Reusable Offer Letters and Hiring Documents.
I'm hiring someone who used to work here
Don't add them as a prospect. Start from their existing employee record so service dates and benefit eligibility carry over.
Related articles
- How Hiring Works in UZIO: From Offer to Employee Record
- Building Reusable Offer Letters and Hiring Documents
- Tracking Every Hire: Where Each Prospect Stands and What To Do Next
- Hiring from Greenhouse (ATS) — when prospects arrive on their own
- Prospect's view: Accepting Your Offer
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