Onboarding Workflow
Application to 90-day evaluation for Primary Therapists, Group Therapists and Case Managers. Christina, Executive Director of Workforce Development, owns the sequence end to end. Everyone else supplies a decision or a clearance and hands it back.
Reviewed October 2026
The five things that cannot slip
Everything else in this document is sequence. These five are the process. Each one needs evidence Christina can point to, not a recollection.
Does not apply to Case Managers, who are certified rather than licensed.
Group Therapists run groups rather than carrying a caseload. Both gates still apply before they take a group.
Counted from the agreed start date, for every role.
The sequence
Read top to bottom. The left column is the clock. Green bars are gates: the process does not advance until the condition is true.
Christina owns candidate momentum from the moment an application arrives.
Application received
Indeed or email application for Primary Therapist, Group Therapist or Case Manager.
First outreach
Send the Indeed message. If contact information is available, use the best available channel to schedule a phone screen.
Escalate channels
Voice call, then email, then one final voice call plus message. Log every attempt.
Close the inactive candidate
If there is still no response, decline and remove the candidate from the active Indeed pipeline.
Phone screen: four things to settle
- Potential organizational fit
- Relevant experience, communication, role interest, location/site, availability, compensation alignment, likely fit with organizational expectations.
Next: place on the Clinical Director's calendar within 2 business days. - Licensure readiness
- Current credential, state, independent vs associate/eligible status, required license pathway, likely supervisor needs.
Next: flag the licensure pathway now. Do not wait until the start date. - Start-date reality
- Notice period of 2 weeks or 30 days, relocation, or other timing constraints.
Next: carry the timeline into interview planning and the eventual offer. - Not a fit
- Objective disposition reason and communication status.
Next: close the candidate in Indeed. HR does not need to be looped in.
A qualified, responsive candidate is scheduled with the Clinical Director, and Christina has documented licensure status and realistic availability.
The Clinical Director decides. Christina controls the handoff. Declines never enter HR's queue.
Clinical Director interview
Christina places the candidate on the Clinical Director's calendar within 2 business days of the phone screen.
Decision within 10 minutes of the call ending
The Clinical Director tells Christina one of three things: decline, move to offer and clearance, or schedule an additional interview.
What each decision triggers
- Decline
- Christina closes the loop with the candidate and removes them from Indeed.
HR involvement: none. - Additional interview
- Christina schedules the in-person or additional interview, preserves candidate engagement and collects the next decision.
HR involvement: loop in immediately. The candidate is viable and may proceed. - Ready to move forward
- Christina initiates the HR handoff immediately and continues tracking the candidate experience.
HR involvement: begin the state-specific process, background check and UDS.
The Clinical Director has given a decision, and Christina has acted on it. Only move forward and additional interview pass this gate into HR.
HR owns employment clearance. Christina owns visibility and the candidate relationship while it runs.
Employment clearance
- State-specific hiring steps
- Background check
- UDS (drug screen)
- Clearance determination
Hold the thread while HR works
- Place deadlines and appointments on her calendar
- Follow up with the candidate alongside HR
- Check HR status every other day
- Maintain full visibility until both results clear
Offer drafted and routed
Site HR drafts the offer after clearance and routes it to Carson McCall, Natasha Arenas, the Clinical Director and Christina. The offer includes compensation and a tentative start date.
Background check and UDS are cleared, the offer is accepted, and the agreed start date reflects the candidate's notice and relocation needs.
Begins the moment the offer is signed. Christina owns this phase end to end. The Clinical Director and HR verify, but never take it over.
Identify the license path
Confirm credential and state requirements from the resume and phone screen, then take one of two routes.
- Independently licensed
- LCSW/LISW, LPCC/LMHC/LPC where the credential is independently licensed in that state. Verify the active license. No associate licensure or supervision application is required.
- Not independently licensed
- Immediately connect the candidate with the appropriate contracted supervisor and begin the application.
Connect the candidate to the contracted supervisor
Immediately after the signed offer and before the start date. The supervisor may invoice for pre-start support time.
Complete and submit the licensure or supervision application
Must be submitted before the employee's first day.
Verify the application is pending
Board verification, candidate screenshot, supervisor confirmation or equivalent third-party evidence.
Monitor license issuance
Check the board every business day after the employee starts. Document checks and board contacts in a weekly status update.
Ask and verify, do not take over
Secondary checks confirm status. They do not assume ownership of Christina's process.
Licensure reimbursement has not been finalized. Until leadership approves a policy, Christina tells candidates that applying before the start date is required, but does not promise reimbursement. Suggested decision point: reimbursement after successful completion of 90 days, subject to written policy.
Independent license verified, or the associate licensure application is submitted and verifiably pending before day 1. Christina can state the exact status without asking anyone else.
HR establishes the employee. Christina validates job readiness. The Clinical Director then leads day-to-day supervision.
Establish the employee
Complete Slack, email, Relias, required DBT setup and training, and other site onboarding. Schedule suicide-risk and LOCUS training with Hailie Kennedy.
Relias must be complete by the end of week 1.
HR hands the employee back
HR alerts Christina when required week-1 onboarding is complete. Christina then sends the correct role checklist: Primary Therapist, Group Therapist or Case Manager.
Shadowing and the role-specific checklist
Complete shadowing and the role-specific checklist within 3 business days. Christina records completion.
1. The required license has been issued and verified.
2. The role-specific shadowing and checklist were completed within the 3-business-day window.
Go: Christina confirms both. The Clinical Director assigns the first client, or releases a Group Therapist to take groups, and assumes the lead for routine clinical and administrative supervision.
Routine schedule and workflow
Guide the employee through normal administrative and clinical supervision, including schedule workflow and site expectations.
Scheduling training for Primary Therapists
Primary Therapists only. Meet once after receiving a client to learn a successful schedule, family-session scheduling and related workflow. Additional support is available up to 4 total meetings if needed.
Group Therapists and Case Managers need no Hailie scheduling meeting unless separately directed. The Clinical Director covers them.
The clock begins when the employee has carried a client for 30 days, not 30 days after hire. This stage ends the process.
Documentation training begins
Christina's calendar reminder triggers. She connects the employee with Natashah Khan for documentation training.
Documentation training and performance supervision
Natashah Khan trains and evaluates documentation. The Clinical Director continues direct performance supervision. Concerns are surfaced early, not saved for day 85. Day 85 and day 90 are counted from the agreed start date, for every role, whether or not they carry a caseload.
Readiness inputs reach the decision-makers
Natashah Khan submits a concise readiness summary. The Clinical Director adds performance feedback. Christina confirms the decision meeting and communication.
The 90-day evaluation
Graduate the employee or make a final employment decision. Preserve at least 5 business days for review when significant concerns exist.
Graduate
Required inputs- Natashah Khan: documentation readiness
- Clinical Director: clinical, administrative and culture performance
- Christina: process completion and outstanding requirements
Confirm successful completion of the 90-day onboarding period and transition to standard development and performance processes.
Serious concerns
Required inputs- Specific, documented deficiencies and prior coaching
- Input from Natashah Khan and the Clinical Director
Escalate no later than day 85 so leadership and HR have at least 5 business days to review and decide before day 90.
The HR track, start to finish
The same HR steps pulled out of the timeline and put in order, so HR can see its whole involvement on one screen without reading the rest. HR enters once, works a defined block, hands back, and is only called again at escalation.
Human Resources
Runs the state-specific employment process, clearance and first-week systems. Reports completion to Christina at every handoff.
Who owns what
One accountable owner per milestone. Checks are welcome. Ownership does not move.
CHRISTINA
CLINICAL DIRECTOR
HR
CHRISTINA
HR
CHRISTINA
CLINICAL DIRECTOR
CHRISTINA COORDINATES
Source: Clinical Team Member Onboarding operational workflow, with two corrections applied: the documentation lead is Natashah Khan, and the week-1 compliance platform is Relias. One name is still unconfirmed: Natasha Arenas appears only on offer routing. If that is also Natashah Khan, it needs to change in one place.