Understand Talent Onboarding 

Last updated: July 9, 2026

After you send a proposed contract, the contract enters the onboarding workflow before work can begin.

The onboarding workflow consists of a series of stages that may require action from the talent, your organization, the Lifted Classification & Onboarding team, or the Lifted platform. The stages included in a particular onboarding, and the order in which they occur, depend on the engagement type and your organization's configured hiring workflow.

The contract remains in the onboarding workflow until all required stages have been completed successfully.

Onboarding Workflow

The following table describes the standard onboarding stages.

Stage

Description

Applies To

Review Proposed Contract

The talent reviews the proposed contract and decides whether to proceed.

All contracts

Identity Verification (IDV)

Confirms the talent's identity before work can begin, if required.

First contract only (if required)

Classification

Lifted determines the appropriate engagement classification for the contract.

AOR engagements

Pre-Contract Requirements

Additional compliance requirements may be completed before the contract proceeds.

Optional (AOR and IC engagements)

Review & Accept Contract Terms

The talent reviews and accepts the applicable agreements.

All contracts

Approvals

Additional client approvals may be required before the contract progresses.

Optional

Onboarding Requirements

Additional onboarding tasks may be required before work begins.

Optional

Note: Depending on your organization's configured workflow, additional stages may be included, some stages may be omitted, and the order of stages may vary.

Review Proposed Contract

The first stage allows the talent to review the proposed contract offer and decide whether to proceed.

The talent can:

  • Accept the proposed contract to continue the onboarding workflow.

  • Decline the proposed contract, ending the hiring process for that contract.

If the talent accepts the proposed contract offer, the workflow continues to the next required stage.

Identity Verification (IDV)

Identity Verification (IDV) confirms the talent's identity before they can begin work.

IDV is only required once. If the talent has previously completed IDV on the Lifted platform, or the requirement was waived because they migrated to Lifted with an active contract, this stage is automatically skipped.

If IDV is required:

  1. The talent is prompted to complete identity verification.

  2. The verification result is typically returned within a few minutes.

Possible outcomes include:

  • Verified – The workflow continues.

  • Failed – The onboarding workflow is blocked until the issue is resolved.

Classification

Classification is only required when the contract's engagement type is AOR.

During this stage, Lifted determines the appropriate worker classification for the engagement.

No action is required from the talent or your organization unless additional information is requested during the review by Lifted’s Classification & Onboarding team.

Once the classification process is complete, the resulting engagement type is displayed to both you and the talent and is used throughout the remainder of the contract lifecycle.

This classification onboarding step occurs only in AOR engagements. The worker classification of talent for all other engagement types will be handled differently depending on the engagement type you choose at the outset.

To learn more about classification, see Understand Classification.

Pre-Contract Requirements

For AOR and IC engagements, your organization may configure additional pre-contract requirements.

Examples include:

  • Background checks

  • Certificate of Insurance (COI) verification

  • Other compliance requirements

These activities are completed before the onboarding workflow continues.

Review & Accept Contract Terms

At this stage, the talent reviews the final contract details and accepts the required agreements before the contract can proceed.

Depending on the engagement type, the agreements may include:

  • Lifted Terms of Service

  • Lifted Eligibility Rules

  • Independent Contractor Agreement (ICA) for AOR engagements

  • Your organization's agreements for Independent Contractor (IC) engagements, if provided

Depending on your organization's hiring workflow, additional onboarding stages may be required before or after the talent accepts the contract terms.

Approvals

Your organization can configure one or more approval stages as part of the onboarding workflow.

Approvals may be required before the contract can progress to the next stage or before work can begin.

The workflow remains in the approval stage until all required approvals have been completed.

Onboarding Requirements

Your organization can configure additional onboarding requirements that must be completed before work begins.

These tasks may be assigned to the talent, your organization, the Lifted Compliance team, or multiple parties.

Examples include:

  • Company onboarding forms

  • Required training

  • Company policy acknowledgements

  • Additional documentation

  • System or equipment provisioning

  • Internal compliance or administrative tasks (e.g., background checks)

  • Other organization-specific onboarding tasks

The onboarding workflow continues only after all required tasks have been completed by the appropriate parties.

To learn more about onboarding workflow statuses, see 📄 Understand Onboarding Workflow Statuses