Customer Stories 
Summary
The period between offer acceptance and day one provides an immense opportunity to engage new hires and build an early connection with the organization’s culture. Yet, DHL was struggling to fully leverage this crucial window, mainly due to a disconnect between its talent acquisition and core HR systems.
Making the most of Avature’s configurability, the global logistics giant built an automated and fully branded preboarding process that significantly reduced manual data entry and alleviated HR workload. This contributed to an impressive 50 percent reduction in the time required to complete a new hire record. The process also delivered a consistent, professional experience to every new hire, setting the stage for long-term employee engagement.
About DHL
DHL is the world’s leading logistics company, operating in over 220 countries and territories. With a broad international portfolio that spans express delivery, e-commerce, global forwarding and freight, post and parcel services and integrated supply chain solutions, DHL connects people and businesses around the globe. Backed by a dedicated workforce of over 600,000 employees, DHL plays a critical role in enabling global trade and keeping markets seamlessly connected.
The Challenge: Leaving Behind a Disjointed Preboarding Experience
Before overhauling its preboarding journey, DHL identified a significant gap between offer acceptance and day one. With no formal preboarding process in place, new hires often went weeks without communication from the company. This silence wasn’t just a missed opportunity for early engagement; it also delayed critical logistical preparations, such as equipment delivery or IT access. As a result, momentum was lost at a key stage, impacting the new hire’s readiness to hit the ground running.
The fact that we only had contact with the new employees on the first day of work meant that a lot of time elapsed that we could have used effectively for employee engagement and onboarding. So it wasn’t a positive experience for the employee either.”
Felix Breickmann
Product Owner, DHL
The root of the issue lay in DHL’s disconnected systems. Recruitment was managed through Avature ATS, while employee records were handled in its core HR system. Prior to optimizing the process, information collected during recruitment wasn’t transferred automatically. Instead, HR teams had to manually re-enter all candidate data, a time-consuming and error-prone process. This disjointed workflow was not only inefficient but also undermined data integrity, leading to inconsistencies, duplicates and a lack of standardization.
One of the most visible consequences of this disconnect was the delayed creation of employee IDs. These IDs act as a gateway for new hires to access internal platforms and receive their equipment. But because the IDs could only be generated after HR had manually set up a profile in the core HR system, the entire process was pushed to the employee’s first day. This meant new employees often arrived to find their laptops, logins or access to systems not yet ready, creating operational bottlenecks and undermining early engagement.
We had too little automation and therefore too many manual activities, and the process was inefficient.”
Felix Breickmann
Product Owner, DHL
These operational issues were compounded by scale. DHL operates in a high-volume environment, with tens of thousands of new employees onboarding annually. What might seem like minor inefficiencies—manual entry, double work, fragmented data—quickly snowballed into major productivity drains when multiplied across such a vast workforce. This made operational efficiency not just a goal, but a necessity.
Efficiency is also key. If we can save just 30 seconds per pre-hire, then this means a lot if you scale and multiply it by 150,000.”
Felix Breickmann
Product Owner, DHL
The Solution: An Automated, Seamless Preboarding Journey
While DHL has longer-term plans to develop a fully integrated, global onboarding solution, there was a pressing need to deliver immediate improvements to the preboarding experience. Rather than waiting for a large-scale overhaul, they chose a continuous improvement approach. Leveraging Avature’s configurability and their own internal expertise, they set out to create a practical interim solution that could deliver real value in the short term.
Designed and deployed autonomously by the HR team, the solution comprises three essential components: a personalized landing page for new hires, automated workflows to reduce manual HR tasks and seamless data integration into the core HR system.
- Personalized landing page for new hires
As soon as a candidate accepts an offer, they automatically receive a unique link to an “Information Update” landing page via email, SMS or WhatsApp. Available in 20 languages and fully customized with DHL’s branding, this page dynamically adapts to collect the right data based on variables such as job type, location or nationality, ensuring relevance and compliance. - Automated workflow
Using workflow automation, the system sends timely reminders to new hires who haven’t yet submitted their information, reducing manual follow-ups by recruiters. Once the new employee completes this step, their data is automatically prepared for transfer to the core HR system, governed by logic-based conditions. For instance, if the new hire’s start date is within 30 days, the data is sent immediately; otherwise, it’s scheduled to transfer exactly 30 days before the first day of work. - Seamless integration and early ID creation
Once the data reaches the core HR system, a pending worker record is created and the employee ID is generated. Avature then retrieves this ID through a shared data hub and stores it back in the employee file. This early ID creation enables key administrative actions, such as equipment provisioning and access to DHL’s systems, to happen well before day one, resulting in a smoother, more engaging preboarding experience.
The Impact: Faster Processes, Better Data, Smoother Experiences
The implementation of DHL’s new preboarding process brought measurable improvements across efficiency, data quality and the employee experience. By automating critical steps and ensuring seamless data flow between systems, the organization was able to streamline operations at scale.
Operational Efficiency
- Seventy-five percent reduction in time spent collecting pre-hire information, dropping from two hours to a quick review.
- HR administrative time required to complete a new hire profile was cut by 50 percent—from 4 minutes 40 seconds to just 2 minutes 10 seconds—thanks to system integrations that auto-fill key fields.
Data accuracy and standardization
- Elimination of manual data entry reduced the risk of errors and inconsistencies.
- Seamless data transfer from the ATS to the core HR system improved data integrity and minimized duplication, delivering significant time and cost savings.
Candidate experience and engagement
- New hires are set up in relevant systems prior to day one, giving them early access to tools and information and driving engagement.
- The ability for candidates to enter their own data reduced repetitive tasks for both HR and new hires.
Conclusion
DHL’s investment in a preboarding process didn’t just reduce administrative burden. In fact, it fundamentally improved how new hires transition into the company. By turning a pain point into a strategic advantage, they set a new standard for operational efficiency and candidate engagement, creating a process that’s scalable, accurate and human-centered.
Looking ahead, DHL plans to expand the solution further by rolling out a comprehensive onboarding solution, including an enhanced preboarding portal that allows new hires to review previously submitted data, provide additional information and upload and complete legal documentation ahead of time. Features like integrated e-signature capabilities are also on the roadmap, aiming to streamline compliance and ensure all necessary information is accurately captured.
These planned enhancements reflect DHL’s commitment to continuous improvement and its strategic vision of building a single, high-impact talent ecosystem that supports both operational excellence and exceptional employee experiences.
