How to onboard a new user in SharePoint with reusable role templates

Video chapters

1. 0:00 Introduction
2. 0:20 Kristine has no access yet
3. 0:43 Tasks > Grant access
4. 1:04 Pick the sites
5. 1:10 Pick the new hire
6. 1:23 Set the role: Member through each site's Members group
7. 1:36 Save the "Full-time staff" access template
8. 1:49 Save a "Contractor" access template
9. 2:01 Choose a role from your templates
10. 2:15 Save the job as a template
11. 2:30 Run it: added to the Members groups
12. 2:48 Add or replace a site collection administrator
13. 3:03 Pick the sites and the admin account
14. 3:27 Save the second template to the same folder
15. 3:40 Run it: admin on both sites
16. 3:49 Next hire: Load from template
17. 4:06 Swap in the new person
18. 4:23 Check the result in SharePoint
19. 4:46 Wrap-up

Full transcript

0:00 Thanks for joining. Before we begin, just a disclaimer: this video was written by the Cognillo team, and this voice-over was AI-generated. In this video, we'll onboard a new employee to SharePoint, and save the access for their role as templates, so the next full-time hire or contractor gets the same access in a couple of clicks.

0:20 Kristine Hosmillo has just joined as a full-time project lead. On the Architecture Knowledge Base site, she isn't a site collection administrator. And Check Permissions confirms it. She has no real access yet, only limited access through Everyone except external users, so she can't open or edit anything on this site.

0:43 In SharePoint Essentials Toolkit, go to Tasks, and open the Grant access area. Add user puts people into groups on many sites at once. Add administrator and Remove or replace admin manage site collection administrators. And Clone user permissions is the alternative: copy everything an existing colleague has to the new hire. We'll start with Add user.

1:04 Tick the sites this role needs: here, ACME and the Architecture Knowledge Base.

1:10 Click Pick accounts, search for the new hire, Kristine Hosmillo, and click Next. The summary shows what the job will do.

1:23 On the Access tab, set the rule for every site. Full-time staff get Member, which is Edit, through each site's SharePoint Members group. The table below shows exactly which group they'll join on each site.

1:36 Now save this as an access template: a role you can reuse. Call it Full-time staff, add a short description, and save. The job is now using that template.

1:49 Let's add a second role while we're here. Detach from the template, switch the role to Visitor for read-only access, and save it as Contractor, so contractors can see content without changing it.

2:01 Change template lists every role you've saved, Full-time staff and Contractor. Pick Full-time staff for Kristine. The rule and the per-site groups come straight from the template, so every hire in this role gets exactly the same access.

2:15 Next, save the whole job as a template, sites included. Click Save as template, go up to the Job Templates folder, and create a folder for this role: Onboarding, Full-time staff. Name the file 1, Grant access, and save.

2:30 Click Run now. The job works through each site, and in a few seconds the report shows Kristine has been added to the ACME Members group, and the Architecture Knowledge Base Members group. Each row tells you exactly what changed, and where.

2:48 Project leads also administer their sites. Back in Grant access, Remove or replace admin swaps one site collection administrator for another, which is handy when a new hire takes over from someone. Here, we just need Add administrator.

3:03 Pick the sites where the role needs full control: the Architecture Knowledge Base, and Architecture Network. Click Pick accounts, search for Kristine, and click Next. On the Accounts tab, she's listed as the administrator to add on each selected site. Site collection administrators get full control of the whole site, so only add them where the role really needs it.

3:27 Save this as a template too. Go up a level, and open the same Onboarding, Full-time staff folder. The first template is already there. Name this one 2, Site collection admin.

3:40 Run it, and the report confirms Kristine is now a site collection administrator on both sites.

3:49 The next time you hire a full-time project lead, open the task, and click Load from template. The Onboarding, Full-time staff folder has both templates, ready to use. Open one, and keep the sites it saved, so you don't have to pick them again.

4:06 Then swap in the new person's account, here Barbara Connell, and the job is ready to run. Do the same with the Grant access template, and the new hire has the whole role in minutes.

4:23 Back in SharePoint, Check Permissions now shows Kristine has Edit through the Members group, plus the full set of site collection administrator rights. She's in the Architecture Knowledge Base Members group, and she's listed as a site collection administrator.

4:46 Thanks for watching. Build a role once, as access templates and job templates in one folder, and onboarding every new employee or contractor becomes repeatable. And if you have any questions, email hello at cognillo dot com.

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