What a new starter has to be given
The contract is only part of the pack. Under the Fair Work Act, every new employee has to be given the Fair Work Information Statement (section 125), every new casual has to be given the Casual Employment Information Statement as well (sections 125A and 125B), and anyone on a fixed term contract has to be given the Fixed Term Contract Information Statement. Use the current versions: the statements are revised, and the Fair Work Information Statement was last reworked to cover the casual employment changes and the right to disconnect.
Those statements are handed over rather than signed. What you want is proof they were handed over, on a date, along with the contract that was signed. Sending the whole pack as one request gives you that in a single record.
Keeping the record for seven years
Employee records have to be kept for seven years under section 535 of the Fair Work Act and regulations 3.31 to 3.44, they have to be legible and in English, and they have to be produced for an inspector or for the employee. The obligation does not end when the employee does.
There is a sharper reason to keep good records than the record-keeping penalty itself. Where an employer has not kept the records it should have, the burden can shift: the employer may have to disprove an underpayment claim rather than the employee having to prove it. A signed contract with a completion certificate showing who signed, when, and exactly which version of the document they signed is worth having on that day.
Build the pack once
Onboarding is the same document set every time with a different name on it. Save the request as a template, with the roles set up as New employee and Hiring manager and the fields already placed, and each new starter takes about a minute to send. Automatic reminders follow up with anyone who has not yet signed.
Get the offer approved before it goes out
An offer usually needs approval before it reaches the candidate: the hiring manager, HR, and the finance lead if the salary is above a band. In Refrendo those approvals are steps in the same request as the signature, so the offer cannot reach the candidate before the people who need to agree have agreed, and the whole chain sits on one record.
Beyond the first day
The same pattern covers the rest of the employment lifecycle: annual code of conduct acknowledgements, policy updates that everyone has to confirm they have read, variations to hours or pay, individual flexibility arrangements, confidentiality agreements, and the paperwork at the end. Every one of those is a document one person sends and many people sign.
Not all of them need a signature. For a policy someone only has to read, add them as someone who needs to view it: they open it, take their turn, and confirm they have reviewed it, and the certificate records when. See policy acknowledgements. Add HR as someone who receives a copy, and the finished document reaches them without their being asked to do anything while it is open.
What you end up with
A signed PDF and a completion certificate for each employee, listing who signed, when, how they were identified, and SHA-256 fingerprints of the document before and after. If a contract is disputed, the certificate shows which version was signed.
This is general information, not legal or workplace relations advice. Employment obligations change, so check the current requirements with the Fair Work Ombudsman or your adviser.