Employment status and probation
Employment status records whether someone has started, is active, is suspended, or has left. Probation is a separate decision. Choose the action that matches the actual employment situation and review its effects before confirming.
Access needed
Access depends on your assigned permissions and workflow scope.
- Open employee records
employees.readPersonal information, compensation and history have additional requirements below.
Role and permission labels
Typical responsibility: HR or authorized reader. Role names alone do not grant access.
- Read employee records
- Change status, terminate employment or decide probation
employees.status.manageCurrent status, dates, required reasons and pre-hire constraints still apply.
Role and permission labels
Typical responsibility: HR administrator. Role names alone do not grant access.
- Manage employment status and probation
Demo screenshots may show broader access than your account.
Before you start
Find the employee and verify their employee number. Open the full record, then Settings. Status and probation actions require permission to manage employee status; ordinary edit access alone is not enough.
Confirm the decision and dates through your organization's HR process first. The screenshots below show unsaved previews for a fictional employee.
Understand the statuses
| Status | Meaning and effect |
|---|---|
| Pre Hire | A future starter who has not begun employment. Only the permitted activation and hire-withdrawal actions are available. |
| Active | Employment is active. Resuming a leaver clears their termination and notice-end dates and is subject to the workspace employee limit. |
| Suspended | Employment is temporarily suspended. The employee still occupies a seat and retains their reporting relationships. |
| Contract Ended | Records the end of a contract and its end date. It does not create a notice-end date. |
| Terminated | Records the end of employment, its date, and the applicable notice-end date. |
Being on leave is not a separate employment status. Use the leave workflow for absence rather than changing employment status.
Employee status and sign-in account status are separate. Changing employment status does not automatically invite, activate, or deactivate a user account. Coordinate account access separately with your administrator.
Change employment status
- Review the current status
In Settings, find Employment status and select Change status.
- Choose the new status and date
Select an available New status and review Effective date. The Proposed change explains the move from the current status. A change to the existing status cannot be submitted.
- Review the consequences
For an ending, complete the reason fields and consider direct reports. Select Review change, then read the final confirmation carefully.
- Confirm only the intended change
Select Confirm to apply it, or Cancel to return without applying it. Wait for the result and verify the employee's status and dates afterwards. If the save result is unclear, check the record before trying again.
Ending employment
Choose Terminated for an employment ending or Contract Ended for a contract ending. Select a Reason category and add Reason details when useful. Keep the optional details factual and within the 500-character limit. They can contain sensitive HR information, so include only what is necessary.
The reason categories include voluntary, involuntary, end of contract, retirement, death, and other. Use the category that reflects the actual decision; do not choose one simply to enable the button.
When someone leaves, their direct reports may move to the leaver's active or suspended manager. If there is no eligible manager, those reporting assignments are cleared. Review the affected team and reporting structure afterwards.
The directory row's Terminate employment action is another way to open the dedicated termination form. Review its termination date, reason, and warning before selecting Terminate employee. On the Terminations listing, a leaver may have Resume employment, subject to your access and the employee allowance.
Deletion is different: it archives the employee and related contacts and dependents, removes them from the directory, and does not reassign their reports. Use the employment-ending workflow for a leaver; deletion is not a substitute.
Future starters
A future-dated individual hire may be recorded as Pre Hire. Activation can occur on the hire date in the organization's time zone. Early activation does not move the hire date, probation, compensation, or journey dates.
Withdrawing a pre-hire records a rescinded hire and cancels open hire journeys. Its termination date cannot be after the hire date, and no notice period is applied. Suspension and contract ending are not available for pre-hires. Check the status and options actually shown before continuing.
Review probation
A probation end date passing does not automatically confirm completion. Record a decision through Review probation while the probation status is In Probation or Extended.
- Open the review
In the employee's Settings, find the probation section and select Review probation. Check the current status and end date.
- Choose a decision
Select Confirm probation to record completion, or Extend probation to allow more time. For an extension, enter a new end date later than the current end date and no more than one year ahead.
- Review and confirm
Select Review decision and check the confirmation before applying it. Cancel if the decision or date is incorrect. After success, verify the probation status, end date, and review information on the record.
Changing the probation date through the ordinary employment editor is not the same as recording a probation decision. A confirmed probation cannot be extended through this review action.
On a phone
The same review controls stack vertically. Scroll through the dialog to read all guidance before confirming, and check that you are acting on the intended employee.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| Change status or Review probation is unavailable | Ask your administrator to review status-management access and the employee's current state. |
| Review change is disabled | Select a different permitted status, check the date, and complete any required reason. |
| A pre-hire ending is rejected | Check that its date is no later than the hire date. Do not activate someone merely to bypass this rule. |
| A probation extension is rejected | Choose a later end date within the allowed year and confirm that probation has not already been confirmed. |
| Resuming a leaver exceeds the employee limit | Ask your administrator to review the workspace allowance. |
| A save reports an error | Check the current record before retrying. Share the action and error message with your administrator without exposing private HR details. |
Employee journey tasks, dated job changes, and approval delegations have separate workflows and will be documented independently.