This article outlines the types of attributes in Personio, providing a list for each. Attributes are categorized into preset and custom attributes based on their customizability, as well as by eight field types.
Preset attributes
Preset attributes are automatically created in your Personio account as they connect to other functionalities. They appear with a gray Preset attribute tag in Settings > Employee information.
Preset attributes can't be edited or deleted, and some values are predefined.
These attributes are automatically translated into all supported languages and are linked to predefined placeholders in document templates.
All preset attributes
Name | Description | Connected functionality |
Name |
An employee's name includes First name and Last name. |
It's linked to payroll identification. |
Preferred name |
A preferred name is what someone uses daily, unlike a legal name for official documents. Note |
It's linked to:
|
Gender |
Selection options: Male, Female, Diverse, Other. |
It's linked to gender variables in Personio document templates. |
The email address is a unique identifier (Unique ID) in Personio. |
It is linked to:
|
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Weekly hours |
Weekly hours include:
|
It's linked to:
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Position | The position currently held within the company. | It's linked to the Recruiting app. |
Team | The team the employee belongs to. | It's linked to Org Chart and access rights. |
Birthday |
The employee's date of birth. |
It's linked to reminders. |
Office | The office where an employee works. | It's linked to Org Chart and access rights. |
Legal entity |
Every account includes at least one legal entity, your parent company. You can add additional legal entities to reflect your company's structure. |
It's linked to preparatory payroll and Org Chart, as in both cases, employees are differentiated by legal entity. |
Employment type | Employees can be either internal or external. |
It's linked to:
|
Status |
Can be either Active, Leave, Onboarding or Inactive. |
It's linked to:
|
Hire date | The date an employee officially begins their employment, marking the start of payroll and benefits processes. |
It's linked to:
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Contract ends | The last day of the employee's fixed-term contract. | They are linked to different functionalities. Read more in Terminating the employee vs ending their contract. |
Termination date |
The final day of an employee's employment. Once this date is reached, the employee status is automatically set to Inactive. |
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Supervisor | The employee overseeing another's work. |
It's linked to:
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Length of probation | Duration of a trial period at the start of an employee's employment. |
It's linked to reports. |
Children | Records employee children's information and estimated birthdate. | It's linked to the maternity protection functionality. |
Cost center | A department in an organization that incurs costs but does not directly generate revenue. | It's linked to the preliminary payroll. |
Custom attributes
Custom attributes in Personio are manually created to fit specific needs. They appear with no tag in Settings > Employee information.
Custom attributes can be freely edited and deleted, and their values are fully customizable.
These attributes are not automatically translated and are linked to custom placeholders in document templates.
Examples of custom attributes
Name | Definition |
Mobile number (business) |
Business telephone number |
Link to the LinkedIn profile | |
Employee ID | Employee number |
Occupation type | Occupation type based on the work schedule; the predefined options are Full-time, Part-time, Minijob, Apprentice, Student, Intern. These options can be edited freely. |
Salary type | Payroll group; the predefined options are Fixed salary and Hourly salary. These can be used for grouping payroll exports. |
Other attribute types
Attributes are also classified by text field type, in addition to customizability.
Text field | Description |
General | A simple text field for short texts such as names, email addresses, ZIP codes, or telephone numbers. |
Multi-line | A 2,000-character input field for longer texts, like comments. |
Number (integer) | Numbers without decimals. For example: the employee ID.
Note |
Number (up to two decimal places) | Numbers with one or two decimal places, such as the child allowance and monetary amounts or percentages. To determine the number of decimal places, click Edit. |
Date |
For employee important dates, such as their date of birth or their certificate of study's expiration date. You may also create reminders for all attributes of this type. Here, enable the Hide year from the public option. |
Link | Links allow you to, for example, store your employees' LinkedIn or Xing profiles. Correctly stored links open directly in the browser window via hyperlink. |
List of options | Use the List of Options attribute type to define options for the selected attribute. Lists ensure that attributes cannot be filled out arbitrarily and thus prevent errors. This is useful for yes/no queries, for example. |
Tags |
Define the available options for multiple selection attributes. You can choose several tags. This is helpful, for example, to record skills such as spoken languages. |