This article explains how to set up employee registration with an activation code. With this feature: 

• Deskless employees can access Personio. This enables them to manage their HR needs, like time off requests, time-tracking, payslip retrieval, and so on. 
• You can avoid creating unnecessary corporate email addresses for employees who don’t need them. 

If you're an employee with an activation code, visit our article on how to register with Personio instead.

Before you start

• Account Owners need to contact Support to activate this feature.
• This feature requires email and password login. It doesn't work with enforced single sign-on (SSO), such as Google SSO.
• You need to be a Personio Administrator or have the necessary permissions to generate activation codes.
• Employees who use Personio with an activation code can only sign documents with simple signatures. Advanced signature requests must be verified through email. 

Review security considerations and best practices

Registration with an activation code comes with limitations that increase security risks.

• Personio turns off its automated monitoring system for suspicious login activity for all employees. Learn more about suspicious login activity.
• Employees don't receive any email notifications.

Personio recommends the following to mitigate risk.

Set a non-existent email address for relevant employees

It's important to set a non-existent email for all employees who don't have a corporate email account. This prevents Administrators or anyone else from having access to email notifications on behalf of employees. This non-existent email address needs to be under the same domain as the valid corporate accounts.

Example: Your organization's name is DemoCompany. You create the following non-existent email address for a deskless employee, John: john-personio-login@democompany.com. This email address is under the same domain as the real accounts in your organization, but it doesn't have a real inbox.

Prepare the activation code securely

We recommend you prepare the activation code in an envelope addressed to the employee:

• Print the code so it's on the inside when you fold the paper.
• On the opposite side of the paper, directly behind the printed code, cover the area with black ink.
• Seal the envelope and make sure you address it to the correct employee.
• Instruct employees to dispose of the paper safely after activation.
• Don’t print the secret (date of birth) or any other identifying information with the activation code.

These suggested recommendations are non-exhaustive. You must perform your own internal review and assessment of these recommendations. This review must align with your security obligations under Personio’s General Terms and Conditions. We also highly recommend that employees complete basic security training.

Enable registration with activation codes

To enable employee registration with activation codes:

1. Go to the employee’s profile.
2. Enter a non-existent email as the employee's email. They use this as their login username. See the section on employee login options for more information.
3. Update the employee’s Birthday to the correct date.
4. Update the attribute Register with activation code to Yes.
5. Save the changes.

You can update the attribute for multiple employees at once using the People list.

Employee login options

Employees have two options for the type of login username they can use:

• Non-existent email:
  • This is an email address that doesn’t have a real inbox. You use this email as the employee’s username for logging in.
• Username-based login:
  • If you prefer to use a username format, make sure the non-existent email ends with @noemail.personio.com or @noemail.personio.de. Otherwise, username login won't work. This specifies that the login is username-based. For example, if the desired username is "jdoe", the email should be jdoe@noemail.personio.com.
  • The username can also be the employee ID (for example, 1234), but it has to be at least two characters/digits long.
  • Each username has to be unique across your account. Don't use the same username with both domains.

Note:
A username can include letters (A–Z, a–z), numbers (0–9), and these special characters: _ + - . ! # $ ' ^ ` ~ @. Personio doesn't support special letters like ä, ö, ü, é, ß, or ç. If the non-existent email includes unsupported characters, the employee cannot log in.

Generate activation codes

You need to be a Personio Administrator or have the necessary permissions to generate activation codes. To grant permissions to generate activation codes:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the People section, click Roles & permissions.
3. Select the employee role you want to grant access to.
4. Click Access Rights.
5. Go to Account configuration.
6. In Authentication, set the edit rights to All.

To generate activation codes for employees:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Security & integrations section, click Security & authentication.
3. Under Personio Credentials, click to manage the Login without email settings.
4. Select the employees to generate the activation codes for. Tip: Only employees with the attribute Registration with activation code set to Yes appear. If any employees are missing, check that you’ve enabled this setting and then refresh the page.
5. Generate the activation codes.
6. Check your browser's download folder and search for a CSV file named Activation_codes.
7. Share the activation codes and the email each employee uses to log in.

Activation codes are only valid for 14 days from the date of generation. After that, you need to generate a new activation code.

Tip:
To format the file with the activation codes correctly, import the CSV file. Select a comma (,) as a delimiter. If formatting issues persist, check the regional settings of the tool you are using. If the decimal separator in number format is a comma, change it to a period (‘.’).

Unblock employees by regenerating activation codes

Employees without a real email address may need a new activation code if:

• They have forgotten their password and can’t reset it through email.
• They have entered the activation code incorrectly more than three times.
• Their activation code has expired.

To check which employees are blocked or whose activation code has expired:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Security & integrations section, click Security & authentication.
3. Under Personio Credentials, click to manage the Login without email settings.
4. Check the Authentication status column.

This table explains the authentication statuses: