Update employee data – Personio

This article explains how to update employee data (or, in other words, how to update an attribute in the employee's Personal Info tab so that it contains a different value). You will need to update an employee's attribute when they get a new address, a new bank account, or a new tax category.

Before you start

Depending on your employee's permissions, they might be able to enter a new value for their attributes (or for other employee's attributes) and send it to you for approval. For them to be able to do so, you need to grant them propose permissions for the relevant section in the Personal info tab.

Update an attribute via the employee's Personal info tab

Go to the relevant employee profile and their Personal info tab.
At the bottom of the screen, click Edit.
Locate the attribute you want to update.
Select a different value for the attribute or type in the value, depending on the attribute type.

Click Set effective date and select a date for the current value to change to the new value:

When	Action	Effect	Example
For an attribute to be updated with immediate effect	Select the current date	The new value will appear immediately in the employee’s Personal Info tab	You have an employee changing their job role today
For an attribute to be updated retroactively	Select a date in the past	The new value will appear immediately in the employee’s Personal Info tab, and the update will be reflected in the employee profile History tab	You are informed that an employee moved to a new address a few months ago
For an attribute to be updated to take effect in the future Except Termination, Hire date and Contract end date attributes.	Select a date in the future	The new value will appear as scheduled in the employee’s Personal Info tab and will be updated at 03:00 on that date	You already know the new address of an employee who is moving next month
For an attribute to be updated only temporarily	Select a future date, and enable the Set as temporary change option, and select a date for the new value to revert to the old one	The new value will appear in the employee’s Personal Info tab during a specific period of time	You have a working student whose working hours change regularly

In the same window, review both the old and the new attribute values.
Click Submit changes.

Note:
Retroactive changes will be applied as long as there is not another change entry for a later effective date. We also advise against updating the employee's hire date retroactively, as it may severely alter the employee data.

Update an attribute via the People list

Navigate to Employees > People list.
Select the relevant employee whose information you want to edit. If you want to update an attribute for several employees at once, select all the relevant employees in the list.
Click on the Actions button that appears and select Edit profile.
Select the attribute you want to change, and a new value for it.

Click Set effective date and select a date for the current value to change to the new value:

When	Action	Effect	Example
For an attribute to be updated with immediate effect	Select the current date	The new value will appear immediately in the employee’s Personal Info tab	You have an employee changing their job role today
For an attribute to be updated retroactively	Select a date in the past, or select Hire date to backdate the change to each employee's individual hire date. Note: A preview column appears for the hire date before you confirm. Employees without a hire date are excluded, and if you don't have access to some hire dates, a warning will appear.	The new value will appear immediately in the employee’s Personal Info tab, and the update will be reflected in the employee profile History tab. When using Hire date, the change takes effect from each employee's individual hire date. Employees need a hire date set in their profile for this to apply to them.	You are informed that an employee moved to a new address a few months ago. You want to backdate a department change to each employee's hire date.
For an attribute to be updated to take effect in the future Except Termination, Hire date and Contract end date attributes.	Select a date in the future	The new value will appear as scheduled in the employee’s Personal Info tab and will be updated at 03:00 on that date	You already know the new address of an employee who is moving next month
For an attribute to be updated only temporarily	Select a future date, and enable the Set as temporary change option, and select a date for the new value to revert to the old one	The new value will appear in the employee’s Personal Info tab during a specific period of time	You have a working student whose working hours change regularly

Click Save

Note:
Retroactive changes will be applied as long as there is not another change entry for a later effective date.

Update an attribute retroactively via the employee's History tab

Go to the relevant employee profile and their History tab.
Click Detail view. The following information will appear:
- Attribute: Shows all changes to attributes and salaries for an employee.
- Application date: Indicates when the attribute change was made in the employee profile.
- Editor: Lists all individuals who made edits to the change.
- Old value: The value before the change.
- New value: The value after the change.
- Requested: Indicates which employee requested the attribute change.
- Approved: Indicates which employee approved the attribute change.
- Creation date: Shows when the attribute change was first initiated.
Click Add history entry and search for the attribute you want to update.
In the pop-up window, select a date in the past for the current value to change to the new value.
In the same window, select a different value for the attribute or type in the value, depending on the attribute type.
Click Add.

Note:
▶︎ You cannot delete History entries. If you enter a wrong date, simply click Modify date of attribute change to update it. If you enter a wrong value for the attribute, simply add a new entry for the same date. The system will use the value entered most recently.
▶︎ Changes to attributes impact reports. For instance, if an employee's Department attribute is changed too late, they will still appear in their old department in reports that group by Department. You can fix these retroactive changes by editing the New value column and entering the correct date for the attribute change.
▶︎ When importing the fixed and hourly salary, the salary payment's validity date is set to the date in the Application date column.

Update an attribute via other features

Alternatively, you can also update employee data through other features and functionalities:

Via the Employee import

You can edit employee data for several employees at once via the Import area in Personio.

Via the Public API

You can edit employee data for several employees at once via The Personio Personnel Data API.

Via the Onboarding tasks

You can enter employee data while they are still going through the onboarding process by adding a dedicated onboarding step

Via the Recruiting module when hiring a new candidate

You can enter employee data when accepting a candidate in their Candidate profile in the Recruiting module.

Handle an employee position change

If an employee changes jobs within the company, follow these steps:

Go to the relevant employee profile and their Personal info tab.
At the bottom of the screen, click Edit.
Locate both the Position and Department attributes, and enter a new value for them. If needed, also update further attributes such as Employment type, Weekly working hours or Payroll type.
Click Set effective date and select a date in the past.
Save the edits.
Go to Employee History to confirm the effective date for the position change.
If the employee's working hours change with the new position, edit their work schedule.
If the employee's salary changes with the new position, edit their fixed salary.
If the employee's time off balance changes with the new position, edit their time off policy.

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