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Troubleshoot employee management issues

This article covers issues that occur when managing employee profiles and data:

Before you start

  • To edit employee attributes in the Personal Info tab, you need Edit permissions for the Employee profile section that contains the attribute you want to edit. 
  • To edit the employee history, you need Edit permissions for the Employment details > Employee history - Details section.
  • To turn on the legal entities function, you need Edit permissions for the Organization > Company information section.
  • To edit legal entities, you need Edit permissions for the Organization > Legal entities section. 
     

Employees cannot see other employees in onboarding status

Issue:

Employees cannot see other employees in onboarding status.

Possible solution:

Make sure that employees have View permissions for the Employee profile section that contains the Status attribute. They can then see employees in onboarding status.

  1. Go to Settings. 
  2. In the People section, click Roles and permissions.
  3. Find the role to update and click Edit.
  4. In the Employee profile group, find the section that contains the Status attribute.
  5. Enable View permissions.
  6. Review and save your changes.

You cannot update employee attributes because of conflicting dates

Issue:

You try to update an employee attribute with a new effective date, but it doesn't work. You get an error saying the system recorded your edit, but the current value stays unchanged. This error happens when you have conflicting dates for the same information in the employee's history. 

Possible solution:

You need to fix the dates in the employee history:

  1. Go to the employee's profile.
  2. Click the History tab.
  3. Find the attribute that's causing the date conflict.
  4. Update the attribute again.

You entered a termination by mistake or need to cancel a planned exit

Issue:

You entered a termination date by mistake, or a planned exit is no longer going ahead. The employee might already be Inactive if the termination date has passed or still Active with a scheduled termination if it hasn't.

Possible solution:

Note:
Use this solution only when you entered the termination by mistake and the employee has not actually left the company. If the employee genuinely left and is now returning, use the rehire feature instead.

First, check if the termination date you entered was in the past. If it was, the system might have already made the following changes at the point of termination:

  • Deleted all time-off periods after the termination date. You cannot recover these records.
  • Recalculated the employee's time-off entitlement based on the proration settings in their time-off policy.

Removing the termination doesn't automatically reverse these changes. Check the impact on the employee's time-off records before proceeding, and be prepared to correct balances manually if needed.

Once you've checked, follow these steps to remove the termination:

  1. Open the employee's profile.
  2. Click the three-dot icon.
  3. Select Terminate Employment.
  4. In the window that appears, click Remove scheduled termination.

The employee's status returns to Active status and Personio retains their profile history, documents, and data. If time-off periods were deleted or entitlement was recalculated, review the employee's Time off tab after restoring their status and adjust balances manually where needed.

You cannot log in as another employee

Issue:

You cannot use the Login as employee feature.

Possible solution:

Check these requirements to log in as an employee:

  • You need to be an Administrator.
  • The employee needs to have a valid email address.
  • You must log in to only one Personio account, not multiple accounts.

You see incorrect data in employee reports and the employee history after changing the hire date

Issue:

When you change an employee's hire date, it affects how Personio calculates historical data and generates reports. This creates inconsistencies in employee history and can make reports unreliable.

Possible solution:

Change the hire date back to the original date:

  1. Go to the employee's profile.
  2. Click the Personal Info tab.
  3. Change the Hire date back to the correct original date.
  4. Save the changes.

Reports may take until the following day to display the correct data again. If you need to rehire a former employee, use the rehire feature instead of changing their original hire date. 

You cannot change an employee's email address (error: email already belongs to another person)

Issue:

When you try to update an employee's email address, you receive an error message saying the email already belongs to another person, even if no other employee uses that exact email. This can happen when the email contains special characters (diacritics) like ñ, ü, or ä.

Possible solution:

In some cases, Personio might treat certain characters with diacritics as equivalent to their base letters when checking for duplicate email addresses (for example, ñ and n). This can trigger an error saying the email already exists, even when no other employee appears to use the same email address.

  1. Change the employee's email address to a completely different, unused address (for example, 
    temporary@example.com).
  2. Save your changes.
  3. Edit the employee profile again and change the email again to the desired email. 
  4. Save your changes.

Legal entities aren’t showing when assigning employees

Issue:

You created legal entities, but you cannot see or select them when assigning a legal entity to an employee.

Possible solution:

An inactive employee still appears in the Org chart

Issue:

After terminating an employee, they still appear in the Org chart.

Possible solution:

This happens when active employees still have the inactive employee listed as their supervisor. The Org chart displays employees based on the Supervisor attribute. To remove the inactive employee from the Org chart, update the supervisor for their direct reports.

  1. Identify each employee who reports to the inactive employee.
  2. Assign them a new supervisor.
  3. Save your changes.

Employees can see inactive, onboarding, or on-leave employees in the People List that they shouldn't

Issue:

Employees with the All Employees role can see colleagues with Inactive, Leave, or Onboarding status in the People List, when they should only see active employees.

Possible solution:

The Status attribute may be in a section where the All Employees role has All view access (like the Public profile section). By default, employees can only view colleagues with an Active status in the People List. However, if the Status attribute is in a section that employees can view, they can see employees with Onboarding or Inactive status. They can see employees with Leave status only if they have Edit permissions for that section.

To fix this, move the Status attribute to a section with restricted access. Learn how to move attributes between sections.

You see different values in reports or exports after renaming a list of options attribute

Issue:

You rename an option in a list of options attribute. The new label appears in the employee profile and People List, but reports and exports still show the old value.

Possible solution:

When you create an option for a list of options attribute, Personio saves the name you enter as the database value. This is what appears in reports and exports. Renaming the option later only updates what you see in the UI. The database value stays the same, and you cannot change it.

The right solution depends on whether the meaning of the option has changed:

  • The meaning is the same, but the label needs updating (for example, a typo fix): Rename the option. You don't need to do anything else. Reports and exports continue to show the original database value, but the UI shows the new label.
  • The meaning has changed (for example, the option now represents something different): Create a new option with the correct name. The name you enter first becomes the new database value. Reassign the affected employees to the new option. If you no longer need the old option, delete it. You can no longer assign deleted options to employees, they remain in employee histories, and you can still use them for filtering, for example, in reports.

Birthdays or work anniversaries don't appear on the homepage

Issue:

The Celebrations card is visible on the homepage but birthdays or work anniversaries don't appear, even though you've entered the data and the settings appear correct.

Possible solution:

  • Go to Homepage settings, open the Celebrations card options, and check that the toggle for Birthdays is on. 
  • Check that employees have the correct permissions and calendar access.
  • Check that you are not using a custom attribute to display birthdays. The Celebrations card only reads from the preset Date of birth attribute. A custom attribute, even if you name it "Birthday" and fill with it with date data, doesn't work for this card.

If the Celebrations card is on and the permissions appear correct but birthdays still don't appear, the Date of birth system attribute mightn't be visible to employees because of the section it is in. If you haven't set up custom visibility rules for the Date of birth attribute, move it into the Public Profile section. Since the Public Profile is already accessible to all employees, you don't need to make further permission changes. An alternative option is to grant the desired employee role View permissions for the section containing the Date of birth attribute. Keep in mind that this approach grants visibility to all attributes in that section, not only the Date of birth attribute.

A feature or button is not working correctly even though your permissions are correct

Issue:

A feature, section, or button in Personio is not working correctly, and you have already confirmed that the role has the correct permissions. For example:

  • A button in an employee profile appears greyed out or unclickable, such as when editing employee data or exporting employee records.
  • A section or option has disappeared from the roles and permissions settings, despite no changes being made.
  • Your view of employee data or the org chart looks different from a colleague's with the same role and permissions.

Possible solution:

Note:
These steps address browser-related display issues in Personio. Only try them after you have ruled out a configuration or settings issue.

Before trying these steps, confirm that your role has the correct permissions for the affected feature. If you haven't checked permissions yet, start there. Only follow these steps if permissions are confirmed correct and the issue still persists.

  1. Clear your browser's cache and cookies. 
  2. Reload the page. On Mac, press Command + Shift + R. On Windows, press Ctrl + Shift + R.
  3. Close and reopen your browser and log back in to Personio. If the feature is now accessible, the browser cache caused the issue.
  4. If this doesn't fix the issue, make sure you have the latest version of your browser or try accessing Personio in a different browser. Personio supports the latest versions of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox.

Employee status keeps reverting to Leave

Issue:

You change an employee’s Status from Leave to Active, but the status reverts to Leave after you save.

Possible solution:

A history entry with a future effective date might be overriding your change. Personio always applies the history entry with the latest effective date as the current value. If a future-dated leave entry exists, it takes precedence over any earlier manual change.

To fix this:

  1. Go to the employee’s profile.
  2. Click the History tab.
  3. Find the Status attribute and look for an entry with a future effective date that sets the status to Leave.
  4. Click the pencil icon on the entry and change the effective date to the correct date. For example, if the leave should already have ended, change it to an earlier date.
  5. Set the Status to Active with an effective date after the corrected Leave entry.

If you set an effective date earlier than an existing history entry, the existing entry takes precedence. Personio records your change but doesn’t apply it.

You cannot delete a section even though you deleted all its attributes

Issue:

You try to delete a section in Personal information settings and get an error, even though you deleted all the attributes you can see.

Possible solution:

The section might contain an archived attribute. Archived attributes don’t appear with the active attributes, but they still count as content in the section and block deletion.

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. In the People section, click Personal information.
  3. Open the section you want to delete. Choose the option to display archived attributes and find the archived attribute. It appears separately from the active attributes.
  4. Move the archived attribute to another section. If you want to delete it, you need to first unarchive it.
  5. Delete the now-empty section.

If the section also contains attributes with a lock icon, move them to another section too. You cannot delete locked attributes.

You cannot see a custom attribute in the People List columns.

Issue:

You created a custom attribute or moved it to another section, but it doesn’t appear in the list of columns in the People List, even though you can see it in employee profiles.

Possible solution:

After you create or move an attribute, or change permissions, the list of columns usually updates right away. If there’s a delay in the system, it can take longer. Wait a little while, then refresh the list:

  1. Log out of Personio and log back in.
  2. Go to Organization > People list and click the Columns tab.
  3. Find the attribute and click the toggle to add it to your view.

If you cannot see the attribute in employee profiles either, you mightn't have permission to view its section. Ask your administrator to check your role’s View permissions for that section.

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