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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 People Data > Personal Data.
  • To edit the employee history, you need edit permissions for Employee history > Detailed View.
  • To turn on the legal entities function, you need edit permissions for Account configuration > Company.
  • To edit legal entities, you need edit permissions for Account configuration > Legal Entities.
     

Employees cannot see other employees in onboarding status

Issue:

Employees cannot see other employees in onboarding status.

Possible solution:

Make sure that employees have viewing rights for the section with the Status attribute. They can then see employees in onboarding status.

  1. Go to the employee role you want to give viewing rights to.
  2. Click Permissions.
  3. Grant viewing rights to the section where the Status attribute is.

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 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 Information 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 all employee profiles regardless of status.

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:

Birthdays or work anniversaries don't appear on the Celebrations card on the homepage, even though you've entered the data and the settings appear correct.

Possible solution:

  • Check that you've turned on the Celebrations toggle in Homepage settings. 
  • Then check that employees have the correct permissions and calendar access for each event type.
  • 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 named "Birthday" and filled with the right data — doesn't work for this card.

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. 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.
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