This article explains how to terminate an employee’s employment in Personio. It explains the termination fields and types. It also compares the Termination date and the Contract ends date.

Tip:
Terminating an employment keeps employee data for historical reporting. If you need to permanently remove all employee data, you can delete the employee profile. You cannot undo this action. 

Before you start

• You need edit rights for the profile section with the Status attribute to terminate employment.
• You also need view rights for the Public profile section.
• When you terminate an employee’s contract, the system updates their time off entitlement based on the proration settings in their time off policy. The entitlement you see in the pop-up does not include planned time off. However, the system will subtract any planned time off to calculate the employee's balance.

Terminate an employment

To terminate an employee’s employment, follow these steps:

1. Go to the employee’s profile.
2. Click the three dots and select Terminate employment.
3. Enter the Termination date and type.
4. Add additional details related to the termination.
5. Optional: adjust the employee’s absence entitlement if needed.
6. Click Terminate and confirm the action. The employee's termination date appears below the Status attribute in their profile.

Note:
Double-check the termination date. If you enter a past date, Personio deletes all time-off periods after that date.

Understand termination options

When you terminate employment in Personio, you add details to explain the reasons. This keeps accurate records for reporting and analysis. Here’s an overview of the termination-related attributes and types.

Termination attributes

Termination attributes are the details you choose when ending an employee’s employment:

• Termination date: the date employment officially ends. The employee’s status changes to Inactive at 00:00 UTC the day after.
• Notice announced: the date when the employee or employer communicated the decision to end employment.
• Last day of work: the employee’s final working day. This might happen before the official termination date.
• Type of termination: categorizes the reason for termination, such as resignation or retirement. This helps analyze turnover trends.
• Voluntary termination: shows if the employee chose to leave or the company ended the employment. This information supports retention analysis.
• Regretted termination: shows if the organization wanted to keep the employee. This data supports retention analysis.
• Position to be backfilled: tracks whether you plan to hire someone for this role after the employee leaves. You use this field to keep records only. It doesn't trigger any actions in other parts of Personio like Recruiting or Position Management.
• Termination reason: extra notes about why the employment ended.

Termination types

Here are the types of termination you can select:

• Collective layoff agreement: a layoff agreement between the employer and a labor union.
• Contract expired: the employment contract reached its end date.
• Court settlement: a legal agreement resolves the employment termination dispute.
• Death: the employee passed away.
• Dismissal: the employer ended the employment for reasons considered fair under UK law.
• Dismissal with irrevocable suspension: the employer dismissed the employee and suspended them from work indefinitely.
• Mutual termination: both employee and employer agree to end the employment relationship.
• Resignation: the employee voluntarily ended the employment relationship.
• Retirement: the employee reached retirement age and left the workforce.
• Settlement agreement: the employee and employer reached a settlement agreement.
• Switch of legal entity: the employee transferred to a new position in a different legal entity.
• Valid cancellation: the employer or employee canceled the employment contract for a valid reason. For example, the employee withdrew from the contract before the start date.

Compare the Termination date and Contract ends date

In Personio, the Termination date and the Contract ends date have different purposes. Here's an overview of the key differences:

What is the Termination date?

The Termination date is the official last day of an employee’s employment. You need to set this date using the Terminate employment feature for all employees. This applies regardless of contract type. Without a termination date, the employment stays Active. This happens even if a Contract ends date exists.

Impact of the Termination date

• The employee's Status changes to Inactive at 00:00 UTC the day after the termination date.
• The employee loses access to Personio after termination and cannot log in.
• The termination date affects the employee's vacation entitlement. Personio calculates the vacation days for the year of termination proportionally based on time off policies and the Termination date. You can manually adjust the number of vacation days based on a prorated calculation.
• Personio adjusts the salary based on the prorated salary settings if the termination date is within the month. 
• Personio removes the employee from preliminary payroll after the termination month. This doesn't apply if there are pending salary adjustments. Learn more about inactive employees in preliminary payroll.
• The employee doesn’t receive offboarding emails or notifications after their termination date.
• Personio deletes all time off periods after the termination date.

What happens to inactive profiles

• Only appear in the search bar or the People list for users with viewing rights for the Status attribute.
• Don’t appear in the Org chart.
• Don’t count toward the employee limit in your Personio plan.
• Remain visible in historical reports and analyses.
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What is the Contract ends date?

The Contract ends date applies only to fixed-term contracts. It shows the date the temporary contract ends. Personio stores this date in the Contract ends attribute. The date doesn’t terminate employment. You need to use the Terminate employment feature to end someone's job.

Impact of the Contract ends date

• The employee can continue to log in after the Contract ends date unless you set a Termination date.
• Personio sends a reminder 30 days before the contract ends. HR Managers can decide to extend the contract or terminate the employment. If you want other employees to receive reminders about a Contract ends date, create more reminders.
• The Contract ends date affects the employee's vacation entitlement. Personio calculates vacation days proportionally based on the employee's time off policies and the Contract ends date. Extending an employee's contract may also change their vacation days.
• Employees can track hours worked in the Attendance tab. Any time logged after the Contract ends date doesn’t count toward the salary.