Employee Lifecycle

Everything under Talent & Growth → Employee Lifecycle.

These eight screens record events that happen to a person during their employment. They share a shape: each one is a dated entry against an employee, and together they make up that person’s history.

These screens are the employment record

Individually each looks like a minor administrative list. Collectively they are the answer to “what actually happened with this person?” — which is the question asked in a dispute, a tribunal, a reference request or a promotion decision.

The entry costs a minute to make and is very hard to reconstruct later. Make it at the time.

Awards

Employee Lifecycle → Awards

Recognition given to an employee: which person, which award type, the date, and usually a short reason or citation. Some awards carry a monetary value.

The types are defined separately, under Organization Structure. This screen is where an award is actually given to somebody.

Promotions

Employee Lifecycle → Promotions

A change of designation: the old title, the new title, and the date it takes effect.

Recording a promotion is not the same as applying it

The promotion record is history — it says a change happened.

Whether the employee’s current designation, salary and reporting line have actually been updated on their employee record is a separate matter. Check both, or the org chart and the payslip will keep showing the old job.

Transfers

Employee Lifecycle → Transfers

A move between branches or departments — the origin, the destination, and the effective date.

The same caution applies as for promotions: the transfer record documents the move; the employee record has to be updated for the system to behave as though it happened.

Warnings

Employee Lifecycle → Warnings

Formal disciplinary warnings issued to an employee: who issued it, the date, the subject, and a description.

Treat this screen as a legal record

Warnings are the records most likely to be read by somebody outside your organization — a lawyer, a tribunal, an auditor.

Write them factually and dispassionately. Record what happened, when, and what was said. Avoid characterisation and opinion. Follow your own disciplinary procedure, which sits outside this system and takes precedence over it.

Complaints

Employee Lifecycle → Complaints

A complaint raised by one employee, usually about another. It records who complained, who it concerns, the date, and a description.

Where a warning is issued by the organization to an employee, a complaint is raised by an employee to the organization. They are the two directions of the same conversation.

Access to this screen should be tightly restricted

Complaints are among the most sensitive records in the system. They frequently name a second employee who has no idea a record about them exists.

Check which roles can reach this screen — see Users and Roles — and keep it to the smallest group that genuinely needs it.

Trips

Employee Lifecycle → Trips

Business travel: where, why, the dates, and often the cost.

Useful for expenses, for duty of care — knowing who is where — and for explaining why somebody is not at their desk without it being counted as absence.

Resignations

Employee Lifecycle → Resignations

An employee giving notice: the date notice was given, the intended last working day, and the reason.

Recording the resignation starts the clock. The last working day here is what tells everybody else — payroll, IT, whoever collects the laptop — when things need to happen by.

Terminations

Employee Lifecycle → Terminations

The end of employment initiated by the organization: the type, the date, the reason, and the notice given.

Resignation and termination are not interchangeable

A resignation is the employee leaving. A termination is the organization ending the employment.

They have different legal consequences, different paperwork and different consequences for final pay. Record whichever actually happened — not whichever is more comfortable.

For everything that has to happen around a departure, see Offboarding Someone.

Common questions

Do these screens change the employee record? No. They are history. Changing somebody’s department, designation, salary or status is done on their employee record, and needs doing separately.

Somebody was promoted and moved department at once. Record both — a promotion and a transfer. They are separate facts and separate reports.

Can an employee see their own warnings and complaints? That depends on your role configuration. Check it deliberately rather than assuming; the default may not be what your policy requires.

We recorded something in the wrong place. Delete it and record it correctly, promptly. An accurate record with a correction is fine; a record that quietly contradicts the truth is not.

Do we still need the paper file? This system holds the record. Whether it is sufficient on its own is a question for your own policy and your jurisdiction — ask, rather than assuming either way.