Employee Action Type

An employee action type is a named change that can happen to a person: promotion, transfer, confirmation, separation. Each type declares what it changes, whether a letter is issued, and which documents HR must hold before it counts as done. Setting them up here is what lets one screen handle every kind of change instead of a screen per change.

Where

People Directory › Setup › Employee Action Type

Who uses it

The implementation consultant with the HR manager, once at setup

When

Before HR starts recording promotions, transfers and confirmations

Needs first

Letter templates, if any of your actions issue a letter

Shape

One record per kind of change, with a line per required document

What it is for

A promotion, a transfer and a confirmation are all the same shape of event. Somebody approves a change, something on the employee record moves, a letter goes out, and a file of paperwork is collected. The only differences are what moves and what paperwork is needed.

This screen is where those differences are declared, once per kind of change. Four tick boxes say what the action changes. A fifth says whether a letter is issued and which template. The lines list the documents HR must hold.

The screen refuses an action type that does nothing. You must either mark at least one thing it changes, or mark it as requiring a letter. An action that changes nothing and issues no letter has no reason to exist, and the screen says so rather than letting somebody create it.

Get this list right and HR has a clean vocabulary for every change that happens to a person, with the paperwork attached to each. Get it wrong and you end up with twenty types that all mean the same thing, which is the usual state of an HR system that let people type the reason by hand.

Every field, in plain words

Action

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Action Type	The short code for the change.	PROM-ANN	Required. Must be unique.
Action Type Name	The change written out, as HR announces it.	Annual Promotion	Required. This is the text that appears in the list when somebody records a change.
Category	Which family of change this is.	PROM - Promotion	Required. Pick one of the eight values below. Several of your action types can share a category, which is how you can have both an annual promotion and an out of cycle promotion without losing the ability to report on promotions as a whole.
Active	Whether this action type is in use.	Tick it.	Untick it when a type is retired. Records already using it stay readable.

Category - the family the change belongs to:

• PROM Promotion - a move up. Pick it for any upward move, however it is announced.
• TRAN Transfer - a sideways move, to another unit, station or company in the group.
• CONF Confirmation - the end of probation.
• DEMO Demotion - a move down.
• REDE Redesignation - the job title changes but the level and pay do not.
• SEPR Separation - the person leaves, by resignation, termination or retirement.
• SALR Salary Change - money changes and nothing else does. The annual increment usually sits here.
• OTHR Other - anything genuinely outside the seven above. Use it rarely. A list where half the types are Other cannot be reported on.

What It Changes

Four tick boxes. At least one of them must be ticked, unless the action is marked as requiring a letter.

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Changes Position	The action moves the person to a different job.	Tick it on a promotion, a transfer, a demotion and a redesignation.
Changes Grade	The action moves the person to a different level.	Tick it on a promotion and a demotion. Leave it clear on a redesignation, where the title changes and the level does not.
Changes Salary	The action changes what the person is paid.	Tick it on a promotion, a salary change and usually on a confirmation.
Changes Cost Centre	The action moves the person to a different cost centre, so their salary starts being charged somewhere else.	Tick it on a transfer between units or sites.	The flag that finance cares about. A transfer that moves the cost and is not marked here is how a cost centre quietly keeps paying for somebody who left it.

These four boxes are the point of the screen. They are what lets one change screen behave differently depending on the action chosen, instead of the client needing a separate screen for promotions, transfers and confirmations.

Process

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Needs Approval	Records that this action must be approved before it is final.	Tick it on anything that changes money or level.	The approval route itself is set up with the rest of the approval configuration, not on this screen.
Needs Letter	Records that a letter is issued to the employee for this action.	Tick it on promotions, confirmations and separations.	If you tick it, you must name a Letter Template.
Letter Template	Which letter is issued.	Pick it from the list.	Required when Needs Letter is ticked. The screen refuses to save a letter-issuing action with no template.
Remarks	Notes for whoever maintains this list later.	Used for the July cycle only. Out of cycle promotions use PROM-OOC.	Free text. Worth filling, this list is edited by somebody a year from now who was not in the room.

Required Documents

The paperwork HR must hold before the action is complete. One line per document.

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Line #	The line number.	Fills itself. Leave it.
Notes	The name of the document required. Despite the column heading, this is where the document is named.	Signed promotion letter	Required. Each document can be listed once, the screen refuses the same document twice on one action.
Mandatory	Whether the action cannot be completed without this document.	Tick it on the ones that are genuinely blocking.	Leave it clear on a document that is wanted but not essential, so the distinction stays meaningful.
Responsible	Who is expected to produce or collect the document.	Pick the responsible role from the list.	Useful when the document comes from outside HR, for example a departmental sign off.
Remarks	Anything about this document.	Original to the personal file, scan to the shared drive.	Free text.

How to configure it

1. Set up your letter templates first if any of your actions issue a letter, because the field is required once Needs Letter is ticked.
2. List the changes that actually happen at this client. Most manufacturers need between six and ten: confirmation, annual promotion, out of cycle promotion, transfer, redesignation, annual increment, resignation, termination, retirement.
3. Create the first one. Code CONF, name Confirmation on Completion of Probation, category CONF, Active ticked.
4. Tick what it changes. A confirmation usually changes salary and nothing else, so tick Changes Salary only.
5. Tick Needs Letter and pick the confirmation letter template. Tick Needs Approval if the client requires sign off.
6. Add the required documents as lines: Probation assessment form marked mandatory with the department head as responsible, Signed confirmation letter marked mandatory.
7. Save, and work through the rest of the list. Check each one against the rule that an action must either change something or issue a letter.
8. Read the finished list back with HR. Two types that would always be chosen in the same situation should be one type.

Scenarios

A promotion and a redesignation are different things and people keep confusing them

Set them up so the record forces the distinction. The promotion ticks Changes Position, Changes Grade and Changes Salary. The redesignation ticks Changes Position only. Once the two types are visibly different on this screen, the argument happens here, at setup, and not every July.

A transfer between our two companies in the group

One action type, category TRAN, with Changes Cost Centre ticked and Changes Position ticked if the job also changes. The required documents are the ones a cross entity move needs: a release from the sending company and an acceptance from the receiving one, both marked mandatory.

We want to record a resignation but no letter is issued

Separation with Changes Position ticked and Needs Letter clear is a perfectly legal action type, because at least one thing it changes is marked. The required documents are the resignation letter and the clearance form. The actual leaving process is handled by Resignation and Employee Clearance, this type is how the change itself is classified.

An action that neither changes anything nor issues a letter

The screen will not save it, and it is right not to. Ask what the client thinks the action does. The usual answer is that it is a note on the file, in which case it belongs in remarks on the employee record, not as an action type.

Two clients configured the same way

	Factory, 500 staff	Services firm, 80 staff
Number of types	Nine	Four
Confirmation	Needed, large probation intake	Needed
Out of cycle promotion	Separate type, used often	Folded into the one promotion type
Required documents	Three to four per action	One per action

Both are correct. The number of action types should match how much process the client genuinely runs, not how much process the software can carry.

What it is connected to

• Letter templates must exist first for any action that issues a letter.
• The action type is chosen when a change is recorded against an employee, and what the type declares is what decides which parts of the change screen apply.
• The actual values move on Employee Organization Assignment, which is where position, grade and cost centre live on the employee.
• A separation action sits alongside Resignation and Employee Clearance.
• The document lines are a checklist held in HR. Nothing outside this screen collects the files for you, somebody has to tick them off.

If something looks wrong

• "It will not save, it says to mark what this action changes" - none of the four change boxes are ticked and Needs Letter is clear. An action type must do at least one of the two.
• "It will not save, it says the action needs a letter template" - Needs Letter is ticked with no template picked. Pick one or untick the box.
• "It says a document is listed more than once" - the same document name appears on two lines. Remove one.
• "It will not save, it wants a category" - the category is required. Pick the closest of the eight, and only use Other when none of the seven fit.
• "A transfer did not move the salary cost to the new department" - check whether Changes Cost Centre is ticked on that action type, and whether the cost centre was actually changed on the employee's assignment.