Personnel Actions - TalinoHR Docs

This guide covers the personnel action system in TalinoHR, including the 15 action types, approval workflow, auto-apply logic, clearance process, and integration with payroll and performance.

Overview

Personnel actions formalize and track all employment changes in your organization. Navigate to HRIS → Personnel Actions (/personnel-actions) to manage them.

Every personnel action records:

The employee affected
The type of action
Effective date
Required fields based on action type
Justification/reason
Supporting documents
Approval history

The 15 Action Types

TalinoHR supports 15 personnel action types, grouped by category:

Career Progression

Action Type	Description	Required Fields
PROMOTION	Move to a higher position	New Position (required), New Salary, New Department, New Reporting To (optional)
DEMOTION	Move to a lower position	New Position (required), New Salary, New Department (optional)
MERIT_INCREASE	Salary increase based on performance	New Salary (required)
SALARY_ADJUSTMENT	Salary change (increase or decrease)	New Salary (required)
REGULARIZATION	Convert from probationary to regular	None (auto-updates status)

Transfers

Action Type	Description	Required Fields
DEPARTMENT_TRANSFER	Move to a different department	New Department (required), New Position, New Reporting To (optional)
LATERAL_TRANSFER	Move to equivalent position in another department	New Department (required), New Position (required), New Reporting To (optional)

Disciplinary

Action Type	Description	Required Fields
WRITTEN_WARNING	Formal written warning	NTE Issued Date, Hearing Date (optional)
PREVENTIVE_SUSPENSION	Temporary suspension pending investigation	NTE Issued Date, Hearing Date (optional); max 30 days per Labor Code
DISCIPLINARY_SUSPENSION	Suspension as penalty	NTE Issued Date, Hearing Date (optional)

Separation

Action Type	Description	Required Fields
RESIGNATION	Voluntary separation	Last Working Day (required)
TERMINATION_JUST_CAUSE	Dismissal for employee fault (Art. 297)	NTE Issued Date (required), Last Working Day (required), Hearing Date (optional)
TERMINATION_AUTHORIZED_CAUSE	Dismissal for business reasons (Art. 298-299)	Last Working Day (required); requires 30-day advance notice
RETIREMENT	End of employment due to retirement	Last Working Day (required)

Other

Action Type	Description	Required Fields
STATUS_CHANGE	Change employment status	New Employment Status (required)

Field Rules

Each action type has specific field visibility rules defined in lib/personnel-actions/field-rules.ts. Fields can be:

Required - Must be provided before submission
Optional - Can be provided but not mandatory
Hidden - Not applicable and not shown in the form

This ensures that users only see and fill in fields relevant to the action type. For example, MERIT_INCREASE only shows the New Salary field, while DEPARTMENT_TRANSFER shows New Department (required) and optionally New Position and New Reporting To.

Action Statuses

Personnel actions follow a 6-status lifecycle:

DRAFT -> PENDING -> [Approval Steps] -> APPROVED -> EFFECTIVE
                                      -> REJECTED
                                      -> CANCELLED

Status	Description
DRAFT	Created but not yet submitted for approval
PENDING	Submitted and waiting for approval
APPROVED	All approval steps completed successfully
REJECTED	Rejected at any approval step
CANCELLED	Withdrawn by the creator
EFFECTIVE	Applied to the employee record on the effective date

Multi-Level Approval

Approval Chain Configuration

Approval chains are configured per action type in ComplianceSetting with keys formatted as approval-chain:<ACTION_TYPE> (e.g., approval-chain:PROMOTION).

Each chain defines a sequence of approval steps, where each step specifies:

The role required to approve (e.g., HR_ADMIN, PAYROLL_ADMIN)
The step order

Approval Process

When a personnel action moves from DRAFT to PENDING, ApprovalStep records are created based on the configured chain
Each step must be approved in order
The current pending step is highlighted for the responsible approver
Approvers can approve or reject at their step
If any step is rejected, the entire action is rejected with the reason recorded

SUPER_ADMIN Override

SUPER_ADMIN users can approve at any step regardless of the chain configuration. This provides an administrative override for urgent situations.

API Routes

Submit for approval: Change status from DRAFT to PENDING
Approve step: POST /api/personnel-actions/[id]/approve-step
Reject step: POST /api/personnel-actions/[id]/reject-step

Auto-Apply on Effective Date

When a personnel action reaches APPROVED status and the effective date arrives, the system automatically applies the changes to the employee record.

What Gets Updated

The lib/personnel-actions/apply.ts module handles auto-apply in a database transaction:

Action Type	Employee Fields Updated
PROMOTION	positionId, departmentId, reportingToId, basicSalary
DEMOTION	positionId, departmentId, reportingToId, basicSalary
MERIT_INCREASE	basicSalary
SALARY_ADJUSTMENT	basicSalary
REGULARIZATION	employmentStatus -> REGULAR, regularizationDate
DEPARTMENT_TRANSFER	departmentId, positionId, reportingToId
LATERAL_TRANSFER	departmentId, positionId, reportingToId
RESIGNATION	employmentStatus -> RESIGNED, separationDate, isActive -> false
TERMINATION_JUST_CAUSE	employmentStatus -> TERMINATED, separationDate, isActive -> false
TERMINATION_AUTHORIZED_CAUSE	employmentStatus -> TERMINATED, separationDate, isActive -> false
RETIREMENT	employmentStatus -> RETIRED, separationDate, isActive -> false
STATUS_CHANGE	employmentStatus

Payroll Integration

Payroll Adjustments

Salary-changing actions automatically create PayrollAdjustment records when applied:

MERIT_INCREASE - Creates an adjustment for the salary differential
PROMOTION - Creates an adjustment if salary changed
SALARY_ADJUSTMENT - Creates an adjustment for the difference
DEMOTION - Creates an adjustment if salary changed

These adjustments are consumed during payroll computation (Step 8.5 of the engine) and added to the otherEarnings component.

Retro Pay

If a salary-changing action has an effective date in the past (retroactive), the system computes a retro differential using lib/payroll/retro.ts:

Count work days between the effective date and the current date
Compute the daily rate difference (new salary - old salary)
Create a payroll adjustment for the retro amount

Philippine Labor Compliance

The lib/personnel-actions/compliance.ts module enforces PH labor law requirements:

Twin Notice Rule (Termination for Just Cause)

For TERMINATION_JUST_CAUSE actions, the twin notice procedure requires:

First Notice (NTE) - Written notice to the employee specifying the grounds
Hearing/Conference - Opportunity for the employee to explain
Second Notice (Decision) - Written notice of the decision

The NTE issued date field tracks the first notice. A minimum of 5 days must pass between the NTE and the termination.

Preventive Suspension Limit

PREVENTIVE_SUSPENSION actions are limited to 30 days maximum per the Labor Code. The system validates this limit.

Authorized Cause Notice Period

TERMINATION_AUTHORIZED_CAUSE requires 30 days advance notice to the employee and DOLE. The last working day must be at least 30 days from the action creation date.

Regularization Deadline

REGULARIZATION actions are tracked against the 180-day probationary period (Art. 296). The probation tracker alerts HR 30 days before the deadline.

Clearance Process

When a separation action (RESIGNATION, TERMINATION, RETIREMENT) is approved, clearance items are automatically created.

Clearance Categories

Five clearance categories are generated:

IT/Equipment - Return of company devices, access card, keys
Finance - Settlement of cash advances, petty cash
HR - Return of company ID, handbook, uniform
Department - Turnover of files, projects, responsibilities
Admin - General administrative clearance

Clearance Workflow

Each clearance item must be signed off by the responsible department. The clearance status is tracked on the employee's personnel action record.

Final pay should only be released after all clearance items are completed.

Document Attachments

Personnel actions support file attachments via Cloudflare R2 storage:

Resignation letters
NTE documents
Medical certificates
Supporting evidence
Administrative hearing minutes

Upload attachments through the personnel action detail page.

Email Notifications

The system sends email notifications at key points:

Action Created - Notifies the next approver
Step Approved - Notifies the next approver or the action creator if fully approved
Step Rejected - Notifies the action creator
Action Effective - Notifies the employee

Emails are sent via Mailjet and are best-effort (failures do not block the action).

Performance Integration

Disciplinary Actions

When a DISCIPLINARY_SUSPENSION action is applied, the system automatically creates a 90-day Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) for the employee. This ensures follow-up tracking after the disciplinary period.

Regularization

When a REGULARIZATION action is applied, it automatically links to the employee's latest completed performance review via the linkedReviewId field. This creates a documented connection between the performance evaluation and the regularization decision.

Reports

Navigate to Reports → Personnel Reports (/reports/personnel) for:

Turnover Report

Monthly breakdown of separations
Department-level grouping
Turnover rate calculation (separations / average headcount)
Year-over-year comparison
Export as CSV

Promotion Report

List of promotions within a year
Before and after position and salary
Department breakdown
Export as CSV

Action Templates

Frequently used action configurations can be saved as templates in ComplianceSetting with the key action-templates. Templates pre-fill common fields to speed up personnel action creation.

Dashboard Widgets

The personnel actions dashboard displays three KPI cards:

Actions This Month - Total personnel actions created in the current month
Pending Approvals - Number of actions waiting for approval
Regularizations Due - Probationary employees approaching the 180-day deadline