I think your approach is reasonable, particularly given that the employee’s previous employment period ended and an ROE was issued, followed by a later rehire. In that situation, I would generally not change the HRIS “original hire date” to the employee’s historical start date simply to make the system display nine years of service. Doing so could create confusion about the employee’s actual employment history and could potentially make the HRIS inconsistent with the ROE and other payroll records. The fact that the employee received severance when their previous employment ended is also an important distinction to preserve in your records.

A good best practice would be to maintain the employee’s current HRIS service date based on their rehire date, while maintaining a separate internal record that clearly identifies their recognized service for purposes where previous service is credited. This could be a note in the employee’s personnel file, a service-date adjustment record, or another HR tracking document showing the original employment dates, termination date, rehire date, and the circumstances under which previous service is being recognized. You have already adjusted the vacation entitlement so that the employee receives the appropriate benefit based on their recognized service, which is arguably more important than having the HRIS display a particular number.

I would also consider whether the HRIS has a custom field, employee note, secondary service date, seniority date, or reporting field that could be used to distinguish “continuous employment date” from “recognized service date.” If it does not, you could establish a standardized internal practice for situations like this. For example, the system could show “5 years” based on the current employment record, while HR’s confidential records identify “9 years recognized service for vacation/benefit purposes.” If other employees can see the HRIS service date, I would be particularly cautious about changing it to nine years because it could imply nine years of continuous employment when that isn’t actually the employee’s current period of employment.

The main thing I would recommend is consistency and documentation. If the organization has determined that previous service continues to be recognized for particular purposes, document exactly what is being recognized and for which benefits, rather than trying to make the HRIS solve something it technically cannot accommodate. You can also explain to the employee that the HRIS is displaying their current employment record and cannot reproduce historical employment periods, but their recognized service has been separately recorded and is being used when calculating applicable entitlements. If there are legal or contractual requirements concerning how the break in service, severance, vacation entitlement, or seniority must be treated, however, I would have employment counsel confirm the approach for your jurisdiction rather than relying solely on the HRIS configuration.

-HRInsider Staff