Here is the situation.

I have developed an HRIS system for the company I work for. An issue came up because some employees have status changes that affect some service calculations. For example: an employee changes from part time to full time. Since part time employees don't accrue vacation or other benefits, we need to know the date of hire (DOH) that would be used to calculate such things.

The HRIS system maintains a historical record of any changes in an employee's employment record. So my feeling is that when an employee incurs a change we can change their DOH to reflect the effective DOH. We still maintain the original DOH in their original employment record and we have fields to record an explanation of why the change. I can then flag DOH on all reports to indicate where the current or effective DOH is different from the original DOH.

My HR Manager is uncomfortable with this, thinking that we always need to show the original DOH. But the only example she can come up with of when we need it would be employment verifications. My response is, in that case, she just looks up the employee's record and check the original DOH.

So, I'm putting the question out to others experienced in HR record keeping. How do other companies and other software deal with this issue. Should I add an effective DOH field to the database or can I use the DOH field I have with the historical record. Are there legal issues involved that need to be considered?

Any input is appreciated.

If she doesn't want to change the original DOH, why not simple add another field for effective date of change i.e. pt to ft etc...
That way you would be able to track an employees progress in the company.

That is one of the alternatives I've offered. The problem is the form I use for employment history records is very busy and I'm loath to add anything new there if I can avoid it.

We won't be changing the original DOH in any case, since that will still be in the original hire record. The way the historical data works, when a new record needs to be added, all the data is copied from the current record and then what needs to be changed is changed.