HR Settings & Retention

This page describes the two options for where people data lives, the starting set each instance is given, and retention for people who have left. HR Settings is on every plan. This page is part of the reference HR Records, Time Off & Reviews.

What It Does

• Zonitix owns people data. The default. HR works in Zonitix and employee files are edited there.
• A connected HR system owns people data. Your HR system stays the record. You choose the connected system, then decide field by field who owns each one. A field the HR system owns is read-only in Zonitix and is overwritten on each sync, with the change added to the job history.
• Safeguards on a sync. An empty value from the HR system never blanks a value in Zonitix. If one sync carries more new terminations than a safety limit, none are scheduled and the page says so. Taking the data back makes every field editable in Zonitix again, and nothing already synced is removed.
• The starting set. Each instance is given a starting set once: types of time off, training items, draft surveys, draft review cycles and example goals. If part of it has been deleted, a restore button adds only what is missing and never changes what you have.
• Retention for people who have left. Off by default. You can choose 12, 24, 36, 60 or 84 months. A daily run then removes the sensitive part of a former employee’s HR data once their recorded last day is older than that. Their job history and the departure record are kept, and their user account is not touched.
• Removal is permanent. Turning retention on, or shortening it, removes data from the next daily run and cannot be undone, so the page asks you to confirm first.

HR Settings: Which System Owns The Data

HR & TalentHR Settings appears for people with the permission to manage employee files or to manage time off. Someone with only the time-off permission sees just the “Time off” section (on a plan with the HR module); the rest of the page is read with the permission to view or to manage employee files, and changed with the permission to manage them. The main part answers one question, “Where does people data live?”, with two options. Saving a change to it is written to the audit log.

• Fields that can be handed over. Job title, department, manager, level, employment type, work location, start date, and last day.
• Last day starts offboarding. If the HR system owns the last day, a termination there schedules the last day in Zonitix and offboarding starts on that date. If Zonitix owns it, offboarding is started by hand.
• A safety limit on terminations. If one sync carries more new terminations than the limit (the larger of 3 or 10% of the people matched), none are scheduled and the “Last sync” card says so.
• Empty is not cleared. An empty value from the HR system never blanks a value in Zonitix, and the sync writes only the fields you marked as owned by that connector.
• Switching back. “Take back” makes every field editable in Zonitix again and stops syncs changing people data. Nothing already synced is removed.

The Starting Set

Each instance is given a starting set once: types of time off, training items, draft surveys, draft review cycles and example goals. If part of it has been deleted, a restore button appears on the matching page for whoever manages that area. It only adds what is missing, matched by name; it never changes, renames or re-activates what you have. Restored surveys and review cycles come back as drafts and restored training is unassigned, so nobody is asked anything.

Retention For People Who Have Left (Optional)

The “People who have left” card in HR Settings is off by default (“Keep (do not remove)”). You can choose 12, 24, 36, 60 or 84 months. A daily run then removes the sensitive part of a former employee’s HR data once their recorded last day is older than that: profile details including date of birth and home address, pay history, emergency contacts, time off, documents, goals, reviews and feedback about them, training assignments and survey invites.

• Their job history and the departure record are kept, and their user account is not touched.
• It acts only when there is a departure record with a last day past the cut-off, the person was not rehired, and the account is in a left state. An active account is never touched.
• Deleting a person entirely remains the separate erasure action in Users.

If something here is not working as you expect, start with When something goes wrong.

Permissions Behind This Page

Where the sections above say who may see or do something, this is the permission that is checked. What each permission allows is listed in HR Records, Time Off & Reviews.

Routes, Permission Checks And Limits

Retention Setting

PUT /user-management/employees/hr-settings/retention takes { months } and needs manage_employee_records. 0 switches retention off; otherwise it must be a whole number from 6 to 240, and anything else is answered with 400. The page offers 12, 24, 36, 60 and 84.