When a new employee is hired, an applicant becomes an active employee and a previously vacant position is occupied. Relevant data is entered for the new employee: personal data, organizational specifications, contract elements, and payroll specifications.

The employee's personal data can be taken from applicant data. Payroll specifications such as tax class, health insurance data, and pension insurance number are taken from the documents provided by the employee when he or she is hired.

Sometimes, former employees can start working for an enterprise again, or inactive work relationships can be resumed. Such scenarios are regarded as special types of employee hiring.

If a transfer (that is, an employee's change of position) is approved by the instance responsible, relevant employee data is adjusted accordingly.

A transfer entails a change of organizational assignment, and can also trigger other adjustments to, for example, time recording specifications (such as leave entitlement), payroll specifications (such as salary increases), or other internal HR data (such as objects on loan, company cars, and powers of attorney).

As a result of the transfer, a vacant position is filled and the employee's previous position becomes vacant.

If an employee leaves the enterprise, his or her work relationship terminates or becomes inactive.

The work relationship terminates if the employee leaves the enterprise or goes into retirement or early retirement.

If a work relationship must be interrupted for a specific period of time rather than terminated completely, its status can be changed to inactive. Reasons for interrupting a work relationship include military or non-military service, maternity leave, and parental leave.

The position that the employee previously occupied now becomes vacant.