HCM: Terminations

Terminations and Separations

The Termination action is used in HCM-Workforce Administration to end any job, whether or not the employee is separating from UC Berkeley. The reason code you use will determine if just the job or the entire person is ended.

All appointments need to be actively terminated in HCM, even appointments with end dates. Terminations should be done in a timely manner and in the chronological order they occur in order to avoid problems.

The only time you should not terminate a job record, is when it will be immediately followed by another appointment that begins the next business day (weekends/holidays do not count as a break in service), on the same job record (e.g., Transfer, Promotion, Demotion, or Data Change/Reappointment), because those actions will end your job and begin the new job.

Always check the Person Organizational Summary screen (Workforce Administration Personal Information > Organizational Relationships > Person Organizational Summary) to check the status of all job records for an employee before attempting to proceed with a termination. Employees often have multiple jobs across multiple departments and this is the only way to determine what the correct action should be.

Like all other actions in Job Data, a termination is entered by inserting a row on the job record. When an employee has only one active job record, a Final (Person-level) termination on that job record will separate the employee in the Payroll System. If the employee has more than one active job record and is separating from UC Berkeley, you must enter a termination on each active job record. An employee is considered separated when there are no active appointments in PPS.

Termination Reason Codes - job level vs. person level

If a specific job is ending but there are other active job records, then you need to use a job-level Termination to end just that job (not the entire person). The Action/Reasons: Termination/End Additional Job or Termination /Job-level Layoff will only end that one job and will not affect other active job(s) or the person's status as an active employee.

When you enter a Termination on the last active job record for an employee, the system will prevent you from using Termination/EAD, and require that you use one of the other Final/person-level Termination reason codes. All other Termination reason codes are "final" - meaning they end employment and fully separate the employee in the Payroll System. The person is no longer an active employee and all the related consequences will occur (Direct Deposit & Benefits are cancelled, etc.).

Termination Effective Date

Terminations take effect at midnight on the Effective Date. (In other words, the employee is paid for the date of the Termination). You should NOT add or change the End Date field on Job Information page when adding this row. A final Termination code overrides any previously entered end dates or indefinite status.

Note: When an employee terminates while on an unpaid leave of absence, you need to enter the Last Day in Pay Status (on Employment Data page) and it must be at least one day before the start of the unpaid leave. You do not need to return them from leave before terminating them.