Re-employ and reactivate your former employee or seasonal workers
Re-engaging and employing former employees can occur for a variety of reasons. You may have employees returning to your business across multiple platforms, or rely on seasonal or casual workers who return periodically.
In these cases, the most efficient and reliable approach is to reactivate the employee’s foundU profile.
Reactivating a former employee profile ensures that all important information is accurately preserved, including the employee's previous:
- Work history
- Contracts
- Performance comments and other records
This not only helps maintain data integrity and compliance but also reduces administrative effort, prevents record duplication, and streamlines re-onboarding for employees returning to work.
In this article, we will cover:
- What an archived employee can access in their app
- Key checks to make before rehiring an employee in your platform
- The different methods of reactivating an employee profile
Permission Reminder: To reactivate (unarchive) profiles, you will need 'Access Archived People', 'Manage employee status' and 'Edit Employee Details and Configuration' enabled in your admin user permissions.
When rehiring an employee, it’s best practice to reactivate their existing profile rather than create a new one. This helps maintain accurate records and avoids issues during onboarding for the following reasons:
Employee TFNs and email addresses must be unique per profile
Ensures all of the employee’s work history and records are retained
Streamlines onboarding, with previous information prefilled
Please note: If you have any terminated employees whose profiles are not yet archived, instead of reactivating their profiles, you can revoke their termination. You can learn more about this in our guide here.
Below, we’ll provide an overview of what an archived profile looks like and the best practices for rehiring a former employee.
Archived employee profiles
When terminating an employee in foundU, you will be asked to specify an archive date. On this date, the employee’s profile will be archived and marked as inactive.
For your managers, this means the profile is securely stored for record-keeping and cannot be rostered or paid on your platform.
For your employees, once their profiles are archived, they will retain limited access. When logging in to their foundU App, they can view payslips, contracts, and other important documents sent from the platform, ensuring they always have access to essential financial and employment records.
However, archived employees cannot update their contact information, including their email address, or other profile details, to maintain the integrity of your records.
For more information on what an Archived employee can access, please refer to our employee guide here.
When to reactivate employee profiles
Employees can leave a business or be terminated for various reasons, either voluntarily or through dismissal. When managing former employee profiles, it’s important to consider the reason for their termination before deciding whether to bring them back.
There are several situations where reactivating an archived employee profile may be required; these can include:
Rehiring seasonal workers
Transferring former employees between foundU platforms
Making additional payments or correcting pay after the profile has been archived
A former employee has requested to return to work
In any of these situations, it’s important to first consider whether rehiring the former employee is still appropriate for your business. Completing a few checks before reactivation helps ensure the decision is suitable and reduces the risk of issues later on.
Before reactivating an employee profile, make sure you complete the following checks:
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Review any comments left on the employee profile to determine suitability for rehire
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Confirm the termination report to understand why the profile was originally terminated
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Review the employee’s employment history, including the termination reason
Check that the employee’s email address is accurate and up to date, as this helps prevent duplicate profiles from being created
Options for employee reactivation
Once you’ve completed the necessary checks and are ready to proceed, there are 2 options available for reactivating an employee profile. These are:
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Admin reactivation – Managers with the appropriate permissions can reactivate employee profiles, either individually or in bulk.
This option allows managers to select which employees to rehire and update contact details. From here, you decide whether the employee should proceed with onboarding or be automatically approved.
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Employee self-reactivation – This optional feature allows any archived employees to reactivate their own profile.
When enabled, it automatically triggers onboarding, allowing employees to update their details before returning to work.
Hot tip: The employee's details from their initial onboarding will be retained in the onboarding process. However, the employee is then given the opportunity to update any details if needed.
Please refer to each of the sections below for more information on each of these options.
If you prefer to have full control over which employee profiles are reactivated, managers can reactivate profiles either individually from the employee’s profile or in bulk from the Archived People menu.
This method is useful when you are:
Transferring employees between platforms
Correcting payroll or payment matters
Rehiring on a case-by-case basis
When reactivating profiles using this method, you can choose whether the employee will go through onboarding - sending the profile to Pending People - or be automatically approved and moved directly to Approved People.
Use the tabs below to review each reactivation method and choose the most appropriate option.
Before reactivating an employee, please complete the checks listed in the section above.
To reactivate an individual employee:
- Navigate to People > Archived People and find and select the employee you are looking for.
- From the top right of the employee's profile, select Manage > Reactivate person.
- You will have the option to select whether the employee should complete their onboarding or not.
- If the employee has been terminated and archived, completing the onboarding process again is the best practice, as this is their opportunity to update any personal and financial details that may have changed and to submit an updated tax file declaration.
- If your employee is to complete onboarding, you'll be prompted to choose if you'd like to 'Send a notification to the employee'.
- If you select Yes, this will then send an email to the employee to notify them that their Employee Profile has been reactivated.
- You will also be advised that the Onboarding status will be reset. The employee's onboarding will be reset, moving them to Pending People, and they will be required to complete onboarding before they can commence work.
- Select Reactivate.
Before reactivating, please complete the checks listed in the section above.
To reactivate multiple employee profiles:
- From the quick menu, navigate to People > then Archived People.
- Locate and select the people who require reactivation.
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Navigate to Bulk Actions > Reactivate Selected.
- In the Reactivate Employees modal, choose whether to send a notification or reset the onboarding status for the selected people.
- If you selected 'No' for your employee to complete onboarding, they will now be found in Approved People, and no further action is required.
- If you selected 'Yes' for your employee to complete onboarding, they will now appear in Pending People. Follow the instructions below.
- To reactivate, select Confirm.
Hot tip: You can now see an employee's reactivation date and previous termination history in their Employment History.
Next steps
Once a profile is reactivated, it is advisable to conduct any pre-hiring checks as if you were hiring a new candidate. This can include:
- Reviewing their profile to ensure all compliances, contact details, and tax declarations are current
- Add new positions to their profile. Do not reuse positions already on their profile, as ended positions are not included in the rate rise tool. Reusing them can cause other issues.
- Update any leave entitlements. For unpaid leave, you may need to delete and add it again to reset it
- For employees who are onboarding, you will need to approve their profiles
Depending on your business's processes and how you manage your workforce, you may find it valuable to allow former employees to reactivate their own archived profiles.
Common use cases for employee self-reactivation:
- Seasonal workforces - Employees return for recurring peak periods, such as in hospitality and tourism.
- Project-based roles - Businesses that regularly engage temporary or contract workers for short-term projects.
- Labour hire and healthcare - Industries where skill shortages and high demand mean employees frequently move between organisations.
This process allows any archived employee to reactivate their profile and will automatically redirect them back to the onboarder complete. All previous information is retained, allowing your employees to quickly review and update their details.
All employees who reactivate their own profiles will be placed in the Pending people menu and have their profiles reviewed and approved by an admin user.
You can learn more about this feature and how to enable it in our dedicated guide. Additionally, you can view how the employee self-reactivation process works from the employee's perspective in this employee guide.
Next steps
Once a profile is reactivated, it is advisable to conduct any pre-hiring checks as if you were hiring a new candidate. This can include:
- Reviewing their profile to ensure all compliances, contact details, and tax declarations are current
- Add new positions to their profile. Do not reuse positions already on their profile, as ended positions are not included in rate rises. Reusing them can cause other issues.
- Update any leave entitlements. For unpaid leave, you may need to delete and add it again to reset it
- For employees who are onboarding, you will need to approve their profiles