Movement: hires, exits, transfers

The flow behind the headcount trend. Movement reporting fails on classification, not counting: three kinds of event land as a hire, and rehires quietly reset tenure. Classify once, and the numbers tie.

RuleClassify every staffing event once, in the model, and publish the tie: hires minus exits equals the headcount changeNevercount every hire event as a new hire. Rehires and conversions are not new attraction.

◆ The classifications— three kinds of hire, two kinds of exit, and transfers that are neither.

Event	Classify as	Why it matters
External hire	New hire	The only kind that measures attraction.
Rehire	Rehire, separately	A returning worker. Counting it as a new hire flatters recruiting; it also defaults a fresh continuous service date, the tenure trap below.
Contingent conversion	Conversion, separately	A contractor becoming an employee lands as a hire event. It grows the employee count without anyone joining the company. See Worker.
Termination	Voluntary or involuntary	The split turnover analysis depends on, plus regretted or not where used.
Transfer	Internal movement	Org, job, or company change. Not a hire, not an exit. A company transfer processed as a termination and hire must be paired back into one transfer, or attrition inflates. See Cost Center & Company.

◆ The date traps— several service dates per worker, tenure resets on rehire, and hires that exist before they start.

Trap	What goes wrong
Several hire dates	A worker carries an original hire date, a most recent hire date, and a continuous service date, and they differ after any break in service. Pick one per metric: original for relationship length, most recent for this employment, continuous service for tenure and accruals.
Rehire resets tenure	On rehire and on contingent conversion, the continuous service date defaults from the new hire event's effective date. Unless adjusted, a ten-year veteran rehired last month reports as one month of tenure. Turnover-by-tenure needs the date choice made deliberately.
Future-dated hires	A hire entered with a future start date exists as a pre-hire and appears inactive until the effective date. Decide when it enters hire counts, at entry or at start, and apply it consistently. See effective dating.
Retro events	Late-entered hires and terminations land inside months you already reported. The entry-date delta catches them; last month's movement restates, and the model should show that honestly rather than freeze a wrong number.

◆ The owned model, and the SQL— one query on the event fact, with the tie to headcount published.

The report reads fct_worker_event joined to the same dimensions as the headcount report, so the two must tie:

-- monthly movement by level-2 org, classified; net change must equal the headcount delta
SELECT d.month_end_date,
       o.level_2 AS organization,
       SUM(CASE WHEN f.event_class = 'External Hire' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS external_hires,
       SUM(CASE WHEN f.event_class IN ('Rehire','Conversion') THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS rehires_conversions,
       SUM(CASE WHEN f.event_class = 'Termination' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS exits,
       SUM(CASE WHEN f.event_class IN ('External Hire','Rehire','Conversion') THEN 1
                WHEN f.event_class = 'Termination' THEN -1 ELSE 0 END) AS net_change
FROM fct_worker_event f
JOIN dim_date d ON f.date_key = d.date_key
JOIN dim_org  o ON f.org_key  = o.org_key
GROUP BY 1, 2
ORDER BY 1, 2

Sample output, continuing the series from the headcount report, which showed 142 workers at March-end, 145 at April-end, 147 at May-end. The net change here explains each step exactly:

month_end_date	organization	external_hires	rehires_conversions	exits	net_change
2026-04-30	Revenue Org	4	1	2	+3
2026-05-31	Revenue Org	3	0	1	+2

142 + 3 = 145, and 145 + 2 = 147. Publishing that tie is what makes both reports trusted: when the flow explains the stock, nobody argues with either number. Sample values are illustrative, never client data.

Want movement that ties to headcount?

We build the classified event fact, the date choices, and the published tie, reconciled against Workday, and you own every line.

Talk to us

Terms on this page

external hire: A person joining the company for the first time. The measure of attraction.
rehire: A former worker returning. Counted separately from new hires.
conversion: A contingent worker becoming an employee. A hire event, but nobody new joined.
continuous service date: The date tenure and accruals count from. Defaults from the new hire event on rehire.
original hire date: The first time the worker ever joined. Survives breaks in service.
pre-hire: A future-dated hire before the start date arrives. Exists, but inactive.
transfer: Internal movement between orgs, jobs, or companies. Neither a hire nor an exit.
net change: Hires minus exits. Must equal the headcount delta for the same period and population.
regretted exit: A voluntary termination the company wanted to keep. Used where the flag is maintained.
restatement: A prior month's movement changing after late-entered events. Shown, not hidden.