Worker Types and Assignments: Modelling the Modern Workforce
Employees, contingents, and people with multiple roles, the modern workforce is messy. Model worker types and assignments to fit reality.
The tidy picture of one person, one job, one employer is not the workforce most organisations actually have. There are contractors, contingent workers, people with two concurrent roles, people who move between assignments. Modelling worker types and assignments to fit that mess is what keeps the whole system honest.
Distinguish worker types deliberately
Employee, contingent worker, non-worker, each has different implications for pay, benefits, and reporting. Model them as what they genuinely are, because treating a contractor as an employee, or vice versa, causes problems in every downstream module.
Handle multiple assignments cleanly
Someone with two concurrent roles needs two assignments modelled properly, not a fudge. If your organisation genuinely has dual-role people, configure for it, because bodging it corrupts pay and reporting.
Plan for transitions between types
A contractor who becomes an employee, an employee who goes contingent, these transitions happen and need handling without losing history or breaking continuity. Design the path between types, not just the types.
Real scenario: a client had contractors set up as employees because it was 'easier', and they were accidentally accruing benefits and leave they weren't entitled to. Untangling it was painful. We modelled contingent workers properly as their own type. The entitlements corrected and the reporting finally distinguished the two. Model the workforce you have, not the tidy one you wish you had.