Set up people data change request forms

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People data change request forms let managers and HR ask for a change to an employee's record — a promotion, a pay rise, a move to another team or new contact details — without editing the profile directly and without waiting for an administrator.

The request goes through the approval chain you set up. As soon as the last approver signs it off, PeopleForce writes the new data to the employee's profile automatically. Nobody has to retype anything, and every change has a clear trail: who asked for it, who approved it and when.

💡 People data change requests are for changing someone else's data. If you want employees to update their own details, use Self service request forms.

How it works

You build the form. In Settings > Forms, choose exactly which data the form can change — for example, position and manager for a promotion, or base compensation for a salary review.
You decide who can use it. Give the form to roles such as Managers or Team leads in Roles and permissions.
A manager submits a request. They go to Requests > + Request (or open the employee's profile and choose Actions > Request information change), pick the form and the employee, and enter the new values. The employee's current data is already shown, so they only change what's new.
Approvers sign it off one by one, in the order you set.
The profile updates itself. After the final approval, the changes are saved to the profile from the effective date, and any linked workflow starts.

🎯 Use case: promoting a team member

Maria leads the design team and wants to promote Alex from Designer to Senior Designer from the 1st of next month, with a salary increase.

Maria opens Requests > + Request, chooses the Promotion form and selects Alex.
In the Position table she adds a new record: position Senior Designer, job level Senior, effective from the 1st. In Base compensation she enters the new salary from the same date.
The request goes to the head of department and then to HR. Neither of them has to type anything into Alex's profile.
Once HR approves, Alex's position and salary are updated automatically, and the linked workflow creates tasks for IT and payroll.

Other ways teams use these forms

Salary review – managers suggest new pay for their reports; HR and Finance approve before anything changes.
One-off bonus – request an additional compensation, such as a project bonus, with its amount and date.
Team or manager change – move an employee to another department, team or manager.
Job profile update – assign a new job profile when someone's role changes.
Contract changes – collect a signed contract amendment as a document, saved straight to the employee's profile.
Personal details – let HR or managers update contact details on an employee's behalf.

Take a moment to watch our video tutorial

Set up permissions

Before you start creating forms, give access to them. A published form stays invisible to everyone until a role grants access to it.

From the left menu, go to Settings > Roles and permissions.
Choose the Managers, Team leads or All employees role, or a custom role.
Open the People tab and select Forms. Under People data change request, tick each form this role can submit.
Click Save.

⚠️ Access to the form is the only check. Everyone who can submit a form sees every field on it, pre-filled with the employee's current value — including tables such as compensation — even if their role can't see that data on the profile. Keep salary and other sensitive data on separate forms and grant them only to roles you trust with that data.

Set up People data change request

Create a new form from scratch, or edit or copy an existing one. Every form has three steps: Details, Sections and Approvals.

Step 1: Details

From the left menu, select Settings > Forms > People data change request.
Click + Form.

💡 To change an existing form, click the three dots next to it and choose Edit. Choose Make a copy to use it as a starting point for a new form.

3. Enter a Name (up to 100 characters). Name the form after the change, for example Promotion or Address change, so managers can easily find it.

4. Add a Description (optional, up to 800 characters) that explains when to use the form.

5. Under Trigger workflows, select the workflows to start automatically (optional).

6. Tick Allow requester to disable workflow if the person submitting the request should be able to skip the workflow for that request.

7. Click Next.

⚠️ If the form has approvals, the workflow starts only after the request is fully approved, and it doesn't run if the request is rejected. If there are no approvals, the workflow starts as soon as the request is submitted.

Step 2: Sections

Sections split the form into logical parts, for example New position and New salary. Inside each section you add the data that can be changed. When the request is approved, the changes are saved to the employee's profile.

Click + next to Sections to add a section.
Inside the section, click + Add and choose Fields or Tables.
Tick Required for anything the requester must fill in.

Fields

Employee field – any system or custom field from the employee profile (for example, phone number or address). Pick it from a searchable list grouped by field group.
Photo – upload or replace the employee's profile photo.
Teams – assign or reassign the employee to teams.
Personal email – update the employee's personal email address.
Document – upload a file such as a contract or certificate. After approval, it's saved to the employee's profile in the folder you select.

💡 Photo, Teams and Personal email can be added once per form, so they disappear from the menu after you add them. Employee field and Document can be added as many times as you need.

Tables

Tables hold data with a history. On the request, the requester sees the employee's current record and adds a new one next to it with Add.

Position – position-related details after a promotion or transfer: Position, Job level, Manager, Department, Division, Location and more.
Base compensation – salary changes. Effective on, Amount and Currency are required.
Additional compensation – extra payments, for example Compensation type, Frequency, Starts on, Amount and Currency.
Job profile – Effective on and Job profile, both required.
Workforce planning position – links the employee to a position from your workforce plan, with an effective date.
Custom tables – your own employee tables. They start empty, and the requester adds rows from scratch.

Click the cog ⚙️ next to a table to choose which columns the requester sees, remove the ones you don't need and mark important ones as required. If a table is ticked as Required, the requester must add at least one record to it.

💡 Allow past dates controls backdating. Open the cog next to the Effective from row of a Position, Base compensation or Additional compensation table (or the cog of the Job profile block) and untick it so requesters can't pick a date before today. It's on by default.

Step 3: Approvals

Tick Approvals enabled.
Choose who approves – for example, the employee's manager, a role or a specific person.
To add more approval steps, click + Add approver. Approvers receive the request in the order you set.
Optionally, tick Skip unassigned enabled so steps that don't resolve to anyone are skipped, and Substitution enabled so approvals for people on non-working leave go to their substitute.
Under Collaborators, click + Add collaborator to add people to every request. Collaborators can view, comment, print and add other collaborators, but can't approve.
Click Complete.

⚠️ Approvers and collaborators are found for the employee the request is about, not for the person who submits it. Every approver must approve before the change is saved to the profile. If approvals are off, the change is saved as soon as the request is submitted.

Access all company requests

Go to Requests and open the Company tab, then choose People data change request in the list of request types. Use Awaiting approval, In revision and All, filters and search to find a request, or export the list.

Open a request to approve it (if it's your turn), reject it, force approve it (override all approvers) or nudge the next approver.

Delegate permissions for managing company-submitted requests

All system administrators can manage submitted requests. To give this to another role, for example a custom role for a specific employee:

From the left menu, go to Settings > Roles and permissions.
Select the role.
On the Company tab, open General and, under Other, tick View and manage company requests.
Click Save.

⚠️ People with this permission get the Company tab in Requests, where they can review, approve and reject all requests.

Set up permissions to manage all the forms

All system administrators can create and edit forms. To give this to another role:

From the left menu, go to Settings > Roles and permissions.
Select the role.
On the Company tab, open Settings and, under Core, tick Forms.
Click Save.

⚠️ People with this permission can create and edit all forms in the system.

Troubleshooting

Nobody can find the form. No role has access to it yet. Grant it in Roles and permissions (see Set up permissions above).
A request is stuck with no one to approve it. An approval step didn't resolve to anyone for that employee – often because they have no manager. Turn on Skip unassigned enabled for future requests. For the stuck request, an administrator or someone with View and manage company requests can approve the unassigned step.