Identities and their status
Every person and every technical actor whose access Nova manages is an identity in Nova. Its status describes where it stands in the employment relationship. Everything else follows from it: whether it may sign in, whether its accounts in the target systems are active and whether its entitlements take effect.
The principle
Only active identities may do anything. Every other status blocks sign-in to Nova, the accounts in the target systems and taking part in approvals and recertifications.
Nova implements this rule as an allow list: what counts is whether an identity is active – not whether its status is on a block list. A status added in the future is therefore always blocked at first.
The five statuses
| Status | Sign in, approve, review | Accounts in target systems | Entitlements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-hire contract signed, start date in the future | no | prepared, locked | prepared, effective from the start date |
| Active employed | yes | active | effective |
| Suspended temporarily paused, e.g. parental leave, sabbatical or after a security incident | no – approvals go to the deputy | locked | kept |
| Terminated employment ended | no – approvals go to the deputy | locked immediately, deleted after the retention period | removed after the grace period |
| Trash terminated and marked for permanent deletion | no | deleted | removed |
The core rule
Suspended means: the entitlements stay. Someone returning from parental leave can continue working right away.
Terminated means: the entitlements go. Someone who is rehired later starts without old access.
Grace period after termination
On termination, Nova locks all accounts of the identity immediately. Its entitlements stay assigned for a configurable grace period, but have no effect because the accounts are locked.
The grace period serves two purposes:
- Handovers: while the entitlements are assigned, it remains visible which tasks and access need to be handed over.
- Corrections: a termination recorded by mistake or too early can be undone without requesting entitlements again.
When the grace period ends, Nova removes the entitlements – in Nova and in all target systems.
Transitions
A status only changes through defined procedures. Nova logs every change with the time, the triggering person or process, the reason and the state before and after.
| From → to | Trigger | What Nova does |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-hire → Active | start date reached | unlock accounts, make entitlements effective |
| Pre-hire → Terminated | hire cancelled | discard prepared accounts and entitlements |
| Active → Suspended | suspended employment reported by HR, or manual suspension | lock accounts, end active sessions, hand open approvals to the deputy |
| Suspended → Active | return | unlock accounts; entitlements unchanged |
| Active or Suspended → Terminated | end date reached, termination reported by HR, or manual termination | lock accounts, end active sessions, transfer ownerships, start the grace period |
| Terminated → Active, within the grace period | undo termination | unlock accounts; entitlements are kept |
| Terminated → Active, after the grace period | rehire | fresh start without old access; entitlements granted anew through roles and requests |
| Terminated → Trash | manual | hide the identity and mark it for permanent deletion |
| Trash → Terminated | restore | bring back the record only – without access |
| Trash → permanently deleted | retention period expired | remove personal data; audit log entries are kept |
Mapping from SAP HCM
When Nova takes over personnel data from SAP HCM, the employment status (infotype 0000, field STAT2) determines the status of the identity:
| Employment status (STAT2) | Status in Nova |
|---|---|
| 3 – active | Active |
| 1 – inactive | Suspended |
| 0 – withdrawn | Terminated |
| 2 – retiree | Terminated |
A hire with a start date in the future results in Pre-hire. Other source systems are mapped onto the same statuses through the field mapping.