Core concepts
User, member, worker, engagement
Four ideas that are deliberately not merged, and the real cases that would break if they were.
Most HR products have one concept of a person. Ergira has four, because the cardinality between them is real and collapsing any pair breaks a case the product has to handle.
| Concept | What it is | Used by |
|---|---|---|
| User | A login. Global — one account can belong to several organisations. | Signing in, nothing else |
| Member | Somebody's identity inside one organisation. Carries their roles. | Work management: assignee, reporter, comment author |
| Worker | Somebody the organisation engages. | HR: pay, leave, right to work, agreements |
| Engagement | The dated relationship between a worker and a legal entity. | Job title, entity, FTE, working pattern, work country |
Why they stay separate
- A client guest invited to watch one project is a member with no worker record.
- A contractor tracked for cost only, or somebody who has been hired but has not started, is a worker with no member.
- A worker is not necessarily an employee.
Engagementis named that way for exactly this reason — *employment* is the wrong word for somebody who is not employed.
A person can hold two engagements at once
This is rare, real, and the single assumption that most often gets built in wrongly. A general manager at one entity who also sits as a director of another has two job titles, two managers, two salaries and two payrolls. Somebody can also be an employee on one scope and a contractor on another at the same entity.
The consequences are everywhere
Payroll is scoped per entity and per worker type, so nobody vanishes from a run. Headcount counts one head and sums FTE — two engagements are one person and, say, 1.2 FTE, not two people. Credential requirements are checked against every position held. A manager on either reporting line is a real manager.
Leave is held per engagement for the same reason: two engagements are two employers, each owing leave under its own rules at its own FTE. See How leave works.