Worker Category Management
Worker Category Management enables administrators to automatically assign a consistent classification called a worker category to each worker during snapshot creation. Because the system generates categories when the snapshot is created, existing snapshots stay unchanged and historical analysis remains reproducible. Once generated, worker categories become a reliable grouping layer available across your analytical workflows.
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Worker Category Management is available under Workbench > Data Management > User Segmentation > Worker Category Management. Access to this feature varies by professional role: Data Foundation Admins, Data Modeler Admins, and Support have read and edit access, whereas Global Compensation Admins, PayAnalytics Admins, and Configuration have read access.
Configuration types
The feature supports three configuration modes:
Global worker category: the tenant-wide baseline that defines the default category logic for all workers.
Local worker category: a population-specific override that applies different field selections, a different separator, or different blank value handling to a defined worker population. Multiple local configurations can coexist, each linked to a distinct, non-overlapping population. A population can be assigned to only one local configuration.
Custom worker category: defined directly during snapshot creation for one-off analytical scenarios. It bypasses both global and local configurations entirely and does not impact the saved global or local settings.
Page details
You can manage global and local configurations directly on the Worker Category Management page. It consists of two tabs:Overview and Audit trail.
Overview
The Overview tab contains two sections stacked vertically:
Global worker category, which displays the tenant-level default configuration applied to all workers not covered by a local override. The section shows a single-row table with the number of concatenated fields in the count badge (that you can click to see the field names), the separator in use, the creation date, the name of the user who created the configuration, and the date and author of the last update. The three-dot icon on the right gives access to the Edit action.
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Local worker category, which lists all population-specific configurations that override the global worker category for matched workers. When a worker belongs to multiple local configurations, the one positioned highest in the list takes precedence. You can reorder local categories by dragging and dropping them using the handle on the left side of the category row.
Above the list, the Search field lets you find configurations by name. The Population drop-down includes all populations configured in the platform and filters the list to show only the configurations linked to the selected population. The Create local category button in the upper-right corner of the section opens the creation form. The list table specifies the local category name (which is a clickable link that opens the detail drawer on the right), the number of concatenated fields (with their names visible when clicking the count badge), the separator, the number of linked populations (and their names shown after you click the badge), the creation date and creator, and the date and author of the last update. The three-dot icon in each row provides View, Edit, and Delete actions.
The following figure illustrates the Overview tab:
Overview of the Worker Category Management
Audit trail
The application tracks all configuration changes to global and local worker categories in the Audit trail tab. It provides a chronological log of every create, edit, and delete action performed on any worker category configuration.
The Audit trail table includes the following columns:
Date & time: when the change occurred.
Editor: the user who performed the action.
Action: the type of change, shown as a tag: Create, Edit, or Delete.
Target: the name and type of the affected configuration (for instance, "France Employees, local worker category" or "Global worker category").
a column with the Download configuration button in each row, allowing administrators to download a JSON file corresponding to the relevant configuration.
To narrow the log to a specific period, use the Date range filter above the table. You can type your dates in the relevant fields. You can also click the arrow in the filter to select a start and end date from a calendar picker or choose a preset period from the panel on the right, such as This month or Last year. Click Apply to filter the table, Clear to remove the current selection, or Cancel to close without changes.
The table is paginated, with a configurable number of items per page, as shown in the picture below:
Audit trail table
Configuring the global worker category
There is one global worker category per tenant. To edit it, click the three-dot icon in the global worker category row and select Edit. The following Edit global worker category form opens:
Global worker category editing form
The form is divided into several sections:
The Separator section, with a required drop-down listing all available separator characters. Available options include | (vertical bar), _ (underscore), - (dash), – (hyphen), / (forward slash), • (bullet), : (colon), ; (semicolon), and , (comma).
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The Concatenated fields section, which contains a table with two columns: Field and Entity. Each row represents one worker attribute included in the category. Rows can be reordered using the drag handle on the left side of each row; the order determines the structure of the generated category string.
To add a new attribute, click Add field. In a pop-up that will appear, select the Entity and Field from the drop-down lists and confirm by clicking the Add field button.
Click the X button in a row to remove a field.
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Fields must exist in the Data Foundation schema. For example, the following field selection produces a category such as Sales|L3|Germany:
| Order | Entity | Field |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Employment | OrganizationName |
| 2 | JobArchitecture | JobLevel |
| 3 | Worker | WorkCountry |
Adding the same field twice within a configuration is not allowed.
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The Blank values section, which controls how missing field values are treated during category generation. Three radio button options are available:
Skip blank fields, where missing values are removed from the category string entirely. This option creates cleaner category values and is recommended for most use cases.
Fill blank fields value with a [Blank] value, where missing values are replaced with the literal placeholder [Blank]. This option proves suitable for customers who want to explicitly identify incomplete data in reporting.
Fill blank fields value with custom values, where missing values are replaced with a custom text. Selecting this option reveals a text input for each concatenated field, letting you define a different replacement value per field (maximum 50 characters each). This option becomes useful in cases where business-friendly labels are preferred instead of technical placeholders.
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The Preview section at the bottom of the form, which displays two live examples that update as you configure the form:
Preview (default), i.e., what the category string looks like when all selected fields have values.
Preview (blank), i.e., what the category string looks like when one or more fields are missing, reflecting the configured blank value handling.
Use the preview to verify the separator, field order, and blank handling before saving.
Click Update in the top-right corner of the form to save changes.
Creating and managing local worker categories
Local worker categories allow you to apply different categorization logic to a specific worker population. This is useful when certain worker groups need a different category structure than the tenant-wide default, for instance, because of regional reporting requirements or a simpler grouping strategy for a particular workforce segment. The following table illustrates how different populations might be configured:
| Population | Category logic |
|---|---|
| Executives | Grade + Region |
| Contractors | Vendor + Country |
| Support Teams | Department |
Creating a local worker category
Click the Create local category button on the Worker Category Management overview page. The Create local worker category form opens, as shown below:
The form consists of the following sections:
Basic information: Enter a name for the configuration (required, maximum 100 characters). It should clearly describe the target population and the purpose of the configuration.
Separator: Select the separator character from the drop-down list (required). The available options are the same as for the global worker category. See Configuring the global worker category above.
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Concatenated fields: Add the worker attributes that should form the category and arrange them in the order they should appear in the generated string. Click Add field to add an attribute. In a pop-up that will appear, select the Entity and Field from the drop-down lists and confirm by clicking the Add field button.
Use the drag handles to reorder your added fields. To remove a field, click the X button in a row.
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The field selection directly shapes the category output. For instance, selecting OrganizationName and WorkCountry without JobLevel generates a category such as Technology|FRA:
| Order | Entity | Field |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Employment | OrganizationName |
| 2 | Worker | WorkCountry |
Unlike the global worker category, this example intentionally excludes JobLevel to create a simplified regional grouping.
Population: Choose the population to which this configuration applies (required). The drop-down lists all populations configured in the platform; the population must already exist before it can be linked here.
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Only workers matching the selected population will use this local configuration; all others fall back to the global worker category.
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To learn how to configure populations in PaySuite, see Creating a population and Managing populations.
Blank values: Define how missing field values are handled. The options are the same as for the global worker category: Skip blank fields, Fill blank fields value with a [Blank] value, or Fill blank fields value with custom values. See Configuring the global worker category above.
Preview: The preview presents example category strings based on the current configuration. It becomes active after you fill in all required fields. Before that, the section prompts you to complete the configuration. Once active, it shows both a default example (all fields populated) and a blank example (one or more fields missing), using the actual field names and separator you have selected.
Click Create in the top-right corner of the form to save the new local worker category. It will appear in the Local worker category list on the overview page.
Viewing a local worker category
Click the name of a local worker category in the list, or select View from its three-dot menu, to open the following detail drawer on the right side of the screen:
Drawer with local worker category details
The drawer shows the configuration's general information (name, creation date, creator, last update date, and last updater), the selected population, and the worker category settings (separator, blank configuration, and the field/entity table). Edit and Delete buttons appear at the bottom of the drawer, redirecting you to the editing form or deletion confirmation dialog, respectively.
Editing a local worker category
Select Edit from the three-dot menu or click Edit in the detail drawer. The Edit local worker category form is identical in structure to the creation form described in Creating a local worker category, with all current values pre-populated. Make your changes and click Update in the top-right corner of the form to save them.
Deleting a local worker category
Select Delete from the three-dot menu or click Delete in the detail drawer. A confirmation dialog will appear. Click Delete to confirm or Cancel to keep your category.
Using worker categories when creating a snapshot
Worker categories are generated as part of the snapshot creation process in Workbench > Data Management > Data Modeling > Snapshot Manager.
After providing a snapshot name and description, selecting a data model, setting an effective date, and choosing a population in the snapshot creation form, administrators can enable the Use worker category configuration option in the Worker category section. Two configuration type options then appear:
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Global, which uses the tenant-level global worker category as the default. Workers matching a local worker category population automatically receive the local configuration instead. See an example:
Worker Matching population Applied configuration Amy Wong Ukraine employees Local worker category John Smith No local population Global worker category This helps organizations maintain a reusable global categorization strategy while supporting population-specific exceptions where needed.
Custom, which allows defining a snapshot-specific worker category directly during snapshot creation. In such a case, the global and local configurations are not modified. You can use it for temporary reporting scenarios, one-off analyses, alternative grouping logic, or other cases where the standard configuration does not apply. When selected, this option reveals the Concatenated fields section that is identical to the corresponding Concatenated fields section described above in Creating a local worker category
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For more information about the Snapshot Manager feature in PaySuite, refer to Working with Snapshot Manager.
Reviewing snapshot results
After snapshot generation, the calculated category for each worker appears in the Category column in exported CSV files being the snapshot output. The following image shows such a file:
Category column with the generated worker category strings
The value reflects the configuration applied at generation time: workers covered by a local override receive their local category string, while all others receive the global one.
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Changing a configuration after a snapshot has been generated does not affect that snapshot's output.
For example, with OrganizationName and WorkCountry under the France local configuration, the Category column shows values such as:
Worker |
Category |
|---|---|
James Hayes |
Product|FRA |
Mary Robinson |
Public Relations (PR) & Communications|FRA |
Amy Johnson |
Sales Operations|FRA |
CSV files including the Category can then be used in analytics, reporting, workforce segmentation, Power BI integrations, downstream calculations, etc.