Employee Core Details

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Overview

The Employee Core Details view defines the canonical employee object within the Common Data Model (CDM). It establishes a stable and consistent representation of each employee by combining identity, descriptive attributes, and system linkages into a single, governed structure.

This view forms the foundation for all employee-related domains, enabling consistent joins, secure identity handling, and scalable extension into meta and item layers.

Purpose

  • Provide a single source of truth for employee identity
  • Standardise how employees are referenced across all DataMart views
  • Enable secure and consistent linking to downstream datasets (e.g. project, resource, absence)
  • Support data governance and lineage through structured metadata and audit fields

Key Features

1. Canonical Object Definition

  • Defines employees using:
    • OBJECT_CLASS → Company
    • OBJECT_CODE → Employee Number (EMP_NO)
    • OBJECT_SEQ → JSON composite key (COMPANY_ID, EMP_NO)
  • Ensures a globally unique and stable identifier for each employee

2. Structured Metadata (OBJECT_METADATA)

  • Encapsulates key identity attributes as JSON:
    • PERSON_UID → Links to underlying person identity
    • EMAIL → Hashed email identifier (MD5-derived short hex)
  • Follows the CDM principle of:
    • CODE → System value
    • DESC → Human-readable context

3. Secure Identity Handling

  • Email addresses are not exposed in plaintext
  • Uses hashed email tokens to:
    • Enable cross-system linking
    • Protect personally identifiable information (PII)
  • Aligns with privacy-by-design principles

4. Descriptive Representation

  • OBJECT_NAME provides a safe, human-readable employee name
  • Special characters are sanitised to ensure compatibility across platforms

5. Source System Integration

  • Primary source:
    • ifs.DIM_EMPLOYEE_OL
  • Enriched with:
    • ifs.QDIM_PERSON_INFO_OL$
    • ifs.QDIM_FND_USER_PROPERTY_OL (SMTP email)
  • Ensures alignment between:
    • Employee records
    • Person identity
    • System user/email mappings

6. Audit & Lifecycle Management

  • Includes standard CDM audit fields:
    • CREATE_DATE
    • EXPIRY_DATE
    • ACTIVE_FLAG
    • CHECKSUM
  • Supports:
    • Change detection
    • Future historical tracking
    • Data quality validation

Design Principles

  • Object-first modelling
    Employee is treated as a core object, not a transactional entity
  • Separation of concerns
    • Core → Identity & linkage (this view)
    • Meta → Attributes (codes, dates, values)
    • Item → Transactional granularity
  • Stable key architecture
    OBJECT_SEQ is the only required join key, avoiding fragmentation of identifiers
  • Metadata-driven extensibility
    Additional attributes are introduced via meta_codes, meta_dates, and meta_values—not by expanding the core

Usage Guidance

  • Use this view when:
    • Establishing employee identity and joins
    • Linking employees to:
      • Projects
      • Resources
      • Absence or HR datasets
  • Do not:
    • Expand or parse OBJECT_SEQ
    • Reconstruct identity logic outside this view
    • Duplicate employee attributes into downstream views

What This View Is Not

  • Not a transactional dataset
  • Not a full HR profile
  • Not a reporting-ready flattened structure

Instead, it is the authoritative identity layer that all other employee-related views depend on.

Summary

employee.core_details provides a secure, stable, and extensible foundation for employee data, ensuring that identity is consistently defined and safely propagated across the Data Warehouse.

It is the anchor point for the Employee domain, enabling scalable reporting, governance, and integration across the wider CDM architecture.

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