When you discover that the same person exists as two separate employee records — for example after a rehire, a change of email between rounds, or a data correction — you can merge them into a single record. The Merge employees action consolidates everything that should live with the surviving record: awards, tranches, transactions, orders, and documents. The duplicate record is then removed.
⚠️ This is a one-way action: once the merge is complete, it cannot be undone from the portal.
Before you start
- Make sure you've identified which record should remain. You'll choose a source employee (the one being merged in) and a target employee (the one that keeps the records). The source record is permanently deleted after the merge.
- Only an admin role can perform a merge. Customer admins, partner admins and Optio sysadmins can use this action.
- Confirm the target employee is correct. A wrong target will move awards, orders, and documents onto someone else's record and is non-trivial to reverse.
What gets transferred
When you merge employees, Optio moves the following from the source employee to the target employee:
- Awards — including all their tranches and transactions
- Orders — every order linked to the source employee
- Documents — including generated Award Agreements and any other employee documents
What does not get transferred
The merge is scoped to the operational records above. The following stay with the source record (and are removed together with it):
- Profile information (name, date of birth, contact details, internal IDs)
- Employee mobility history
- Share accounts and bank details
- Dimensions, labels, and employment metadata
If any of this information should be reflected on the target employee, update the target employee's profile manually before or after the merge.
Merge two employees
- Open the Employees page from the left navigation.
- Find the source employee — the duplicate that will be merged into the surviving record — and open their profile.
- Click the three-dot menu in the top-right of the employee profile and choose Merge employees.
- The Merge employees view opens with the source employee's details pre-filled on the left under Employee to Merge (name, email, internal ID, database ID).
- In the Merge into panel on the right, search for the target employee by name or email and select them from the dropdown.
- Check the target employee's details are correct: name, email, internal ID, database ID. These appear in the Merge into panel once an employee is selected.
- When you're ready, click Merge employees. You'll be asked to confirm the action by typing MERGE before it executes — this safeguard exists to prevent accidental merges.
- After confirming, the merge runs and the source employee record is permanently deleted. The target employee now holds all the transferred awards, orders, and documents.
To exit without merging, click Exit without saving at any point.
After the merge
- The source employee no longer appears in the Employees list, awards lists, or other views.
- The target employee carries all the awards (with their tranches and transactions), orders, and documents that were on the source.
- An audit log entry is created recording the merge — the source employee ID, the target employee ID, and the time of the action. This is the record you'd refer to if you ever need to investigate or reconstruct what happened.
Frequently asked questions
Can I undo a merge? Not from the portal. The source employee record is permanently deleted as part of the merge. If you've merged the wrong records, contact your Optio representative as soon as possible — the audit log captures what was moved, but a manual reversal will be required.
What happens if the source and target employee have overlapping data, like the same award? Each record on the source is moved across to the target. There is no de-duplication step on awards or orders, so if both employees somehow had separate awards, the target will end up with all of them after the merge.
Why can't I see Merge employees on the employee profile? The action is only available to admin roles. If you're an admin and the option is still missing, your role may be limited to view-only access — check with your Optio representative.
Should I cancel the merge if I'm unsure? Yes. Use Exit without saving at any step before the typed MERGE confirmation. Nothing changes until you confirm.
Does the merge transfer agreement acceptance status? Yes. Documents (including generated Award Agreements) move across with their acceptance status intact. The target employee inherits the existing acceptance record — they don't need to accept anything again as a result of the merge.