The Employees app is where Odoo 17 keeps HR records: one profile per person carrying contact details, department, job position, manager, working schedule and documents, with contracts as separate dated records underneath. It is part of Odoo Community, and it is the app every other HR app - Time Off, Attendances, Recruitment, Expenses - reads its people from.
To begin managing HR data in Odoo 17:
Go to Apps → Install "Employees"
This activates the Employees module and adds key menus for employee records, departments, contracts, and organizational structure.
Creating and Managing Employee Profiles
Go to:
Employees → Employees → Create
Each profile can include:
- 👤 Name, photo, and contact details
- 📧 Work email, phone, and location
- 🏢 Department and job position
- 📅 Joining date and contract start
- 📁 Personal and work-related documents
You can group employees by department, tags, or location for easier management.
Assigning Contracts, Positions, and Work Information
Contracts are configured under:
Employees → Contracts
Each contract record includes:
- 💼 Job position and working schedule
- 💰 Wage structure (fixed or variable)
- 📆 Contract dates and probation period
- 📊 Linked salary rules (when Payroll is active)
Odoo allows multiple contracts per employee — useful for renewals or part-time roles.
Creating Departments and Job Roles
Structure your organization using:
- Departments: e.g., Sales, Marketing, HR
- Job Positions: e.g., Account Executive, Developer
Each department can have a manager and reporting structure. Job positions help with recruitment, access control, and org charts.
Configuration → Departments / Job Positions
Storing Documents and Certifications
With the Documents module installed, you can store and organize:
- 📝 Contracts and NDAs
- 📑 Certifications and licenses
- 💼 Appraisals and performance records
Link documents to employee profiles, tag them by type, and set access permissions securely.
Managing Access and Employee Visibility
Odoo allows granular control over HR visibility:
- 👥 Internal users can be marked as "employees" for portal access
- 🔐 Admins can see and edit all HR records
- 👁️🗨️ Limit access to salary or private info using user roles
Employees can self-edit their basic details or request updates via the portal (with approval).
Conclusion
Odoo 17 turns employee management into a centralized, structured, and secure process. From profiles to contracts and documents — your HR team always knows where everything is, and who has access to it.
Need help setting up your HR system in Odoo? Let our HR tech experts help you configure it right.
Questions we get asked
Is the Employees app free in Odoo 17?
Yes. Employees is LGPL-licensed and included in Odoo Community, with departments, job positions, contracts and the org chart. Time Off, Recruitment, Attendances and Expenses are Community apps too. The paid ones in the HR range are Appraisals, Planning, Documents and, in most countries, Payroll, all of which need an Enterprise subscription.
Does every employee need a paid user account?
No. An employee record is not a login and can exist with no user attached at all. That is how warehouse, factory or field staff who never open Odoo are kept on file, given contracts and paid without costing a licence. A paid internal user is needed only for people who sign in to Odoo themselves.
Can an employee have more than one contract?
Yes. Contracts are dated records under the employee, so a renewal, a promotion or a change of schedule is a new contract rather than an edit to the old one. Only one is running at a time, and the running contract is what supplies the wage and the working schedule other apps read. Earlier ones remain as history.
Who can see salary and private data?
Access is split deliberately. Ordinary users see the public side of a profile - name, job title, department, work contact. Private addresses, identification numbers, bank details and contract wages are limited to HR officers and administrators. Managers see their own team, which is a good reason to keep the manager field accurate.
Can employees update their own details?
Partly. An employee with a user account can maintain parts of their own profile, such as private contact details, while fields that carry consequences - job position, manager, contract, wage - stay with HR. Exactly what is editable is governed by access rights, so it can be loosened or tightened for a given database.