Position Management
Position management software that governs every seat
A position is the seat, not the person. Kinnect gives every seat a record with its cost center, manager, compensation and pay band, then governs it from the first request through recruiting, the hire and the backfill. On Workday, Oracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, ADP and Dayforce.
POS-190001, the governed position record: lifecycle stepper on Recruiting, manager Elise Rogers, cost center CC Data & ML, planned hire 2026-09-02, the pay band, and the linked requisition JR-190001 attached alongside
Definition
What is position management?
Position management is a staffing model in which each seat exists independently of the person in it. The position carries a cost center, a manager, a job profile and compensation whether or not someone fills it, so headcount is counted in positions and a vacancy is visible and funded before recruiting starts.
- The seat, not the personA position carries its cost center, manager, job profile and pay band whether or not anyone is in it.
- Funded before recruiting startsFinance funds positions, so a vacancy is visible and approved before a recruiter touches it.
- A departure leaves a seat, not a gapWhen a worker leaves, the position stays, with its approval and history, ready to backfill.
The POS-190001 position record at Open: stepper on Open, manager, cost center, planned hire and pay band, with no requisition yet, the seat that exists and is funded before anyone is hired into it
Where Kinnect started
Position management is the problem Kinnect was built to solve
Before Kinnect was a product it was the work: solving position management for enterprise HRIS teams, one tenant at a time, and the platform is that experience written down as software.
Seena MojahediFounder, KinnectMeet the founder15+
years in the Workday ecosystem
10+
years in client-side roles
40+
enterprise implementations
Position management solved for enterprises including Gainsight, Lightspeed, and ACA Group, through Kandor Solutions consulting.
Position lifecycle
One lifecycle, four owners, one record
Every position moves Draft to Open to Recruiting to Filled. Each step has an owner, a status and the actions that fit it.
Owned by
Hiring manager
Draft
PendingRequest Position proposes the seat with its cost center, manager, location and planned hire date. It routes manager, then budget owner.
Build an approval workflow Finance trustsOwned by
Budget owner
Open
OpenApproved and funded. The seat counts in Workforce Cost with its annualized cost. Edit, start recruiting, or close.
Position vs job management: the decision guideOwned by
Recruiter
Recruiting
RecruitingStart Recruiting creates the requisition, and one push sends it to your ATS. Position and requisition cards link both ways.
The real cost of ghost reqsOwned by
HR and HRIS
Filled
FilledThe hire completes, the requisition closes and the position holds the worker. Backfill reopens the same seat when they leave.
Automate backfills on termination
Close Position ends a seat early from Open; the stepper reads Draft, Open, Closed. A position with a workflow in flight collapses to View Details until it clears. The position management governance playbook
Backfills
A departure reopens the seat, not a spreadsheet
- Same seatBackfill reopens the governed position rather than starting a new request. Code, cost center and pay band carry over.
- Same approvalThe original approval and the History stay attached. Finance sees a seat that was already funded.
- No second cycleRecruiting starts on it without another approval round. Backfillable is a filter in the Hiring Tracker, not a spreadsheet tab.
The Hiring Tracker search with POS-190001 typed, returning the one matching seat with its Net New and Open pills, cost center and compensation
Pay bands
One pay band, on every seat, for everyone who touches it
- Eligibility rulesSay which attributes, for example Job Family plus Location, resolve a position to a grade.
- The Grades tableHolds the per-location bands, min, mid and max, for each grade. Set once in Settings > Compensation.
- One band, three readersThe manager requesting, the budget owner approving and the recruiter working the seat all see the same band.
Settings, Compensation: the eligibility rule resolving Job Family plus Location to a grade, and the seat's pay band with min, mid and max and the $480,000 target marked
From your HRIS
What Kinnect reads from your tenant
Positions, workers, supervisory organizations and cost centers ingest from your HRIS, Workday, Oracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, ADP or Dayforce, through the connection in Settings > Integrations. Seats ingested this way start their History at ingestion; seats born in Kinnect carry their full lineage.
Positions
Every position in the tenant, with its external id preserved so a seat can be found by either code.
Workers
The people in the seats, so Filled positions show who holds them and a departure can trigger a Backfill.
Supervisory organizations
The org tree, which derives the manager role and draws the Supervisory Organization Hierarchy view.
Cost centers
The financial tree, with planned budget, planned headcount and the budget owner per cost center set in Settings > Finance.
See it live
See position management in action
Tell us how a backfill is handled today. We will show the request, the approval, the requisition and the History on a governed demo position record.
- Thirty minutes
- Demo data, shaped by your requirements
- No obligation
A Kinnect position request at the approval step, with the approver's required comment recorded against the decision
Roles and recruiting
Approvers come from the org chart. Requisitions go to your ATS.
- Manager, from the org chartThe manager role is derived from supervisory org ownership. A reorg moves the approval chain without anyone editing a workflow.
- Budget owner, from the cost centerDerived from cost-center ownership set in Settings > Finance. Ghost pills on the user record; change the tree to change them.
- Requisition to your ATS, one pushStart Recruiting creates the requisition; Push sends it to Greenhouse or Workday Recruiting. The hire syncs back and fills the seat.
The JR-190001 requisition detail with the attached POS-190001 position card and the Edit Recruiting and Push footer actions
Thought leadership
Four reads before you change a staffing model
Position management vs job management
The decision guide: control, cost, reporting and the questions to settle before you choose a staffing model.
Read the decision guideThe governance playbook
For teams already on position management and tired of the maintenance it needs.
Read the governance playbookTerminations and backfills
How a termination should open a backfill on the same governed position instead of a fresh request.
Read about automating backfillsSecurity and access
Fixing position management access issues without loosening data protection.
Read the security post
Questions about position management
What is position management?
A staffing model in which each seat exists independently of the person in it. The position carries a cost center, a manager, a job profile and compensation whether or not someone fills it, so headcount is counted in positions and a vacancy is visible and funded before recruiting starts.
Position management vs job management: which should we use?
It depends on how much control you need over vacancies and budgets. Job management is quicker to administer and harder to govern, because there is no seat to approve, fund or reconcile until someone is already in it. The decision guide walks through the trade-offs. Kinnect is built around positions and works best with position management.
What are position management best practices?
Five hold across every HRIS: count headcount in positions, not people; fund a position before it is recruited; route every request through the manager and the budget owner with the cost attached; backfill on the same position rather than raising a new request; and keep one record of every decision. Kinnect enforces all five.
What does position management software add on top of our HRIS?
The governance the HRIS does not enforce natively: a request and approval chain against the cost center plan, one Inbox, a History of every decision, the link to the ATS requisition and the reconciliation back to budget.
Which HRIS does Kinnect position management work with?
Workday, Oracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, ADP and Dayforce. Positions, workers, supervisory organizations and cost centers ingest through standard APIs, and the governed position record is the same on every one.
How are pay bands handled?
Settings > Compensation holds the grades, the per-location bands and the rules (for example Job Family plus Location) that resolve a position to a grade. The band shows on the position when your role can view compensation.
How do backfills work?
A Filled position whose worker leaves is backfilled from the same record, so the approval, the cost center and the history carry over instead of starting a new request.
Do we need to customize our HRIS?
No. Kinnect connects through standard APIs, ingests positions and workers, and receives approved staffing events. No custom reports, calculated fields or integration work in the HRIS.
Position-level governance, on your HRIS.
Bring your staffing model questions and see request, approval, recruiting and backfill on a live position record.