New in Personio: Qualified Electronic Signature for fixed-term contracts

For most HR documents, a Simple or Advanced e-signature is enough. German fixed-term contracts are the exception: Section 14 (4) of the Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act (TzBfG) requires written form, and if a contract signed with a Simple or Advanced signature is challenged, the fixed term can be declared invalid and the contract is treated as permanent. With a Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) in Personio, you sign these contracts digitally, without printing or posting, and the agreed term holds.

Three signature levels, one dropdown

Signing with QES works like any other signature request. It sits in the same dropdown as Simple and Advanced signatures, and you choose the level when you send each document, so the signature carries the weight the document needs. No new tool, no separate login, no switching between systems.

Built into Personio, backed by Docusign

QES sits natively in Personio, built in partnership with Docusign, an accredited trust service provider under EU law. Docusign issues each signature after a person has verified the signer’s identity, which gives it recognition across the EU under eIDAS.

Verify once, reuse after that

That identity check can happen once per signer. The first time takes about seven minutes: a signer shows their ID and records a short selfie video on their phone. Signers who save their verified identity in Docusign’s Identity Wallet reuse it from then on, so every signature after the first is up to 93% faster.

Signed contracts file themselves

You can request a QES from the employee profile, from the Docs Hub, or in bulk when you create documents, and follow who has signed and who is still pending. If a signer’s ID check doesn’t go through, you resolve it in Personio and carry on with the same request. Once everyone has signed, the document is saved in the employee profile next to the rest of their record, so the profile is complete without anyone downloading, scanning, or uploading anything.

Signing fixed-term contracts on paper today? Let’s look at how QES would work for your team.