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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2023-06-23
FAQ: Passive Events

FAQ: Passive Events

How are passive events different from standard enrollment events?

Unlike most enrollment events, you don't have to report manually passive events for the affected employees. You can instruct Workday to identify and route an enrollment task to workers that have benefit gains or losses resulting from the event.
Passive events don't establish or determine eligibility for benefits only once, when Workday launches the event. During open enrollment, Workday assesses an employee's eligibility for benefits when initiating the enrollment event. Workday doesn't automatically re-evaluate the employee's eligibility and change their status following open enrollment. The employee or an administrator must report another event to force evaluation of the employee's eligibility for benefits. Example: A location change or job change event. By contrast, you can schedule passive events to evaluate employee eligibility at any time, either on demand or at regularly scheduled intervals.
You can define preview alerts for a passive event to notify automatically employees that an event is about to occur. Example: A 65th birthday or the aging out of a dependent is about to occur. You can generate these alerts at regular intervals before the event date.

How do I test a passive event rule to make sure that it selects the correct employees for processing?

To verify that a passive event rule identifies the correct employees, run the
View Workers
report. To access this report, select
Passive Event Rule
View Workers
as a related action on the passive event rule.
To verify that a passive event rule correctly identifies a particular employee, run the
Test Workers
report. To access this report, select
Passive Event Rule
Test Workers
as a related action on a passive event rule and select the employee.

What is the difference between eligibility rules associated with benefit plans and the eligibility rules used to define passive events?

Unlike eligibility rules associated with specific benefit plans, passive event rules don't confer or deny eligibility for health care, insurance, or other benefits. They identify employees for Workday to evaluate for benefit eligibility due to retirement, seniority, or other changes due to the passage of time. An employee who meets passive event rule conditions is eligible for a particular benefit only if they meet the eligibility rules associated with the benefit plan.
Example: A passive event rule for a retirement event identifies all employees who are 65 years old. The eligibility rule for the employees' health care plan determines whether they either:
  • Can keep their current plan.
  • Lose eligibility when they turn 65.