Undelete Employee and Set Active Status

Data restoration in Salesforce often comes with one important follow-up step—ensuring the record is returned to its proper operational state. When records are undeleted, some fields may not reset automatically to reflect their true, updated status. This is especially relevant when dealing with lifecycle-driven records like Employees.

In this blog, we explore a smart Apex trigger that ensures the “Active” field on an Employee record is automatically set to “True” when that record is undeleted. This automation helps you maintain data consistency, reinforce business logic, and reduce the chance of human error during record recovery.

This trigger runs in the after undelete context and ensures that every undeleted Employee becomes reactivated automatically, without requiring users to manually adjust the status field.

🧠 Why This Trigger Matters

In many Salesforce orgs, Employee records are linked to:

• Account health metrics

• Active user licensing

• Project assignments

• HR or onboarding workflows

If a deleted Employee record is brought back but not marked as active, it can lead to:

• Broken automations and flows

• Skipped validations or record visibility issues

• Incomplete staffing or resourcing reports

• Manual data correction efforts

With this trigger:

• The Active status is restored instantly upon undelete

• All logic that depends on this field resumes functioning correctly

• Admins and users don’t need to remember to update anything

• You create a smooth, low-friction restoration workflow

This simple automation helps bring structure and predictability to your employee data model.

🔍 What This Blog Covers

• How to use the after undelete trigger context in Apex

• Why resetting the Active field is essential for restored Employee records

• How to write clean logic using a trigger handler class

• The role of default field values during restoration

• Where this approach fits in your broader employee lifecycle management

This kind of automation keeps your Salesforce org clean, reliable, and responsive to record changes—even when those changes are unexpected.

🎯 Real-World Use Cases for This Trigger

• HR and PeopleOps teams reactivating Employee records post-leave or reinstatement

• Admin teams handling accidental deletions of active staff members

• Consulting or staffing agencies managing field assignments and availability

• Project management teams depending on real-time Employee status

• Any org where the Employee object drives workflow decisions or metrics

By automatically setting the Active field, this trigger ensures your org treats restored employees just like they never left.

👨‍💻 Developer & Admin Tips

This trigger is built for the after undelete context on the Employee object. Here’s how it works in simple terms:

• It loops through each Employee record that has just been restored

• It creates a lightweight update request to set the Active field to True

• It performs a single bulk update for all restored Employee records

Why use a handler class?

• To keep your trigger clean and maintainable

• To prepare for future enhancements (e.g., sending notifications or logging the event)

• To maintain consistency with other triggers in your org

The logic is bulk-safe, scalable, and easily testable. You can extend it to:

• Restore additional fields, like Status or Start Date

• Log undelete actions for audit purposes

• Notify managers or teams when an Employee is reactivated

Make sure to test this trigger with:

• Single undelete from the Recycle Bin

• Bulk undelete using the Data Loader or API

• Record recovery from workflows or admin tools

This ensures the field is always reset reliably, regardless of how the record is restored.

🎥 Visual Walkthrough – YouTube Playlist

Want to see this use case in action? Check out the Salesforce Makes Sense YouTube playlist, where this trigger is explained with:

• A hands-on demo using sandbox records

• Clear breakdown of undelete behavior in Apex

• Tips on testing and troubleshooting

• Guidance on using handler methods for similar automations

This playlist makes even niche trigger scenarios easy to understand and apply across your org.

Solution:

trigger EmployeeTrigger on Employee__c (After undelete)
             { if(Trigger.isUnDelete){ if(Trigger.isAfter){
                                                                                EmployeeTriggerHandler.unDeletionofEmp(Trigger.New);
                           }
           }
}
public class EmployeeTriggerHandler{

     public static void unDeletionofEmp(List empList){
                    List<Employee_c> empListToBeUpdated = new
                    Lis<Employee_c>t(); for(Employee__c emp :
   empList){ Employee__c e = new Employee__c(); e.Id = emp.Id;
                  e.Active__c = true;
                  empListToBeUpdated.add(e);
}
 if(!empListToBeUpdated.isEmpty()){ update
               empListToBeUpdated;
         }
   }
}