Available for the following plans: Lite, Plus, Unlimited HR, Essentials, Engage, Elite, Unlimited HR+Payroll
Available for the following user access levels: Admin
Departments let you organise your workforce by functional area, such as Human Resources, Finance, or Customer Support. Once you have created a department, you can assign workers to it from their profile, during onboarding, or in bulk using a CSV import. Department data then flows through to your Total Workforce List, compliance reports, and content sharing, so you can view and report on your people by the area of the business they work in.
Getting started
Add a department
- Click the Settings menu.
- In the Company section, click Departments.
- Click the + Add department button.
- Enter the department Name.
- Click the Save button.
Your new department will appear in the departments list with a status of Active and a member count of 0.
Helpful Hint
Agree on a naming convention before you start adding departments. Because departments appear in the Total Workforce List, compliance reports, and content sharing, consistent names such as People & Culture rather than a mix of HR, Human Resources, and P&C will make your reporting far easier to read.
Managing departments
The departments list shows the Name, Status, and Member count for each department, so you can see at a glance how many workers are assigned to each functional area. You can sort the list by any of these columns.
Edit a department
- Click the Settings menu.
- In the Company section, click Departments.
- Click the ... button for the department you need.
- Click Edit.
Make the required changes and click the Save button.
Disable a department
Important
Disabling a department stops it from being selected for any new or existing workers. We recommend reassigning any workers currently in the department before you disable it, so their records remain accurate.
- Click the Settings menu.
- In the Company section, click Departments.
- Click the ... button for the department you need.
- Click Disable.
Enable a department
- Click the Settings menu.
- In the Company section, click Departments.
- Click the ... button for the disabled department you need.
- Click Enable.
Assigning workers to a department
Assign a department from a worker's profile
- Click the People menu.
- Click People List.
- Click the name of the worker you need.
- Click the Employment records tab.
- Click the Employment details tab.
- Click the Edit button.
- In the Department (Optional) field, select the department you need from the dropdown list.
- Click the Save button.
The department's member count will update to reflect the change. You can confirm this by returning to Settings > Departments and checking the Member count column.
Assign a department during onboarding
You can also set a worker's department while onboarding them, without needing to edit their profile afterwards. When you reach the employment details step of the onboarding workflow, select the relevant department from the Department (Optional) field and continue through the remaining steps as normal.
Bulk assign departments using a CSV import
If you are assigning departments to a large number of existing workers, you can update them all at once using a CSV import rather than editing each profile individually.
Helpful Hint
Create your departments in Settings > Departments before you run the import. The department name in your CSV file must match the name in your platform exactly, otherwise those rows will not import successfully.
Viewing your workforce by department
Once your workers are assigned, you can filter your workforce by functional area.
- Click the People menu.
- Click People List.
- Click the Filters button.
- Select the department you need.
- The list will update to show only the workers assigned to that department. To clear your selection, click Reset filters.
Department data also flows through to your compliance reports and content sharing, so you can report on and share content with a specific functional area of your business.
Explore related content
- Configure locations Set up the physical locations your workers are based in, so their profiles are populated with the relevant country-specific features.
- Create and manage custom fields and additional information Capture extra information against your worker profiles using free-text, single-select, and multi-select fields.