Available for the following HR plans: Premium, Platinum
Available for the following user access level: Admin
Updating your employee records individually is a time-consuming process, which is why a CSV bulk uploading feature is essential.
This article explains how to use the Import Employees feature. This lets you choose from a pre-prepared template or your own CSV file and then bulk upload the data to your HR platform. It also includes a field mapping product so you can customise the location of specific data fields in your CSV file.
Interactive learning
Getting started
Important
Within your CSV file, address details, such as street address and country, will need to be grouped together for a successful import.
- Click the People menu.
- Click the Import Employees submenu.
- Choose the template you need:
- Advanced Import Employees (including pay details)
- Quick Import Employees
- Update Employee Employment Details
- Update Employee Custom Fields
- Choose whether to:
- Include existing user information
- Include terminated users
- Click the Download button.
- Enter the required details in the template you downloaded.
- Save the changes you made to the file.
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Upload the file by entering it in the tile named Click or Drag file(s) here to upload.
- Click the Yes button.
- Map the columns in the CSV file to the correct fields in the HR platform.
Note: If the Contract Type column is included in the CSV then it must have one of the available options (Permanent or Fixed Term) filled in. It cannot be left blank.
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Click the Continue button.
If there are no errors detected by the platform, you will now see the Imported Successfully page, which will list the number of employee records that have been both created and updated.
Otherwise, the platform will now present a list of errors in the data that you will first need to correct.
Note: Once you have successfully finished the import process, automatic email invitations will be sent to the new employees that you have just imported. Those emails will invite the new employees to create their HR/Employment Hero Work account password in their Employment Hero Work app, which is needed to begin the onboarding process.
Further information
We recommend using the pre-prepared sample CSV templates available.
We have also listed some tips below on how to best use these templates as well as important things to keep in mind so you can ensure a successful CSV upload:
- Add a personal email in the Account Email column. Employees will then still be able to log in to access their read-only information after they leave your organisation.
- Do not use a generic email for your employees (such as info@company.com).
- If you receive any error messages during your upload, the error message always corresponds to the following row. For example, an error in row one means the error is in row two, and so on.
- Always ensure mandatory fields (those with asterisks) are filled out properly.
- Follow all naming conventions referenced in the column headers of your CSV. For example, if an employee is in multiple teams (such as HR, Admin, and Payroll), you must separate those team names with the following symbol: | (in other words, it should look like this: John Smith HR | Admin | Payroll).
- Start dates and job titles are interdependent in the CSV that's named 'Update Employee Employment Details'. You can not complete one field without the other.
- Salary and Pay Details effective date are interdependent in the CSV named 'Advanced Import Employees (including Pay Details)'. You can not complete one field without the other.
- Downloading the CSV named 'Advanced Import Employees (including Pay Details)' removes the leading zeroes from sort codes and account numbers. You must reformat these columns by making the column custom. This is so you can add six zeros for sort codes and eight zeros for account numbers where required.
We recommend you have your employees' data in Employment Hero before you assign their teams and managers. You can then use the Update Employment Details template to assign teams and primary/secondary managers to employees in bulk.
Explore related content
- HR Employee File FAQ: How Do I Assign Admin Access This FAQ answers a common question we receive around how do I assign an employee admin access to our platform?
- Employee Management HR FAQ: How Do I Re-activate a Terminated Employee This FAQ answers a common question we receive around how to re-activate a terminated employee.