Departments: build the structure and put people in them

What this guide covers

How to create departments, nest them into a hierarchy, give each one a manager, and - the part people most often look for - how an employee ends up in a department. Departments are the backbone of the org chart and of who-manages-whom, so getting this right is what makes the manager screens (Manage hours / schedules / leave) scope correctly.

This is the deep-dive on the Departments part of HR Settings ? organisation setup.

Who can do this: creating and editing departments needs HR write; viewing a department page needs HR read.

How it fits together

Create a department

1. Go to People ? Human Resources ? HR Settings and open the Departments tab.
2. Click New Department.
3. Fill in the form:
   • Name (required) - the department's display name (e.g. "Logistics").
   • Code - a short, unique code used on the org chart (e.g. OPS-LOG).
   • Description - optional hover text.
   • Type - where it sits in the hierarchy: Division (top level, e.g. Operations), Department (mid level, e.g. Logistics), or Team (lowest level, e.g. Fleet Management).
   • Parent - the department this one sits under. Leave it empty for a top-level division; pick a parent to nest it (that's how you build the tree).
   • Manager - the person who runs it (see Assign a manager below).
4. Save.

The Departments tab also gives you a tree / diagram view to rearrange the hierarchy visually, and it protects against loops (a department can't become its own ancestor). Each row links to that department's own page, where you can edit it inline and see its members, sub-departments and positions.

Build the hierarchy

Departments form a tree through the Parent field: a Division contains Departments, which contain Teams. That tree is exactly what the org chart renders, and it's what scopes the manager screens - a manager of a parent department sees everyone in the departments beneath it.

Assign a manager

Set a department's Manager to make that person the line manager for everyone in the department and its sub-departments. This is the single most important field for access: it's what lets the manager see their team on Manage hours, Manage schedules and Manage your team's leave.

• If a manager says they can't see their team, check the department's Manager here first.
• A stand-in is filled in automatically for the day when the manager is on approved leave, then cleared.
• A person can also count as a manager through their job position's management level (a supervisor/team-lead position), in addition to being a department manager.

Put a person in a department

An employee's department is decided one of two ways - you usually only need the first:

1. From their job position (the default). Every job position belongs to a department. Appoint the employee to a position on their record - Employee page ? Job History ? add or change the position - and they inherit that position's department. Set the right position and the department follows automatically.
2. A direct override - "Current Operational Team". On the employee's Job History tab there's a Current Operational Team picker. Choose a department to place the person there regardless of their job title's department - the help text reads "This overrides the department defined by the Job Title." Leave it on Default (Use Position's Department) to fall back to the position. Use the override when someone's day-to-day team differs from their formal title.

You can also drag a person onto a department in the org chart's edit mode - that sets the same Current Operational Team override.

The rule: an employee's effective department is the Current Operational Team override if it's set, otherwise their job position's department. The department page's Members list and the org chart both follow this rule, so a person always shows under exactly one department.

The department page

Click a department's name to open its page. It shows the department's details with an inline Edit (HR write), plus three lists:

• Members - the people whose effective department is this one.
• Sub-departments - the departments nested under it.
• Job Positions - the roles defined in this department.

Good to know

• Set up departments and positions before onboarding so the Add-Employee wizard's Department and Position choices are ready.
• Changing a manager or parent takes effect immediately on the org chart and the manager-scoped screens.
• Don't delete or deactivate a department that still has people or sub-departments under it - re-home them first.
• A department can carry a default work schedule that people in it inherit for attendance - see Schedule Management (HR).

Related guides

• HR Settings - organisation setup - the overview of all four structure tabs (Document Types, Departments, Job Positions, Organizations).
• Add & manage employees - onboarding, where a position (and so a department) is first assigned.
• Employee page: Job history & employment status - where you set a person's position and the Current Operational Team override.
• The full org chart (HR view) - the visual view of the structure you build here.