Create a group and/or group type

With 15Five's "groups" feature, you can create subsets of people to organize your company based on business units, departments, locations, common interests, and more. These group types can be pulled into specific features across 15Five for segmenting, reporting, and filtering.

In this article, you will learn...

• How groups work in 15Five
• How to create a group type or group one-off
• How to create groups and group types in bulk via CSV import

Check out these additional resources ⬇️

• Help Center article 💡: Edit group settings
• Help Center article 💡: Add people to a group
• Video 🎥: Create and Manage Groups (4 min)

How do groups work in 15Five?

A group type is an umbrella label used to organize groups.

A group is a subset of people in your organization made up of group members.

Here's an example: if you create a group type called 'Offices', you could create groups for each city your company has an office in: maybe Berlin, Denver, Madrid, New York, and Raleigh. Then, you'll add group members to the groups that align with their office location.

Once you create groups and group types, they can be pulled into specific features across 15Five for segmenting, reporting, and filtering. For example: if the Raleigh office recently changed office locations, you could create a group Check-in question asking them how they feel about the new space.

Account admins can also run reports on specific groups, allowing them to gauge how different subsets of people are performing or feeling.

And admins can use the 'Heatmap' tab in engagement survey results to see how driver scores for a group compared to those of the entire organization.

All in all, groups are invaluable in helping your organization utilize 15Five. Continue reading for more information about creating group types and groups.

Create a group type and/or group one-off

This section walks through how to create group types and groups one-off. If you'd like to create several group types/groups at once, the easiest way to do so is via bulk import, which is covered in the next section of this article.

Create a group type

Only account admins can create group types.

1. Click on the 'Settings' gear in the top, right-hand corner of 15Five.
   
2. Select 'People' from the dropdown menu to open the 'Manage people' page.
   
3. At the top of the page, click 'Manage groups'.
   
4. You're now on the 'Manage groups' page. By default, you will see two group types: Groups and Departments. If you'd like to proceed with creating group types in addition to those, click Create a new group type.
   
5. Give your new group type a name and click Save.
   
6. Your new group type will now appear on the list of group types on the 'Manage groups' page.

Create a group and select group settings

Both account admins and direct managers can create groups. Account administrators can create a group with anyone as the group administrator and can include anyone as a member. Direct managers can create a group with limited group administrator options and can only include people in their hierarchy as members. Once the group is created, only account administrators and the group administrator can manage group settings.

1. From the 'Manage groups' page, click on the name of the group type you want to add a group under.
   
2. Click the Create a new group button.
   
3. Name your group and double-check that the group is being created under the correct group type.
   
4. Appoint group admin(s). Group admins can manage group questions, group members, and group settings. Only account admins and direct managers can be appointed as a group admin. Please note that group admins are also not members of the group by default. If the group admin(s) should also be a member of the group, please add them as such.
5. Add group members. Account admins can add anyone as a group member, whereas direct managers can only add their direct reports and people in their hierarchy. HINT: Check the 'Manage people' page to see who can be included in your group.
6. Select visibility and Check-in frequency settings for your group. For more information, see our "Edit group settings" Help Center article.
7. Finally, click Create group or Create group & add another.
   

Create group types and groups in bulk via CSV import

If you want to create a large number of groups and add members all at once, the best way to do so is via bulk import. This section walks through how to create a bulk import CSV to create groups and add group members, and upload it to 15Five. Please note that you must add people to groups to create group types and groups via CSV. If you'd like to create group types/groups without adding members, you must follow the steps in the previous section of this article. To learn more about our bulk import feature, check out our "Bulk import or update people" Help Center article.

Access bulk import in 15Five

1. Click on the 'Settings' gear in the top, right-hand corner of 15Five.
   
2. Select 'People' from the dropdown menu to open the 'Manage people' page.
   
3. Click 'Import' in the top navigation bar.
   
4. You are now on the bulk import page. From here, download your company's current employment structure by clicking the Download current structure button at the top of the page. Keep a copy of this document in a safe place in case any unintended changes are made when you upload your CSV.
   

Prep your bulk import CSV

To create group types/groups and add members, you need to include two columns in your bulk import CSV: the employee's unique identifier (either email or employee_id) and either active_group_names or add_to_groups.

• active_group_names should be used if you're planning to list all groups the person is a member of. If you don't include a group name in this column that a person is a member of, they will be removed from that group.
• add_to_groups should be used if you're planning to add people to a new group you're creating via the CSV import.

Groups can be added to either the active_group_names or add_to_groups column using the following formatting:

• Group Type~Group
  Example: Departments~HR
• For multiple groups within a group type, separate the groups with a comma
  Example: Departments~HR,People Ops
• For multiple group types and groups, use the group type followed by a ~ and list all groups in that type, then use a comma and enter the new group type, followed by a ~, and the groups in that group type.
  Example: Department~HR,People Ops, Divisions~Leadership Team,Boston Office
• If you're adding groups that are assigned to the "groups" group type, you do not need to specify the group type. You should put these groups at the beginning of the active_group_names or add_to_groups row.
  Example (in which "New hires" is a group that's part of the 'Groups' group type): New hires

Here's an example of what your CSV should look like:

Upload your bulk import CSV

1. After you've prepped your bulk import CSV, select whether you used employee email address or employee ID as the unique identifier in your CSV.
    
2. Then, click Choose file at the bottom of the screen and find the CSV from your computer that you would like to import. Please note: the file must be in UTF-8 CSV format.
   
3. Once you have selected the file that you want to import, a 'Preview import' screen will appear. Review the changes to be made, then click Finish import.
   
4. Once your import is complete, you can navigate back to the 'Manage groups' page to see all newly-created group types and groups. When creating groups via bulk import, you do not have the option to set desired group settings. If you'd like to change default group settings, you can do so by following the steps in our "Edit group settings" Help Center article.