Create a group or group type

With groups and group types in 15Five, 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...

H ow to create a group type or group one-off
How to create groups and group types via bulk import
Related resources 📖

Access and availability

⛔️ Required access to Manage groups.
👥 This article is relevant to Account admins and Managers.
📦 This feature is available in all pricing packages.

Are you more of a visual learner? Check out this video ⬇️

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.

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Note

If your organization uses an HRIS or other integration to manage groups, please refer to the integration-specific article for instructions on managing group types and groups.

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Note

Only account admins can create group types.

Click on the Settings gear in the top, right-hand corner of 15Five.
Select "People" from the dropdown menu.
Open the "Manage groups" tab.
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.
Give your new group type a name and click Save.
Your new group type will now appear on the list of group types on the "Manage groups" page.

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Note

Both account administrators and managers can create groups but with different permissions. Account administrators can assign anyone as the group admin and include any member. Managers can only assign limited group admins and include members from their own hierarchy. Once a group is created, only account administrators and group admins can manage its settings.

From the 'Manage groups' page, click on the name of the group type you want to add a group under.
Click the Create a new group button.
Name your group and double-check that the group is being created under the correct group type.
Appoint group admins. Group admins can manage group questions, group members, and group settings. Only account admins and direct managers can be appointed as group admins.

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Note

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.
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.

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Tip

Check the 'Manage people' page to see who can be included in your group.
Select visibility and Check-in frequency settings for your group.
- Group view: When enabled, this setting allows all group members to view each other's Check-ins. Learn more.
- Group drill-down: When enabled, this setting allows all group members to view the Check-ins of all group members' downstream direct reports. Learn more.
- Company-wide questions: When disabled, group members will not see company-wide questions on their Check-ins.
- Priorities: When disabled, the "Priorities" section will not appear on the Check-ins of group members.
Finally, click Create group or Create group & add another.
Your new group will now appear on the list of group types on the "Manage groups" page.

Create group types and groups via bulk 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.

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Note

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.

Click on the 'Settings' gear in the top, right-hand corner of 15Five.
Select "People" from the dropdown menu.
Click "Import" in the top navigation bar.
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.
Each group type gets its own column in a CSV import. You can create new group types via bulk import CSV by adding a new column with the format group_type_NewGroupType (e.g. group_type_Department).

To create a new group, add the new group name to the appropriate group type column. For example— if you want to create a group called Learning & Development in the group type Team Initiatives, your bulk import CSV would look like this:
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.
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.
When the 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 the default group settings, you can do so by following the steps in our "Edit group settings" Help Center article.