Adding a new HR department, job, or role to the network

Summary: When your organization expands or restructures, your Speakap network needs to mirror those changes. This guide explains how to check whether a structure already exists, create new Business Units or Departments, and assign employees either manually or automatically using User Sync group mapping rules.

Step 1: Verify whether the group already exists

Before building something new, check whether the new department, job, or role already has a corresponding group active in your Speakap network.

• If the group already exists: You do not need to recreate it. Skip the structural setup and move directly to adding your users manually (Option A) or updating your automated User Sync rules to direct the new HR data value to this group (Option B).
• If the group does not exist: First create the empty organizational container before users can be added to it.

Step 2: Create the new structure in Speakap

Before you begin, make sure your account has Network Administrator permissions.

1. Click the administrative gear wheel icon.
2. Go to Organization settings (if you are creating a Business Unit or Department) or Group Settings (if you are creating a standalone Group).
3. For Business Units: Open the Business Unit tab and click the + Business Unit button. (Note: depending on your network's customized naming scheme, this tab may be labeled Division, Region, Location, or Store.)
4. For Departments: Open the Department tab (sometimes labeled Departments, Location, or Division) and click the + Department button.
5. Linking structures: If your new department sits underneath a specific parent Business Unit, then after creating the Department, open that Business Unit's profile, go to its Department tab, and click the Add button to nest the department beneath it. Repeat this for every Business Unit that needs this Department underneath it (e.g. Cashiers that sit under New York, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Berlin need to be added under each of the 4 locations).

For the full walkthrough of building Business Units and Departments, see Creating your Organisation Structure.

Option A: Add users manually

If your company does not use an automated User Sync integration, you manage users and their group memberships by hand:

1. Open Organization settings, then the Business Unit or Department, to view its Users list.
2. Click the + Add button.
3. Search for and select users one by one, or select multiple employee profiles at once.
4. Use the Role column dropdown to specify whether each user joins as a standard Member or a group Admin.
5. For Groups, open Group Settings instead, look for the group in the list, and click the Members tab to add or remove people and assign permissions.

Tip: Take a moment to review the group's preference settings to decide whether standard members should be allowed to post updates on the Feed freely, or whether posting should be restricted.

Option B: Add users automatically via User Sync

If your platform has an active User Sync, you can fully automate employee assignments based on the data coming from your external HR system.

To map a new HR value to a network group:

1. Go to your central User Sync dashboard.
2. Go to the Group mapping section and click the + (plus) icon to create a new rule.
3. Select group: Search for and select your newly created or pre-existing target group from the list.
4. Mapping rules: Choose the option "Only users that match specific rules".
5. Add expression: Build a precise rule that matches the new data value sent by your HR platform. For example, configure the expression so that if an employee's incoming HR profile lists their department as the new role, the system automatically routes them into this group.
6. Complete setup: Define the baseline user roles, specify whether the group membership is Mandatory for matched individuals, and click Create new rules.

Once the rule is saved, run the User Sync. From that moment forward, any employee onboarded or updated with the new HR data value automatically lands in the designated network department.

Tip: Just like with the manual setup, remember to check the group preference toggles to control whether automatically synced members are allowed to post content.

Still stuck?

Email us at support@speakap.com with your network name, the new department or role, and how your users are managed (manually or via User Sync), and we'll help you out.