Org Units

Introduction

Org Units normally correspond to departments, divisions and/or business units in a company. Org Units are defined as a position (Role) on an org chart (Chart) and all the positions that report up to this position. These are defined this way via any Chart in Teams view (learn more about Charts and Teams view here). A specific person (user) can belong to multiple Org Units.

Org Units are one of the primary filters used throughout the platform. They can be found in Search and via the List Selector, where they are identified by an unique icon:

Org Units are optional – if you have none defined, the Org Unit filter will not appear.

Table of contents:

1. What is an “Org Unit”?
2. Defining Org Units
3. Managing Org Units via Administration settings
4. Renaming Org Units
5. Deleting Org Units
6. Finding Org Units
7. No updating Org Units via bulk uploading
8. Emailing Org Units

1. What is an “Org Unit”?

An Org Unit is defined at any Role in any Chart. The membership of an Org Unit is comprised of all users from that Role and all Roles below it in the hierarchy, including any collaborators and dotted-line subordinates that are associated with the solid-line hierarchy. Org Units normally correspond to the department, division or business unit that the person in that top-Role in the Org Unit leads.

Defined from the position of the circle, this Org Unit would contain everyone within the square. Org Unit memberships are dynamic – if a Role is filled/vacated that user will be automatically added/removed from the Org Unit.

2. Defining Org Units

Org Units are created by System Administrators in Teams view. You will want to define a handful of Org Units that reflect the high-level structure of your organization (5-15 will work well; more will be hard for people to use). These should match the main organizational units that people are already familiar with like “Manufacturing” or “Mobile Division” or “European Sales” or “Roads Department”.

Setting up to use Org Units

Before you set up your first Org Unit, you need to define your Organization Code at Administration Settings > Filters > Org Units. Use an acronym or short word that represents your entire company. As each Org Unit gets an email address, this code unifies the addresses across your organization.

How to create a new Org Unit

System Administrators can create Org Units in Teams view. Hover your mouse over any Role or Team card with cards below it, and you will see a pop-up menu. Select "Define Org Unit" (NOTE—this feature will not be enabled if the selected card has no Roles under it).

All people in Roles under this card will automatically be part of that Org Unit, including any Collaborators and dotted-line reports. This includes everyone, all the way to the bottom of the structure. If an employee is added/removed into this Role structure, they are automatically added/removed from the Org Unit.

Google Groups

Google-integrated customers will also have the option to create a corresponding Google Group for their Org Unit. Doing this will create a Google email address for the group which will allow for added functionality with Google Apps.

3. Managing Org Units via the Administration Settings

You can edit the names and email addresses of existing Org Units via Administration Settings > Filters and Badges > Configure Org Units. You can also delete Org Units here by clicking on the red x. The sections below explain more about renaming and deleting Org Units.

4. Renaming Org Units

You can rename Org Units via the Administration settings (see prior section) or via Teams view. Here you need to hover over the top-card in the Org Unit and select 'Rename Org Unit', which will bring you to that same Administration settings page.

5. Deleting Org Units

Note that if you delete an Org Unit the content that was published to this Org Unit will no longer be visible to those users. Consequently you are normally much better to rename the Org Unit or edit it's structure (membership).

You can delete Org Units via the Administration settings (see section above) or via Teams view. Here you need to hover over the top-card in the Org Unit and select Delete Org Unit.

6. Finding Org Units

There are two methods for systematically finding an Org Unit.

If you are a System Administrator, you can go to Administration Settings > Filters and Badges > Configure Org Units where a table lists all the Org Units and identifies the user Name and Role associated with its top-most card.

Any user can click on "Email Org Units" on the Action Bar in Teams view and then click "View in Teams" for the Org Unit of interest. This will open Extended View in Teams to show that Org Unit in full detail.

8. Emailing Org Units

Clicking on “Email Org Units” reveals the email address associated with each Org Unit. You can copy this email address and use it in third-party applications. It will always email to the current members of this Org Unit. You can also click the checkbox on one or more of the Org Units and then click "Continue" which will open your local email client software with these email addresses in the To field.

Google-integrated customers who have created a corresponding Google Group for their Org Unit can also use their Google email address to utilize features found in Google Apps.