Direct Managers
Any user with at least one direct report is a manager. You do not need to assign managers any special permissions.
We strongly recommend that all employees are assigned a manager (with the exception of the CEO or the user at the very top of your org chart).
You cannot have loops in your reporting line, i.e. if A reports to B and B reports to C, C cannot report to A.
Assign or update an employee's manager via the employee's profile page.
If you manage user data through an HRIS integration or CSV import from a remote server, you'll need to assign and update managers via your HRIS/CSV file instead.
You can also see a list of the manager's direct reports on the manager's employee profile here:
What happens when an employee's manager changes?
The new manager will automatically receive access to the employee's previous Performance Reviews, 360 Feedback, Anytime Feedback, and Objectives (except for comment history).
The previous manager can still access all reviews they signed previously, even when they are no longer the employee’s manager.
If a review cycle is in progress, the employee's reviewer is not updated automatically. Use the Reset Reviewers option here to update all primary and secondary reviewers according to the direct and secondary managers currently listed on employees' profiles:
1:1 Meetings between the employee and their former manager are not automatically shared with the new manager. The meeting participants can grant visibility to the new manager by following these instructions.
Notify your new managers
When a manager has newly assigned direct reports, you can notify them using the Inform managers about reports option on your Directory page here:
We’ll bundle these notifications so that managers only receive one email about multiple new reports.
Indirect Managers
We use the term indirect manager to refer to an employee’s manager’s manager, that person's manager, and so on all the way up the reporting line.
Customers on our Elevate plan can customize this term, e.g. by changing it to "skip-level manager". Learn more here.
Indirect managers can see everything a direct manager can see, except for specific content (e.g. Anytime Feedback requests) that allows users to specify different visibility levels for direct and indirect managers.
Secondary Managers
You can optionally assign an employee a secondary manager, which is independent of the reporting hierarchy. Secondary managers can view and contribute to the employee's performance reviews (but only the direct manager can share and sign them).
You can decide what else secondary managers can see under Admin > Settings > User Management Settings.
If you've granted secondary managers access to Objectives, their visibility extends to Objectives with Protected visibility.
An indirect manager already has access to the employee’s information, so there’s no need to add them as a secondary manager.
You also have the option of assigning a secondary reviewer to contribute to an employee's performance review for only a specific cycle.
Learn more here: What Can Managers See?