Employee Management Structure

Activate User's Guide

Version
2025.2
Employee Management Structure

Use the Employee Management Structure wizard to assign the management structure for your organization. By default, this page shows the information you uploaded in the Getting Started wizard.

Note: Activate uses HR Version 2.0 (NextGen) when loading data during configuration. To streamline the import, First Name and Last Name are excluded when not required.

Performance Admin Authority

Performance Admin authority gives specific users access to view performance-related information (such as reviews and goals) for all of the employees in a given organization. Direct managers can already see performance information for their employees. This authority gives other personnel the ability to see performance information for employees who aren’t in their direct management structure, like managers, directors, Human Resources, and administrators. Users with Performance Admin authority can’t access unrelated features like timesheets or Time Away From Work (TAFW) because they aren’t the employee's manager.

Assigning Performance Admin authority is by organization. In Dayforce, go to Employee Profile > Work > Management Assignments > Managed Locations.

Before you begin

Employees included in the Employee Management Structure template must exist in Dayforce. They must also meet the minimum requirements, like a hire date, a work assignment, and employment status data.

Note: You can load employee data with the Getting Started wizard, the Employees wizard, or the Clean Up Data for Parallel or Go Live wizard.

Note: If you’re importing manager data at the location level, your organization’s structure should be as close to its final version as possible before loading managers to each location.

Using this wizard

The previously loaded employee information shows in an editable grid with the compensation-related fields that need to be populated. You can enter information directly in the grid or you can download the template, populate it, and then upload the data. When you edit the data in the grid, Activate shows any applicable validation warnings or errors. If warnings or errors are shown, you must review and update the data in the grid or upload a corrected template to correct them.

Enter the appropriate changes in the template to assure accuracy for future uploads. If you make edits directly in the grid, click Save and download the updated file for record keeping purposes.

Tasks

To indicate how employees are managed:

Note: Your answers to these questions determine which template shows.

  1. In Activate Central, click Load Your Data. The Load Your Data wizards are shown.
  2. Click Employee Management Structure.
  3. Click Get Started.
  4. On the Management Settings page, click one of the following to specify whether you want to load Managers or Performance Admin information.
    • Managers: The employee's manager based on their job or location. This option is the default.
    • Performance Admins: The manager with access to performance reviews and goals (based on a location), but no access to unrelated employee data like salary or timesheets. After installation, "Performance Admin" shows in the Authority Type column of People > [Find the employee] > Work > Management Assignments > Managed Locations in Dayforce for the relevant employees.

      Note: If you select this option, Activate hides the remaining questions on the page (explained in steps 6 and 7).

  5. Click one of the following to indicate how your employees are assigned to their managers:
    • According to the Organization (HR Import): Activate prompts you to provide the Managers by Org Location and loads an HR Import file into Dayforce.
    • Directly (Employee Manager Import): Activate prompts you to provide the direct Employee to Manager relationships and loads an Employee Manager Import file into Dayforce.

    Note: This question shows only if you click Direct Manager (above).

  6. To indicate if employees can have more than one manager, click one of the following:
    • No. All employees have only one manager at a time.
    • Yes. An employee can have more than one manager.

    Note: This question shows only if you clicked Direct Manager (above).

  7. Click Next.

To complete and upload employee management information:

  1. On the Employee Management Review page, click Download File.

    Note: You can also download the empty template from the Download Template Files page.

  2. Select the location where you want to save the template document.
  3. Open the template on your computer. Depending on how you answered the questions on the Management Settings page (see the “Indicate how employees are managed” section (above), one of the following templates downloads:
    • OrgManagerDataFile.xlsx

      This template downloads if you selected “The employee's location determines their manager” and “Yes. An employee can have more than one manager”on the Management Settings page.

    • ManagerDirectDataTemplate.xlsx This template downloads if you selected “The employee's work assignment determines their manager” and “No. All employees have only one manager at a time” on the Management Settings page.
  4. Note: The Activate release version shows in cell B3 on the Instructions tab of the template. With this information, you can determine the version of Activate that you were using when you downloaded the template.

  5. On the OrgManagementData tab, complete all columns with the data for all employees in the organization.

    Note: Instructions for populating the fields are in the Org Management Data Template Fields section (below), the Employee Manager Direct Data Template Fields section (below), and on the Instructions tab of the template.

  6. Click Save and close the template.

    You can use any file name for the template you upload. The file must be an Excel or CSV (Comma-Separated Value) document and contain the data in the required format.

    Important: Don’t change the name of the tab in the template. Activate uses the tab name to validate that the correct template is being uploaded. In addition, don’t change the column headings.

  7. On the Employee Management Review page, click Upload File.
  8. Go to your completed Compensation History template in the location where you saved it.
  9. Click Open. Activate validates the data.

    Note: If the uploaded file has errors, a Validation Failed message shows in red at the bottom of the page. You must correct the errors in the file on your computer and upload the file again.

    Note: When you upload an Excel file, Activate includes the name of the uploaded file into the name of the XML file it generates and loads to the Dayforce File Server. The format of the generated XML file name is <NamespaceName>_<Import Type>_<file name provided>_YYY-MM-DD_HHMM. This information makes it easier to audit files later.

  10. Click Next.

To review and confirm the data:

  1. Review the information shown in the grid.
  2. To make updates to data on the page:
    • To insert a new row in the grid, click the row where you want to insert it and click New.

    • To delete a row, click the row and click Delete.

    • To download the error message list and save it to your computer, click Download Errors File.
    • To correct errors in the grid, click in the field containing the error. Click Tab to move to the right and Shift+Tab to move to the left in the row. Use the scrollbars on the right side and bottom of the grid to go to other areas of the grid.
    • To save information in the grid to your computer, click Download File and save it to the location you want.

    • To upload the file from your computer, locate the file and click Upload File. The data in the file shows in the grid.

    • To remove changes that you don’t want to save, click Refresh.

  3. When the data is complete, click Done & Install. When you leave the page, the selected values stay in the grid.

To install employee management information

When the employee management information is complete in Activate, you must install the policies in Dayforce.

  1. After making any necessary corrections, on the Employee Management Review page, click Load.

    The Load page opens with a list of the steps to complete and an estimate of how long the installation usually takes. During the installation, the current step in the process is bolded so you can monitor the progress.

  2. Click one of the following:
    • Add Email and enter your email address to receive an email when the installation process ends, instead of waiting for it to finish.
    • Next w hen the installation is complete.

    Activate Central opens with the name of the Wizard now shown in green text and a green checkmark to the left of the wizard’s name. The current day, date, and time of completion are included, along with your name as the user who completed the Wizard. The environment in which the installation was applied (Stage, Config, or Train) is also shown.

    Note: If you want to add more information, click I want to add more. See Executing a Rollback When Using the “Add More“ Feature in the Payroll Wizards.

Results

Fields populated in Dayforce

The data uploaded from the Org Manager Data File template populates the fields on the Derivation Method page (Work > Management Assignments > Derivation Method) in Dayforce.

Dayforce fields populated by the Org Manager Data File template
Field in Template Field in Dayforce
Organization
Level
Description
Manager Employee Identifier Manager
Manager First Name Manager
Manager Last Name Manager
Effective Start Date Effective From

The data uploaded from the Manager Direct Data template populates the fields on the following pages in Dayforce.

Dayforce fields populated by the Manager Direct Data template
Field in Template Field in Dayforce Page in Dayforce
Employee Identifier Employee Reference / Number Employee (People icon)

 

 

First Name First Name
Last Name Last Name
Manager's Employee Identifier Manager Derivation Method
(Work > Management
Assignments > Derivation Method
)

 

 

 

Manager First Name Manager
Manager Last Name Manager
Effective Start Date Effective From

File generated by the Employee Management Structure wizard

After completing the Employee Management Structure wizard, a single import file is automatically generated and placed on the customer's FTP site, depending on the method of manager load you selected.

Org Location Managers

Org Location managers are imported using:

HR Import

  • FTP Subdirectory: Import/HRImport
  • Filename: <Namespace> HRImport <DateTime>.xml

Example illustrating how Activate translates the template data to XML:

Org Manager

Copy
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<EmployeeImport>
    <Employee>
        <XRefCode>3678</XRefCode>
        <EmployeeNumber>3678</EmployeeNumber>
        <FirstName>Javier</FirstName>
        <LastName>Franco</LastName>
        <UserOrg>
            <OrgXrefCode>4D5B4A5B_3EC5_4BF1_BFB2_5EB2C6C646C4</OrgXrefCode>
            <EffectiveStart>2016-01-01</EffectiveStart>
            <IsDefault>n</IsDefault>
            <AuthorityTypeXrefCode>Manager</AuthorityTypeXrefCode>
            </UserOrg>
        <UserOrg>
            <OrgXrefCode>GDLLP_CAN_00172_DOVER</OrgXrefCode>
            <EffectiveStart>2007-06-01</EffectiveStart>
            <IsDefault>y</IsDefault>
            <AuthorityTypeXrefCode>Manager</AuthorityTypeXrefCode>
        </UserOrg>
        <UserOrg>
            <OrgXrefCode>GDLLP_CAN_00172_DOVER_DEPARTMENT</OrgXrefCode>
            <EffectiveStart>2015-01-01</EffectiveStart>
            <IsDefault>n</IsDefault>
            <AuthorityTypeXrefCode>Manager</AuthorityTypeXrefCode>
        </UserOrg>
    </Employee>
</EmployeeImport>

Direct Manage/Employee Relationships

Direct Manager/Employee relationships are imported using:

Employee Manager Import
  • FTP Subdirectory: Import/EmployeeManagerImport
  • Filename: <Namespace> EmployeeManagerImport <DateTime>.xml

Example illustrating how Activate translates the template data to XML:

Copy
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<EmployeeManagerImport>
    <EmployeeManager>
        <EmployeeXRefCode>1006</EmployeeXRefCode>
        <ManagerXRefCode>1017</ManagerXRefCode>
        <EffectiveStart>2017-01-01</EffectiveStart>
    </EmployeeManager>
    <EmployeeManager>
        <EmployeeXRefCode>1007</EmployeeXRefCode>
        <ManagerXRefCode>1017</ManagerXRefCode>
        <EffectiveStart>2016-05-01</EffectiveStart>
    </EmployeeManager>
    <EmployeeManager>
        <EmployeeXRefCode>1008</EmployeeXRefCode>
        <ManagerXRefCode>1017</ManagerXRefCode>
        <EffectiveStart>2013-05-01</EffectiveStart>
    </EmployeeManager>
</EmployeeManagerImport>

Next steps

Complete the next wizard, as appropriate.

Org Management Data File template fields

All templates have the same basic structure:

  • Instructions tab: Helps you understand the purpose of the data and complete the fields in the template.
  • Data tab: Contains headers for the data to be included in the template. The headers remain the same, but you can change the column order. If you add more columns, Activate ignores them.

All number ranges in the templates include the numbers at both ends of the range.

Organization (Required)

Field information for the Organization field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
1 String between 1-64 characters. The unit's name. This field is already populated. Store 50 Greater New York district Shoe department This information identifies the unit that we’re referencing. It’s already populated and indented to correspond to the unit's level in the hierarchy.

Level (Required)

Field information for the Level field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
2 Accepted Values:Corporate On-Site
Department
Site
Region
District
The unit's organizational hierarchy and is already populated. Site
District
On-Site Department
This information shows the unit's hierarchical level in the organization.

Description (Required)

Field information for the Description field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
3 String between 1-256 characters. The unit's description and is already populated. Store on 50th avenue
New York district stores
Shoe dept for store 50
This information identifies the site that we’re referencing easily.

Manager Employee Identifier (Required)

Field information for the Manager Employee Identifier field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
4 Alphanumeric between 1-9 characters. The manager's employee ID. 3241245
000000006
abc123499
It enables the system to identify the manager uniquely. The manager's employee identifier was already loaded in the previous employee loads.

Manager First Name

Field information for the Manager First Name field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
5 String1 between 1-64 characters. The manager's first name. Joe The manager's first name as it was already loaded in the previous employee loads.

1 Special characters accepted within the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Manager Last Name

Field information for the Manager Last Name field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
6 String1 between 1-64 characters The manager's last name. Smith The manager's last name as it was already loaded in the previous employee loads.

1 Special characters accepted within the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Effective Start Date

Field information for the Effective Start Date field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
7 Date. Excel right- justified date format or Excel text format yyyy-mm-dd. The date that the manager started to manage this location. Date formatted cells:
09/24/2015
24/09/2015

Text formatted cells:
2015-09-24

The date that the management access comes into effect. If no date is provided, the system defaults to the latest date between the manager's hire date and the locations' start date.

Employee Manager Direct Data template fields

Employee Identifier

Field information for the Employee Identifier field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
1 Alphanumeric. Unique value between 1-9 characters. It allows our system to identify employees uniquely. Use the same number assigned to the employee in the getting started HR data loads. 3241245
000000006
abc123499

The Employee Identifier, First Name, and Last Name help users identify employees when completing the template.

This required field validates that the data being loaded is assigned to the correct employee record. The values provided must match exactly to an existing employee record in Dayforce.

First Name

Field information for the First Name field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
2 String1 between 1-64 characters.

The legal first name of the employee.

The value provided must match exactly to an existing employee record in Dayforce.

Note: Activate‘ compares the First Name and the Last Name with the Employee Identifier in Dayforce. If they don’t match, Activate shows an error message that states that the data is being loaded incorrectly and to check the source data.

Joe

The Employee Identifier, First Name, and Last Name help users identify employees when completing the template.

This required field validates that the data being loaded is assigned to the correct employee record. The values provided must match exactly to an existing employee record in Dayforce.

1 Special characters accepted within the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Last Name

Field information for the Last Name field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
3 String1 between 1-64 characters.

The legal last name of the employee.

The value provided must match exactly to an existing employee record in Dayforce.

Note: Activate‘ compares the First Name and the Last Name with the Employee Identifier in Dayforce. If they don’t match, Activate shows an error message that states that the data is being loaded incorrectly and to check the source data.

Smith

The Employee Identifier, First Name, and Last Name help users identify employees when completing the template.

This required field validates that the data being loaded is assigned to the correct employee record. The values provided must match exactly to an existing employee record in Dayforce.

1 Special characters accepted within the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Manager's Employee Identifier (Required)

Field information for the Manager's Employee Identifier field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
4 Alphanumeric. Unique value between 1-9 characters.

The manager's employee ID.

Manager Employee Identifier can be provided without providing Manager First or Last Name.

If the employee doesn’t have a direct manager, the manager fields can be left blank.

3241245
000000006
abc123499
It allows our system to identify the manager uniquely. The manager's employee Identifier should already have been loaded in the initial employee load. If the filed is blank, then no manager is assigned with this record.

Manager First Name

Field information for the Manager First Name field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
5 String1 between 1-64 characters. The manager's first name. If Manager First Name is provided, Manager Employee Identifier & Last Name must also be provided. If the employee does not have a direct manager, the manager fields can be left blank. Joe The manager's first name as it was already loaded in the previous employee loads.

1 Special characters accepted within the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Manager Last Name

Field information for the Manager Last Name field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
6 String1 between 1-64 characters.

The manager's last name.

If Manager Last Name is provided, Manager Employee Identifier & First Name must also be provided.

If the employee does not have a direct manager, the manager fields can be left blank.

Smith The manager's last name as it was already loaded in the previous employee loads.

1 Special characters accepted within the string include: alphanumeric, space, period, apostrophe, dash, number symbol #, comma, underscore, forward slash /, parentheses (), &

Effective Start Date

Field information for the Effective Start Date field
Order Data Type Description Examples Why This Is Needed
7 Date. Excel right-justified date format or Excel text format yyyy-mm-dd. The effective start date for management relationship.

Date formatted cells:

09/24/2015
24/09/2015

Text formatted cells:

2015-09-24

This field is used to indicate when the employee was assigned to the manager. If no date is provided, then the system will default to the latest date between the manager's hire date, the locations' start date or the current job's start date.