Using the employee upload utility – Pl

The employee upload tool allows you to upload employee data in bulk from a comma-separated text file. A spreadsheet can easily be converted to a comma-separated text file (csv).

You can define which user accounts are affected by the import – you do not have to upload the data for all of them. You can opt to archive user accounts that are not on the import or just leave them alone.

The import tool will check the import file for errors and advise you.

The data is not uploaded until the final step in the process so you can use the earlier steps to check the data before uploading it.

Key outcomes from this guide:

Learn how to prepare the employee import data

Become familiar with the upload process

There are 6 steps to uploading the financial data -

Prepare a spreadsheet of import data in csv format

Upload the file and map it

Correct any errors that the import utility finds in the data

Confirm employees to be archived

Check the list of data updates to be uploaded

Import the data

Step 1 : Prepare a spreadsheet of import data in csv format

First of all you need to create a spreadsheet with columns as below ...

User ID

User First Name

User Second Name

User Email

User Job Title

User Role Profile

User Department

User Location

Supervisor ID Number

Secondary Supervisor ID Number

The spreadsheet should also include columns for any bespoke employee fields that have been added to the platform.

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You can check if any bespoke employee fields have been set up by clicking on ‘settings’ on the left hand menu, selecting the ‘attributes’ tab and scrolling down to see if any Employee Attributes have been set.

You can create this spreadsheet in any way you want. You can create it manually or export it from your HRIS data base. You can also export a file of employee data from the Performance Leader system to act as a starting point. The columns will be the same as the fields required for the upload.

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The fields used to check if an account is new are User ID and User Email. If you already have user data on the platform, extracting the data from the Performance Leader platform is a good way to ensure that User ID and User Email are correct.

To extract the data from the Performance Leader platform, select ‘Reporting’ from the menu in the left hand side, then scroll down to the ‘exports’ card and click on ‘view’. Run the ‘employee data’ report and download the data.

Once you have the initial spreadsheet, make the changes as required. Since the fields used to check if an account is new are User ID and User Email, check these carefully. You can also use the spreadsheet to add new users.

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Any changes to ids and emails of existing user accounts need to happen manually in the platform, not via the upload, to make sure mistakes are not made accidentally.

Before doing the import, the values for role profiles, departments and locations must already have been added in the settings and the values on the spreadsheet must be exactly the same as those settings, with no added spaces.

The Supervisor ID and Secondary Supervisor ID fields must not be empty. They can be set to 0 or else must be a correct employee ID with no additional spaces.

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Remember that the import file does not have to include all user accounts – you can make changes for just a selection of user accounts if you prefer.

Once the spreadsheet contains the correct up-to-date information, save it as a comma-separated file.

Step 2 : Upload the file and map it

You now need to upload the import data onto the system and nominate which fields on the import file should be aligned to which fields on the system.

To access the employee upload utility, select ‘imports’ from the menu on the left hand side of the admin dashboard (1). This will bring up the ‘imports’ page. Select the ‘employee upload’ tab (2).

To start a new employee data upload, click the ‘+’ button (3).

This will bring up the employee data upload screen. Click on the box marked ‘drop csv file here or click to upload’ (1) and select your CSV file to upload it.

Once the CSV file has been uploaded successfully, the import utility will bring up a page allowing you to map the columns on the CSV file against the employee data fields on the platform.

For each field, select the correct column from the drop down list. When all fields have been mapped, click on the green ‘next step’ button.

At this point the import utility will display an error message if any errors have occurred involving identifying the user accounts from the import data. These errors can be -

Duplicate email address found in the CSV

Duplicate employee ID found in the CSV

Employee ID has changed for email address

Employee email has changed for given employee ID

You can correct the data on the platform or in the import file then start again with the import process.

Otherwise the import utility will carry on to the next screen where it will check the data for further errors.

Step 3 : Correct any errors that the import utility finds in the data

The import utility will highlight any further errors it finds in the import data. The department, location and role profile have to be set to those values available on the platform, so the import will list out any that are incorrect.

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Please note that the mapping of departments, locations and role profiles is case sensitive.

You can cancel the upload at this stage if you want, but you don’t have to. You can just select the correct values from the drop-down lists, then click the green ‘next step’ button to carry on. The import will then proceed to the next step, confirming if any user accounts are to be archived.

Step 4 : Confirm employees to be archived

The import file does not have to include all user accounts. The import utility will assume that all user accounts not included in the import csv file are to be archived, but you can deselect any that should not be archived.

Deselect the box next to the name of any user accounts that you want to keep activated. You can deselect all of them using the box next to the text ‘disable all employees’.

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Admin and Performance Leader accounts can be set as test accounts and so will not be archived if not on the import. Or you could just exclude them from being archived during the import.

Ensure that only those user accounts that you want to be archived are selected, then click the green ‘next step’ button to carry on.

Step 5 : Check the list of data updates to be uploaded

The import utility will now display a list of all user accounts that will be active once the upload is confirmed. This list includes any that you chose to remain active in the previous step.

If this will cause any errors in the data, they will be highlighted in red. In particular, the supervisor and second supervisor id must be the correct ids for an existing user id, or one that is due to be uploaded on the import file.

You can cancel the upload and correct the csv file, then repeat the import process from the beginning.

If there are no errors, you can click the green ‘next step’ button to proceed to the final step in the import process.

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Note that at this point the import has not affected the data on the platform at all. You can cancel the upload at any point in the process and no changes will have been made.

Step 6 : Confirm that you want to import the data

If you are ready to complete the data upload, click on the green ‘upload employee data’ button to confirm that you want to import the data.

A backup of the previous employee data will be created automatically. Please contact Performance Leader if you need to have this backup restored.

You can also cancel the upload by clicking on the ‘cancel upload’ button.

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It is possible to have employee data automatically uploaded from your HRIS system. If you would prefer to do this, please contact Performance Leader.