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Understanding user roles and permissions

Learn about the different user roles—Admin, HR, Group HR, and Manager—and what they can see and do across the platform.

Updated this week

Roles and permissions ensure that your team members have the right level of access to see and manage information. This article breaks down the four primary roles in the platform—Admin, HR, Group HR, and Manager—to help you understand who can do what.

📌 Note: The Admin, HR, and Group HR roles are assigned to users from the people list page. The Manager role is automatically given to anyone who is set as a manager for another employee. Roles are also cumulative, meaning a user can be an Admin, HR, and Manager all at once.


HR role

The HR role has global access across the platform, allowing them to manage all users and company-wide settings and processes.

  • User management

    • Can see, edit, and assign groups for all users, including all attributes and custom fields.

    • Can set HR and Group HR roles for any user.

    • Can invite and import new users.

    • Can deactivate and delete any user.

📌 Note: The ability to invite and import users may also be unavailable if an automatic user synchronisation integration is active.

  • Company settings

    • Can manage settings for custom fields, groups, and positions.

  • Goals

    • Can manage and create goals for anyone in the company.

  • Training

    • Can see and manage training for every employee in the company.

  • Skills

    • Can manage all skills and assign them to any employee.

    • Can see and assess skills for any employee from their profile.

  • Engagement surveys

    • Can launch and manage surveys for all employees.

    • Can create survey templates.

    • Has access to all survey campaigns and results that have been launched.

  • Talent reviews

    • Can launch talent reviews for all employees.

    • Can see all talent review results and reporting.

  • Performance reviews

    • Can launch and manage review campaigns for all employees.

    • Can create form templates for reviews.

    • Has access to view all reviews and reporting for all campaigns.

  • Feedback

    • Can see their own feedback.


Group HR role

The Group HR role has permissions similar to the HR role but limited to the specific user groups they are assigned to.

  • User management

    • Can see and edit users from their assigned groups, including all attributes and custom fields.

    • Can invite users.

    • Can assign the Group HR role to other users for their groups.

    • Can deactivate and delete users from their assigned groups.

📌 Note: The ability to invite users may also be unavailable if an automatic user synchronisation integration is active.

  • Company settings

    • Can see custom field settings.

    • Can see their assigned groups and manage their settings.

  • Goals

    • Can manage and create goals for anyone within their groups.

📌 Note: A company-wide setting can override this and allow Group HR to create goals for anyone in the company.

  • Training

    • Can see and manage training for employees within their groups.

  • Skills

    • Can manage all skills and assign them to any employee.

    • Can see and assess the skills of employees within their groups.

  • Engagement surveys

    • Can launch and manage surveys for employees within their groups.

    • Can create survey templates.

    • Has access to survey reporting, limited to the employees in their groups.

  • Talent reviews

    • Can launch talent reviews for their groups.

    • Can see talent review results and reporting for their groups.

  • Performance reviews

    • Can launch and manage review campaigns for employees in their groups.

    • Can create form templates for reviews.

    • Can see campaign reporting limited to employees in their groups.

📌 Note: A Group HR can be added as an administrator to a campaign that includes employees outside their groups. In this case, they can manage the campaign but cannot read the review content, and reports will remain limited to their group scope.

  • Feedback

    • Can see their own feedback.


Manager role

The Manager role is automatically assigned to any employee who manages at least one person. Their access is focused on overseeing their team's performance and development.

📌 Note: A manager’s visibility can be set to include only their direct reports or all subordinates (their direct reports and the people who report to them). This setting affects their access in modules like Goals, Training, and Reviews.

  • User management

    • Can see the employees that report to them. Visibility and editing rights for employee attributes and custom fields depend on custom field settings.

  • Goals

    • Can manage and create goals for the employees they manage.

📌 Note: A company-wide setting can override this and allow specific managers to create goals for anyone in the company.

  • Training

    • Can see, approve, and deny training requests for the employees they manage.

  • Skills

    • Can see assessed skills on their team members' profiles.

    • Can assess skills for their team members if the setting is enabled.

  • Engagement surveys

    • No access to engagement surveys.

  • Talent reviews

    • Can see talent review results and reporting for the people they manage.

  • Performance reviews

    • Can launch single reviews for the employees they manage.

  • Feedback

    • Can see their own feedback.


Admin role

The Admin role is designed for technical platform management and configuration. It does not have access to employee-centric modules like Goals, Reviews, or Training.

  • User management

    • Can see and edit all users, including their attributes and custom fields.

    • Can invite and import users.

    • Can deactivate and delete any users.

📌 Note: The ability to invite and import users may also be unavailable if an automatic user synchronization integration is active.

  • Company settings

    • Can manage all company settings, including custom fields, groups, positions, features, SSO, and integrations.

  • Goals, Training, Skills, & Reviews

    • No access.

  • Feedback

    • Can see their own feedback.


FAQs

Can a user have more than one role?

Yes. The roles are cumulative. For example, an employee can have the Admin role for platform settings and the HR role for global people management.

How are the Admin, HR, and Group HR roles assigned?

These roles are assigned to a user from the people list page. The Group HR role is connected to specific groups that have been created in the platform.

How is the Manager role assigned?

The Manager role is assigned automatically as soon as you set an employee as someone's manager in their profile. It is not a role you can assign manually.

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