People Hub Excel Import Guide for Administrators

This guide explains how to download, fill in, and upload Excel templates in People Hub. It is intended for company administrators setting up activities, skills, roles, and employee assignments.

Before you start

Who can import

Excel import and export is available to company administrators only. The Import Excel button is shown on relevant pages for admins. Non-admins should ask an administrator to run imports.

Imports run in the background. After you upload a file, you are notified when the job finishes. If validation fails, an error report opens automatically. You can also review import history in People Hub Settings → Export & Import.

How the system recognises your file

Each template includes hidden metadata embedded in the workbook. When you upload a file, People Hub checks that:

• it is the correct template type (onboarding, activities, skills, roles, people, and so on);

• it is the supported template version;

• it was downloaded for your company.

If you use the wrong template, an outdated version, or a file from another company, the import will be rejected.

Always download templates from People Hub — do not reuse files from other companies or older exports.

Names of people

Whenever you enter an employee, use this format:

First Last

Example: Jane Smith, John Doe.

The name must match a user in your company. Avoid extra spaces.

Portal users are not included in employee lists.

Skill and role owners

Skills and roles require an owner. Choose from the dropdown in the template, which uses these prefixes:

Example: User: Jane Smith, Role: Production Managers.

Bare First Last (without a prefix) is still accepted for users, but the dropdown format is recommended.

Multiple values separated by commas

Rules:

• use a comma as the separator;

• spaces around commas are optional;

• duplicate titles in the same cell are ignored;

• each activity title is validated separately;

• tags that do not yet exist are created automatically on import.

Dropdown lists

Templates include dropdown lists for categories, employees, skill names, activity titles, owners, and other fixed values. Choose from the list where possible — this reduces import errors.

Required columns

Columns marked with \* in the header must be filled in for that row.

Where to find import in People Hub

Click Import Excel to open the menu: download a template → fill it in → upload.

Recommended order

Records depend on each other. Fill in and import in this order:

1. Activities — training, certificates, reviews, single actions, etc.

2. Skills — skill levels link to activities by title

3. Roles — roles link to skills and activities

4. Assignments — assign skills and roles to employees

For full onboarding, all of this is in one workbook, but the same order still applies across the sheets.

Import types

1. Full onboarding

Template: People Hub onboarding template
Where: Get Started dialog

Sheets and columns

Activities

Skills

One row = one skill level. Rows with the same skill name are combined into a single skill.

To require several activities for one level, list them in Linked activity title separated by commas — do not add a second row with the same level number.

Roles

Several rows with the same role name are merged into one role. You can list multiple activities in one cell (comma-separated) or add extra rows for the same role. Continuation rows may leave name, description, tags, and owner blank.

Assignments (onboarding sheet)

What happens on import

• Existing activities, skills, and roles (matched by name/title) are not overwritten — they are reused.

• Only new records are created.

• Skill and role assignments are deferred until you complete post-import configuration in People Hub Settings → Export & Import (set activity deadlines for newly imported activities). After configuration, assignments are applied automatically.

• If new activities were created, you must configure their deadlines before employee assignments take effect.

Internal Group and External trainings

• Import creates or updates the activity template only — not a training course or learner tasks.

• To run the training with dates and tasks: open the activity in People Hub → create a training course → assign users → Create Tasks.

2. Activities (standalone)

Where: Activity management → Import Excel

The downloaded template includes your existing activities with a hidden ID column. Upload uses upsert behaviour:

Update template columns — same as onboarding Activities, plus:

When updating, do not change the ID column for existing rows.

3. Skills (standalone)

Where: Skills → Import Excel

Same upsert behaviour as activities:

Update template columns:

Rows under the same skill can leave name, ID, owner, category, and tags empty on continuation rows. To add a new skill, start a new block with skill name and owner.

Skill page → Import Excel (criteria): template for one skill's levels only (no skill name, owner, category, or tags columns). Always updates the current skill.

Limit: the number of levels per skill is set in People Hub Settings → Default skill levels.

4. Competency roles (standalone)

Where: Roles → Import Excel

Same upsert behaviour:

Update template columns:

Role page → Import Excel (criteria): updates criteria for the current role only.

When you download an update template, all linked activities for a role appear comma-separated on the first row of that role. To add a new role, start a new block with role name and owner; leave Role ID empty.

5. People assignments

Where: People → Import Excel

The template is pre-filled with your company's employees and their current assignments in a matrix format.

Matrix format (current)

Three sheets — employees as rows, entities as columns:

Column A on each sheet: Employee first name and last name\*. All company employees are listed, even if they have no current assignments.

Import applies the differences — it can add and remove assignments based on your changes.

Note: Assigning an activity with 1 on the Activities sheet adds a training requirement for that person (shown as Required on the People tab). It does not create a training course or tasks.

Legacy row format (still supported)

A single Assignments sheet with these columns:

Legacy format adds assignments only; it does not remove existing ones.

6. Assign people to a skill

Where: Skill page → Users → Import Excel

Assigns employees to the current skill. Import adds assignments; it does not remove existing ones.

7. Assign people to a role

Where: Role page → Users → Import Excel

Assigns employees to the current role. Required skills and activities from the role are applied automatically. Import adds assignments; it does not remove existing ones.

Examples

Skill level with three required activities

Skill name:          Welding
Skill owner name:    User: Jane Smith
Skill level:         1
Skill level name:    Beginner
Linked activity:     Fire Safety Training, First Aid Certificate, Welding Safety Course

Role with multiple activities

Competency role name: Production Operator
Role owner name:      User: Jane Smith
Skill name:           Welding
Minimum skill level:  2
Linked activity:      Fire Safety Training, First Aid Certificate

People matrix — assign and remove

On the Skills sheet, set 2 in Jane Smith's column under Welding to assign level 2. Set 0 to remove her Welding assignment. Leave blank to keep unchanged.

Legacy — several required activities for one employee

Employee:             Jane Smith
Required activity:    Fire Safety Training, Manual Handling

Common errors

Tips

• Test with a small file — try a few rows before a large import.

• Do not rename sheets — the system expects fixed names: Instructions, Activities, Skills, Roles, Assignments.

• Keep the header row and use column names from the template.

• Always download templates from People Hub so IDs and company metadata are included.

• Use full onboarding for initial setup; use separate imports for later changes.

• Several activities per skill level — always use comma-separated titles in one cell, not duplicate level numbers.

• After onboarding, go to Settings → Export & Import to set activity deadlines before assignments are applied.

• Internal Group and External activities need a training course created manually in People Hub after import.

• Imports run in the background — only one import per company runs at a time.

Need help?

If import fails, note the sheet name, row number, and error message from the import results page — this makes it easier to fix the spreadsheet or contact your administrator. You can export the error list as CSV from the import results page.