Keeping track of which team members report to the Managers and leaders in your organisation, is a key component to achieving a successful skills strategy and developing departments.

Using the Reports To option gives senior team members the chance to control and understand who’s responsible for the growth of key players in your organisation (org). Below are the key areas…

Note✨: The term Line Manager is being used within this article as a way to describe the individual chosen for the Reports To position. It’s not to be confused with the Org User Role of Manager, as any User can be set under Reports To (e.g., some of your team members who are actual Managers offline, may only be Read Only’s on your org’s HowNow workspace).

When adding Users to your organisation’s workspace, you’ll have the option to include a key player from any of your teams, within the Reports To field. This isn’t a compulsory option, but is the starting point for Managers and Admins to understand who is responsible for gathering information from, or helping to develop, the User about to join.

Click on Add User to open the invitation pop-up and add your User’s details. From here, you’ll see the Reports To field, with a drop-down menu option.

Select just one team member to be placed as the Reports To contact. No more than a single team member can become a Reports To Line Manager. Just as in most organisations, members will only be assigned a single person to report to.

Both the User and the team member added, will be notified of this update. The same will apply for whenever the Reports To member is later removed.

Another way to onboard many Users with the correct Line Manager is by setting up the Bulk Upload invite option.

Opening the pop-up from the Add User button, and selecting the Bulk Upload tab, this will allow you to Download Bulk Upload Template. This template is a CSV file (Excel/Google Sheet), where you’d need to add the email addresses of the individuals who you wish to make Report To Line Managers.

For multiple Users who need to be updated, you can use the Bulk assign option for Reports To.

Select the checkbox of the Users you want to update and click on the Bulk Reports To icon, and choose the necessary person.

Note✨: Points to remember at this stage include…

Management can change at any time, so it’s important to have the flexibility to choose the next most appropriate person to take on the responsibility. This is where the column option allows you to control this process.

Click the Reports To button within the column, to open the drop-down list. Choose your single team member, whose name will then appear within the row of the User who they will be reporting to them.

A key benefit of the Reports To column, is that it allows your organisation to visually verify whether the Line Manager given to a User, is still relevant. For Example…

Collect data on who is responsible for specific Users, by running export reports. From what’s shown in your data table, you’ll be able to quickly share with your wider team, which your Line Managers are, and their reports.

Clicking the Export button triggers the pop-up confirming that your file has been emailed to you.

Once received, you’ll be able to download it, via the link, to see the following CSV sheet…

Make use of the filter option, to see how many reports a Line Manager has, and combine it with other filters, to meet your objectives.

Select the filter button and choose or search for your Line Manager(s) from the drop-down menu. This will result in the data table showing only the Users who report to them.

You can combine filters in different ways, alongside the Reports To option, and the following are some examples…

Tracking quantity

Line Managers who are focused on specific business objectives, can use a series of combinations with Reports To, allowing them to get quicker information (which can, again, be exported). For example, they could combine it with…

Focused & Personalised Learning

Often when too many Users report to the same Line Manager, that person can stretch themselves thin, across many different disciplines, or the objectives set by their organisation. This can lead to a lower quality of training, and lack of focus on the Manager channeling their expertise to a more focused set of team members.

This could quickly be reviewed by combining Reports To with Groups. If there are a multitude of Groups assigned to the one User, then this can be limited to just one or two key Users.

All Users will have a Reports To section within their Profile box. This will show the picture and name of the Line Manager, but is simply a reminder for the User, and is not clickable.

For the HowNow mobile app, Users will see their Reports To within the Settings option > General tab. This reflects the same as on the web app’s Profile page.

The following pages are home to the reports option...