Departments — the org structure

Admin → Departments is where the organization's departments are managed: what they are called, who heads each one, and who works in each one. Departments used to be edited from a panel inside Leave settings; they are now a first-class page, because a department does real work in two modules at once:

• Leave — a department's head is the default approver for its members' leave (unless a member carries a personal line-manager override). A department with no head sends its leave straight to HR.
• Appraisals — the head reviews the department's appraisals at the department-head stage, and the department decides which KPI form its people are appraised on.

Access: the page is visible to and editable by holders of Manage departments (departments:manage) — the HR role and administrators. Everyone else still sees department names where they matter (the staff directory, the leave form), but has no management surface.

The list

The Departments page lists every department with its head and its staff count. A department with no head is flagged in amber — that gap has a consequence (its leave goes straight to HR), so it is worth seeing at a glance.

Add department (top right) creates one: a name, and optionally a head.

One department

Opening a department shows:

• The department head card — who heads it, with a reminder of what heading it means.
• The appraisal form card — which KPI template this department's staff are appraised on (or the General / Other fallback when none is assigned), with a link to change it in Appraisal settings. Shown to holders of the HR appraisal permission.
• The staff table — everyone in the department, with their designation and role. The head is not repeated in this table; the head card is their listing.

Adding and moving staff

Add staff opens a picker over the whole organization. Every person is listed with their current department, so the decision is made with context:

• Picking someone with no department asks a plain confirmation and files them in.
• Picking someone already in another department shows a clear warning that continuing moves them out of it — a mis-click cannot silently re-file a person.

Each staff row in the table also has a Move… action for sending someone the other way — to another department, or out of every department.

The person is emailed about every change — added, moved (the email names where from and where to), or removed — with a note of who made the change and what it means for their leave routing and appraisals. Requests already submitted keep the approver they were snapshotted with; only future requests follow the new department.

Department heads are special

Four rules keep headship coherent:

1. A head is always a member of the department they head. Naming someone head also files them into that department (moving them out of any other), and they are emailed a head-appointment notice. Their own leave routes to their line manager, or to HR — never to themselves.
2. One person heads at most one department. Naming someone who already heads another department is refused, and the message names it — replace them there first.
3. Heads are not listed in the Add-staff picker. A head anchors leave routing and the appraisal chain for everyone under them, so re-filing one through a casual picker is blocked: replace them as head (Edit on their department), and then they can be moved like anyone else.
4. A department head cannot review themselves. On the head's own appraisal, the department-head stage is skipped — and because their department's supervisor is themselves, they need a personal line-manager override on their staff record before an appraisal can be started for them.

Renaming and changing the head

Edit (top right) renames the department or changes its head. Vacating the head seat (clearing the field) does not remove the outgoing head from the department — they remain a member until moved.

Deleting a department

Deleting is deliberately the hardest action on the page. A department can only be deleted once nothing is tied to it:

• No staff members — move everyone out first.
• No head — vacate the seat first (Edit, clear the head field).

While ties remain, the delete dialog lists exactly what must be cleared and offers nothing else. Once the department is genuinely empty, deleting still takes two steps: an explicit warning that the action is irreversible, then typing delete <department name> to arm the button. Only the audit log keeps a record of a deleted department.

Where departments appear elsewhere

• Staff records — a person's department is shown on their staff page and editable on the staff edit form (the department page's Add/Move actions use the same underlying change, so both paths email the person and both are audited).
• Leave settings — the old departments panel is now a link pointing here.
• Appraisal settings — the department → KPI form assignment grid; the department page's appraisal card links straight to it.

Permissions

Reading the plain department list (names only) is available to all staff — the staff directory and the leave form need it. Adding or moving staff between departments additionally uses the ordinary staff-editing permission, which HR and administrators hold.

Related

• People — staff, branches, roles and permissions — the staff records departments organize.
• Appraisals — the department-head stage and the department → KPI form assignment.