# Groups
> Live groups of people kept by rules, picked by name or synced from Slack and your HR system, departments with one per person, and starter groups. Automations act for each person who joins or leaves. Everyone can browse the groups shown on profiles.
Audience: Employees and workspace administrators
Kind: How-to guide
Canonical: https://shuffl.ai/docs/groups
## Keep a group by rules
A group is a live set of people that Pulse questions, programs and messages can be aimed at.
On People → Groups, choose New group, keep A group under What it is, name it, choose Rules under How it is kept and write what a person must match. Shuffl re-evaluates it every ten minutes and when you save.
A rule names an attribute from People, such as start date, last opened Shuffl, department, manager, job title, employment, location, Slack account linked, community or Connections program. A rule can also name another group, so one group can build on another.
Every rule must hold, and a rule can take several values, such as a department that is one of Engineering or Product. And any of adds a sub-group where one row is enough. Preview who matches shows how many people match now before you save.
- [Open Groups](https://shuffl.ai/app/people?view=groups)
## Pick people by name
A list holds exactly the people you pick: choose A list: people you pick under How it is kept, then find each person by name. It changes only when someone edits it, so it suits a pilot or a committee.
A list is also how you keep a team. Edit it here, or tick Groups on a person’s details sheet in People.
## Show a group on profiles
Teams are groups. Turn on Show on profiles and the group shows on its members’ profiles, in the org chart and in search. Leave it off for lists only HR uses, such as On leave.
The HR team is a group of the HR responders who answer private HR requests. It always shows on profiles and can’t be removed.
## Departments
1. Open People, then Groups, and choose New group. Under What it is, choose A department: one per person.
2. Name it, such as Customer Success, and pick the people in it by name.
3. A department is always a list with no rules, and it has no Show on profiles switch because profiles already show each person’s department. Choose Create the department.
4. Adding someone to a department moves them out of the one they were in. To change one person, open their Person details sheet in People and pick a Department.
5. Remove the department on its page deletes it, and its people have no department until you pick a new one. Departments can’t be archived.
A department is a group, such as Engineering or Sales, marked Department on the Groups tab. Each person is in one department at most. The filter above the list reads All groups, Departments or Other groups; choose Departments to see only them.
One department per person lets Pulse, eNPS and Culture compare departments without exposing anyone. Nobody is in two, so nobody can work out a small team’s answers by subtracting one total from another.
Connections across departments, Knowledge audiences, the org chart and profiles use the same departments; each person’s department shows on its own line.
With People sync, the department field in your HR system fills departments for you. Shuffl makes a department for each name it reads, or uses the one you already have with the same name, and follows renames.
Fix a wrong department in the HR system, since the next sync replaces a change made by hand.
- [Open Departments](https://shuffl.ai/app/people?view=groups&type=departments)
- [New department](https://shuffl.ai/app/groups/new?department=1)
- [Departments from People sync](https://shuffl.ai/docs/people-sync#what-syncs)
- [How Pulse keeps answers private](https://shuffl.ai/docs/pulse#who-sees-what)
## Groups for everyone
Everyone has the Groups tab on People. Employees see the groups shown on profiles, not departments, their own first, each with a few faces and a count. Groups with Show on profiles off stay with HR, even for someone with a link.
A group with five people or more has a glance at the top of its page: headcount, departments, tenure and who is in working hours. Smaller groups skip it so no figure points at one person.
A group’s page lists everyone in it, each opening their profile; Open in People shows them with People’s filters. Administrators also see the group’s rules, messages, automations and activity.
- [Open Groups](https://shuffl.ai/app/people?view=groups)
## Groups from Slack and People sync
Slack user groups and groups from People sync come in only when you choose them: on People → Sync, choose Groups on the source’s card, SCIM included.
Their name and members follow the source, but you can describe, show, message and automate them, and aim features at them.
Once groups are synced, a filter above the list picks Every source, Made in Shuffl, From Slack or From People sync.
## Starter groups
New group opens on the groups most HR teams want first, such as Managers, New this quarter, Not on Slack and On leave, with today’s count.
Choose one and Shuffl makes it, keeps it by rules you can change, and opens it. Blank group and Department are below them.
## A group’s page
A group’s page shows its headcount over a month and who joined and left this week. When people join or leave, above the tabs, holds its automations.
Members lists everyone with when they joined, and Rules (Settings for a synced group or a department) holds the form; saving re-evaluates the group at once. Messages and Activity follow.
Refresh now re-evaluates the group at once. Remove deletes it with its history; removing a department leaves its people with no department. If a refresh fails, the group says so and keeps its last members.
## Message a group
Choose Message on a group’s page to write to everyone in it. {{first_name}}, {{manager}} and {{company}} fill in for each person, and a button can open a page of Shuffl. It goes on each person’s chosen channel, or only Slack or only email.
Check who gets it previews the message and counts who it reaches, leaving out anyone HR already messaged today (one message from HR a day) or who can’t be reached. Nothing goes out until you choose Send.
In Slack it arrives as a direct message from Shuffl, and a reply in its thread becomes an HR request. People can choose Slack or email for HR messages, but can’t turn them off.
## Automate what happens when someone joins or leaves
An automation does one thing for each person who joins or leaves a group.
It can send a message, ask a Pulse question, start a playbook (you still approve their steps), invite to a community, add to Connections or give a badge.
It can also change another group, add to or post in a Slack channel, or tell HR, their manager or someone named.
A Slack channel must be one Shuffl is in. Each person is added with their linked Slack account, and a post says they joined the group, with your note; posts are for joins only. If Slack refuses, the run says why.
How soon runs it within ten minutes or 1 to 90 days later, such as a Pulse question a week after someone joins. When the day comes, someone who has moved back is skipped.
Pulse answers from an automation are pooled across everyone it asks, stay anonymous and show under the question once the reporting floor is met. A retired question is asked only by automations. Adding someone to another group runs that group’s automations too.
Automations, under Programs in the HR workspace, lists every automation by group with On, Pause and Edit. It includes playbooks that start on each start date or last day, and Connections programs whose people come from a group.
Choose Add an automation, then a group, A new hire gets a start date or Someone gets a last day.
On a group’s page, When people join or leave sits above the tabs. Ideas at the bottom of Automations and on the group’s page suggest automations that fit, such as Start their playbook for New this quarter. Choosing one opens the dialog filled in.
A playbook’s, Connections program’s or invite-only community’s page says what starts it, with Automations that start this. A new automation starts paused; Turn on starts it.
Each runs once per person and entry, and skips people with pending access, ended employment or a message from HR already that day.
Insights, the second tab, counts runs done, skipped and failed over 30, 90 or 180 days against the period before.
It also shows the people reached, runs by week and kind, and the top reasons runs did nothing. Choose a group to see only its automations.
Runs, the last tab, lists every run newest first: who it was for, what it did, and whether it was done, skipped, scheduled or failed, with why.
Filter by outcome or by group; Show older runs loads 50 more. A group’s Activity tab shows its own runs.
## Do something with a group
Actions on a group’s page opens Pulse, a playbook’s Add people, a community invitation or a new Connections program with the group already chosen. Export members as CSV downloads each member’s name, email, job title, department, manager and join date.
Ask Mello can say who is in a group or how many people it holds.
## Worked examples
Each example pairs a group with a feature it feeds. Make the group first.
## Example: start every new hire’s onboarding on their own
1. Make a group called New hires kept by Rules, with the rule Started within 30 days.
2. On the group’s page, under When people join or leave, add When someone joins and Start a playbook with the playbook new hires follow, then Turn on.
3. Add When someone joins and Tell their manager, with a note such as Plan their first one to one this week.
4. Each new hire now joins the group, is enrolled and their manager hears. You still approve each hire’s schedule on the playbook.
5. For hires already in the group, choose Actions → Start and the playbook’s name once.
- [Enroll hires in a playbook](https://shuffl.ai/docs/playbooks#enroll)
- [Make a group](https://shuffl.ai/app/groups/new)
## Example: ask managers a Pulse question of their own
1. Make the Managers starter group.
2. Choose Actions → Ask a Pulse question. Pulse opens with Managers chosen under Who gets it; write the question and add it.
3. If the group is smaller than your reporting floor, the picker warns that its answers would never be shown.
4. To move an existing question, choose Set group beside it on Pulse → Questions.
5. On Pulse → Insights, By group shows each group’s results beside Everyone, whoever was asked.
- [How Pulse groups work](https://shuffl.ai/docs/pulse#administrators)
## Example: coffee chats for one office or across two departments
1. Make a group with a Location rule for the offices, or a Department rule naming two departments that rarely meet.
2. Choose Actions → Start a Connections program; the group is already under Who takes part.
3. Pick the Slack channel and schedule, and start it. People who join or leave the group join or drop out from the next round.
- [Set up a Connections program](https://shuffl.ai/docs/connections#program)
## Example: get a new policy read by the people it affects
1. Publish the policy in Knowledge and choose Ask to confirm.
2. Open the group that most needs to act, such as Managers, and choose Message.
3. Under Button choose Open a page of Shuffl, label it Read the policy and paste the policy’s /app address.
4. Choose Check who gets it, then Send. Replies in Slack land in the Inbox as HR requests.
5. Confirmations on the policy shows who has read it; Remind nudges the rest, at most once a day.
- [Ask people to confirm a policy](https://shuffl.ai/docs/knowledge#confirm)
## Example: reach the people who are not on Slack
1. Make the Not on Slack starter group.
2. Choose Message, set Send it to Email only, and explain how to join Slack.
3. Add When someone leaves and Tell HR to hear as each person links Slack.
- [How people choose Slack or email](https://shuffl.ai/docs/notifications)
## Example: hear when someone comes back from leave
1. Make the On leave starter group: everyone whose employment in People reads on leave.
2. Add When someone leaves and Tell their manager, with a note such as Back from leave: book a return conversation, and Tell HR if HR runs the return.
3. Leaving the group is the return, so the note arrives within ten minutes.
- [Employment status in People](https://shuffl.ai/docs/people)
## Example: grow a community from a group
1. Make an invite-only community you manage, such as Austin office.
2. Make a group of who should be invited, by rules or as a list.
3. Choose Actions → Invite to a community, then add When someone joins and Invite to a community for later joiners.
- [Communities and their channels](https://shuffl.ai/docs/communities)
## Example: ask every new hire how their first week went
1. On Pulse → Questions, add a question such as I knew who to ask for help this week, then retire it so only automations ask it.
2. Open your New hires group. Add When someone joins, How soon 7 days later, Ask a Pulse question with that question, then Turn on.
3. Each hire is asked a week in. Results show under the question once enough hires answer.
- [How Pulse results stay anonymous](https://shuffl.ai/docs/pulse#administrators)
## Example: chain groups so one move sets off the next
1. Make a list group called Alumni.
2. On a group such as Contractors and interns, add When someone leaves and Add to a group with Alumni.
3. Automations on Alumni, such as Tell someone in payroll, run as each person arrives.
## Related guides
- [People and the org chart](https://shuffl.ai/docs/people)
- [Ask one confidential question at a time with Pulse](https://shuffl.ai/docs/pulse)
- [Introduce coworkers with Connections](https://shuffl.ai/docs/connections)
- [Playbooks and onboarding](https://shuffl.ai/docs/playbooks)
- [Communities](https://shuffl.ai/docs/communities)
- [Review and publish knowledge](https://shuffl.ai/docs/knowledge)
Agent documentation index: https://shuffl.ai/llms.txt