Generating a Parent-Child Hierarchy (EX)

Question 1

I've already uploaded my participant file and collected data, but I need to make a change to my hierarchy. How do I do this?

All hierarchy units are able to be dragged and dropped. This is one option for editing the hierarchy of your in-progress survey. However, we recommend making changes to your participant file and updating your participant list with that file, rather than manually moving units. Make sure that your participant file has all the columns of metadata used for your hierarchy - this doesn't just mean levels, unique identifiers, and manager IDs, but also fields like Org Unit ID and Org Unit Description, if you initially used them to generate your hierarchy.

Question 2

I want to set up my Parent-Child hierarchy to use unit names rather than assigning manager names to hierarchy units. How do I do this?

When setting up your participant upload file, you should include a few additional Metadata fields. To upload a Parent-Child hierarchy, you should include the participant’s first name, last name, and email address, as well as columns listing the employee’s ID and the employee ID of his or her manager. For an example file, visit the Preparing for Your Employee Engagement Survey support page. To add in additional unit names, you will need to add an Org Unit Description column. This should list the unit name you would like to display in your hierarchy. However, to historically map the data over time and account for unit name changes, you will also need an Org Unit ID. See Preparing a Participant File for Import for more details.

Question 3

I uploaded my participant list and generated a Parent-Child hierarchy. I received an error message that reads “Circular Dependencies.” Why did I receive this message and how do I fix this?

The error message “Circular Dependencies” indicates that you have participants reporting to someone who is listed beneath them in the hierarchy. To fix this, take a look at the Metadata values for your participants. In most cases, this error is caused by having the incorrect manager ID for a participant on the list of those with an error. Confirm that the employee IDs and manager IDs are correct for all participants in the list of those with the errors. Once you have identified the incorrect ID(s), enter the correct ID in your participant file and update your participant list with the updated file. To update the participant list, select the Add Participants button and select Import Participants. Once you have loaded your file, you can update the participants' responses with the new metadata using the option Update All Responses with Current Metadata under the Tools menu. In most cases, this will resolve the issue automatically with your hierarchy. Occasionally, however, you must generate a new hierarchy based on the updated values to resolve the error.

Question 4

I uploaded my participant list and generated a Parent-Child hierarchy. Why do I see some units labeled “Unknown Manager” and how do I fix this?

The “Unknown Manager” unit indicates that you had some manager IDs that our tool was not able to associate with an employee. When generating the hierarchy, Qualtrics checks the manager ID listed for each participant and places the participant in the hierarchy unit that matches the manager ID listed. If the manager ID associated with an employee does not match a listed employee ID, the tool is unable to associate that unit with a participant and labels the unit as an unknown manager. To fix this, you should look at the employees listed under each unknown manager. Check your participants file to ensure that the correct manager ID is listed. Once you have corrected these errors in your file, re-import your participants file to the participants list. To re-import the participants file, navigate to the Participants tab and select the Add Participants button and select Import Participants. Your hierarchy will update with the new Metadata, associating the participants listed under “Unknown Manager” with their correct manager.

Question 5

What's the maximum number of hierarchies I can have in my project?

You may have up to 10 hierarchies in a project. Once you reach 7 hierarchies, you will receive a warning that you're approaching the hierarchy limit. If you have 10 hierarchies, you will not be able to create any more without deleting a hierarchy.

Question 6

Can I use the same metadata field to build multiple org hierarchies in the same project?

No, you cannot use the same field to build multiple hierarchies. You can only use a given metadata field to build 1 hierarchy.

If you’d like to use the same field to build multiple hierarchies, you will need to duplicate the field and use the duplicate to build your additional hierarchies. For example, instead of only including the columns UniqueIdentifier and Manager ID with every participant, you can also include columns named EmployeeID2 and ManagerID2, which you'll use to build a second, separate hierarchy.

Question 7

How do I make sure that leading zeroes are included in my CSV/TSV file?

Many spreadsheets will eliminate the leading zeroes in a cell. For example, if you have an employee with the ID "0001435," this will be automatically shortened to "1435." If those leading zeroes are necessary to how your company formats an employee ID, this can create issues when you try to upload information to another system.

Thankfully, there are solutions to ensure your leading zeroes are not removed. If you add this formatting to your file, be careful not to re-open the CSV before importing it to Qualtrics, or you may lose your formatting.

Question 8

Can I automate changes to my Engagement org hierarchy?

You cannot automate changes to an individual Engagement project’s participant hierarchy. However, you can automate updates to your employee directory, which allows you to have the most up-to-date info ready for future Engagement projects.

To learn more about automating employee directory changes, see Load Users into EX Directory.

Generating a Parent-Child Hierarchy (EX)

About Parent-Child Hierarchies

Generating a Parent-Child Hierarchy

Advanced Options

Additional field used to describe org units

Use filters to include only certain people in the org hierarchy

Include additional metadata to associate with org units

Include direct reports in the org hierarchy

Generating a Skeleton Hierarchy

FAQs

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