Skip to main content
Go to Imports ↗ · Opens the webapp — please log in first This video explains how it’s done:
To import your employees via Excel, go to the “Employees” section and click on “Import Employees”: A window with further information will appear: Screenshot 2024-05-16 at 11.33.11 You are now shown 2 options: The partial import updates your data and can be used with a smaller Excel list (only uploading new employees or updating existing users, for example). The full import updates your existing data and also removes employees who are no longer listed in your Excel file. It always runs in the same order: every row in the file is created or updated first, and only then are the missing employees removed. Nothing is ever deleted first.
There is no threshold that stops the Excel full import when too many employees would be removed. If you accidentally upload an incomplete file, every Excel employee not included in it is deleted. The only safeguard is the “Important Information for full import” confirmation dialog you approve before the import starts.

​
What the full import deletes

An employee is deleted only if all three of these are true:
  • They were added via Excel (source Excel).
  • They have an ImportID.
  • That ImportID is not present in the uploaded file.
The following are never deleted:
  • employees added manually,
  • employees from SFTP/CSV, Personio or Kombo,
  • Excel employees without an ImportID,
  • the last remaining admin of your account.
Rows skipped because of errors during the import still count as present in the file and protect that employee from deletion.
To remove data from another source, use the system it was loaded from, or delete manually created entries by hand. In the employee overview, a column shows how each entry was created — see the details here. Read more about integrations with an HCM system in the linked article.

​
What “deleted” means

A deleted employee is marked as deleted and removed from the employee list, their login is deactivated, and any running personal survey assignments are ended. Survey answers they already gave are retained and stay in your dashboards. Their name and email address are only anonymised 365 days after deletion. The full import is therefore not a tool for immediate GDPR deletion. You can see how many employees a run deleted in the Import Details, under Deleted. By clicking on click here , you can download our template file and adjust your data according to the examples given: Screenshot 2024-05-17 at 09.29.57 Once you have adjusted your file according to the template, you can easily upload it by clicking on Start import. It will be completed in just a few minutes.

​

​
Required Columns

The following columns must be included in the Excel file.
Column names must be entered exactly as shown below, or the import will fail.
Caution: The employee’s individual ImportId can no longer be changed once it is assigned in the very first upload. In most cases, the personnel number of each employee is used. Further Note: Always format the ImportID as text/string in Excel (ideally the entire column). This ensures that nothing goes wrong during import — for example, leading zeros will be preserved…

​

​
The employees’ languages

​

​
Optional: Additional Employee attributes

In order to later be able to filter the data you collect and get more detailed insights, you will need to both configure all employee attributes in the Honestly account and then extend the file to include these as additional headings. These attributes will appear as possible filters in the dashboard.
Attributes and their values can have a maximum length of 100 characters.

​

​
Optional: Roles and access rights

Employees can have access to survey data according to who reports to them using a “ReportsToId”. This can be used in conjunction with access to particular employee attributes, such as locations or departments. If you choose to use “ReportsToId”, “PermissionGroup” or “PermissionGroupValue” columns, it is fine to only enter information for some employees and not for others. The “Role” column however must be completed for all employees. Use * to give users access to all data. See more details here in this article: How Do Reporting Structures and Data Permissions Work in Honestly?

​
Possible roles

Read more about the roles in your Honestly account.

​
Optional: Age groups and seniority

Employees can now be created in the system with their year of birth and start date; our system generates age groups and seniority groups for you.
Example: Age Category 1990 and Seniority 2024 in the import file would then be displayed in our system as follows:
The age category and seniority are automatically calculated based on the employee’s year of birth and start date.
The system creates the following groups automatically: Age Category
<20, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60+. Seniority
<5, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45+. Follow these guidelines to ensure your import is successful.