People — Overview
Smooth HR People is the foundation of your HRMS: every employee, manager relationship, and org unit rolls up from here. Before payroll, recruitment, or performance cycles, People masters must be accurate — Company, Department, Designation, and the Employee record that ties a person to your legal entity.
This guide explains who uses the People workspace, how it connects to the rest of Smooth HR, desk navigation, recommended setup order, and mistakes that cause downstream payroll or portal failures.
Help URL: https://smoothhiring.com/help/hrms/people/overview
Table of contents
- What People covers
- Who uses it
- Desk access and shortcuts
- Recommended setup workflow
- How People connects to other modules
- Organizational chart
- HR Settings on People
- Permissions and data visibility
- Common mistakes
- Troubleshooting
What People covers
The People workspace groups core HR master data in the sidebar:
| Area | records / pages | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Core HR | Employee | Master person record; status; reports-to; user link |
| Org structure | Company, Branch, Department, Designation | Legal employer and hierarchy |
| Grouping | Employee Group, Employee Grade | Policies, onboarding templates, approvals |
| Insight | Human Resource dashboard, Organizational Chart | Headcount and reporting lines |
| Configuration | HR Settings (employee section) | Naming, reminders, self-service flags |
People is not where you process pay runs (see Payroll) or publish job ads (see Recruitment). It defines who works for whom and under which company.
Smooth HR runs in the cloud. Module sidebars (People, Recruitment, Expenses, Performance, Tenure, NextAI) appear after login. Use the left sidebar or search (Ctrl+K / Cmd+K) to open lists and workspaces.
Who uses it
| Role | Typical use |
|---|---|
| HR Manager | Full create/submit/cancel; setup masters; reports |
| HR User | Day-to-day transactions; may need approval rules |
| Employee | Self-service where enabled |
| System Manager | Site-wide configuration, integrations, NextAI keys |
| Persona | Primary tasks |
|---|---|
| HR operations | Create employees, maintain departments, fix reporting structure |
| HR leadership | Review org chart, headcount dashboards |
| Payroll admin | Verify Company, cost centers, and employee bank links before payroll |
| IT / System Manager | Initial Company creation, role assignment, HR Settings |
| Employees | Usually do not edit Employee masters; they use self-service modules |
New hires often exist first as Job Applicant then Employee Onboarding before a full Employee record. See Employee records and Onboarding.
Desk access and shortcuts
| Feature | Desk path |
|---|---|
| People workspace home | /desk/people |
| Employee list | /app/employee |
| Company | /app/company |
| Department | /app/department |
| Designation | /app/designation |
| Organizational chart | /app/organizational-chart |
| HR Settings | /app/hr-settings |
| Human Resource dashboard | People sidebar → Dashboard |
Use Awesome Bar search (Ctrl+K / Cmd+K) to jump directly to any record.
Recommended setup workflow
Follow this order when setting up a new account:
- Company — Legal name, country, default currency, letterhead. See Company.
- Department tree — Root department per company; child departments for teams. See Department.
- Designation — Job titles used in recruitment and onboarding matching. See Designation.
- Branch (optional) — Physical locations if you split attendance or tax by site.
- Employee Grade / Employee Group (optional) — For policies and template matching.
- HR Settings — Employee naming (
emp_created_by), retirement age, birthday and anniversary reminders. - Employee records — Link User for portal access when ready.
Skipping Company or Department before creating Employees leads to validation errors on leave, expenses, and payroll.
How People connects to other modules
flowchart LR
Company --> Employee
Department --> Employee
Designation --> Employee
Employee --> LeaveApplication
Employee --> ExpenseClaim
Employee --> PayrollEntry
Employee --> Appraisal
JobOffer --> Employee
| Downstream module | Why People data matters |
|---|---|
| Recruitment | Job Offer → Create Employee; designation must exist |
| Onboarding | Templates match Company / Department / Designation |
| Leaves and Attendance | Department approvers; holiday lists by company |
| Payroll | Company, salary structure assignment on Employee |
| Expenses | Company and department on claims; advance settlement |
| Performance | Appraisal cycle filters by department/designation |
| Tenure | Separation and training linked to Employee |
Organizational chart
Open Organizational Chart from the People sidebar (/app/organizational-chart). The chart derives from each Employee's Reports to field. If the chart is empty or flat:
- Set Reports to on each Employee (except top-level leaders).
- Ensure employees are Active; inactive employees may be hidden depending on filters.
- Refresh after bulk imports.
The chart is read-only visualization — edit structure on the Employee form.
HR Settings on People
HR Settings is a single document opened from the People sidebar (employee section). Key fields on the employee side include:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Employee Naming By | Naming Series, Employee Number, or Full Name |
| Retirement Age | Used in lifecycle reports |
| Standard Working Hours | Default for attendance calculations |
| Send birthday / work anniversary reminders | Scheduled HR emails |
| Prevent self leave/expense approval | Blocks approver conflicts |
Hiring options (interview reminders, onboarding token expiry) and expense options live in other HR Settings sections — open the full form at /app/hr-settings.
Permissions and data visibility
Employees usually have read-only access to their own Employee record. HR roles need create/write on Employee, Department, and Designation. Use User Permissions to restrict HR users to one Company when you run multiple legal entities on one site.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Consequence | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Creating Employee before Company | Cannot save or assign payroll | Create Company first |
| Duplicate departments per company | Confusing approvals | Use tree: one parent per company |
| Leaving User unlinked | No ESS portal | Create User, assign Employee role, set User ID on Employee |
| Wrong Reports to | Broken org chart and approval chains | Audit top-down after imports |
| Inactive Employee still on roster | Ghost headcount | Set status Inactive on separation |
| Mixing companies on one Employee | Payroll/tax errors | One primary Company per employee |
Troubleshooting
| Issue | What to do |
|---|---|
| Cannot find People workspace | Confirm Smooth HR is enabled on your account; user has HR role; clear cache |
| Employee list empty | Check company filter on list; User Permissions |
| Org chart shows one node | Fill Reports to; check active status |
| Not permitted on Employee | Ask your administrator to grant access to Employee |
| Import failed mid-batch | Fix row errors; re-import failed rows only |
Governance and data quality
Treat the Employee master as the single source of truth for who is employed, under which company, and in which department. Payroll, expenses, and performance all read from this record at submission time.
Schedule quarterly audits: compare active Employee count to payroll headcount, recruitment offers accepted but no Employee created, and separated employees still marked Active.
When importing from a legacy HRIS, map external IDs to Smooth HR naming series early so downstream integrations (payroll files, benefits feeds) stay stable.
Related guides
Last updated: May 2026
Smooth LMS (training)
| Guide | Link |
|---|---|
| LMS help home | smoothhiring.com/help/lms |
| HRMS + LMS overview | lms/hrms-integration/overview |
| Auto-provision LMS access | lms/hrms-integration/employee-auto-provisioning |
| Onboarding mandatory training | lms/hrms-integration/onboarding-mandatory-training |
| Compliance vs certificates | lms/hrms-integration/compliance-vs-lms-certificates |
| Mandatory courses | lms/courses/mandatory-training-and-validity |
| Course categories (folders) | lms/courses/categories-and-tags |