Our Groups service is currently in beta. Groups can be used as recipient groups in Envoy Response and as approvers in Approval workflows. Customers subscribed to Envoy Response or Approval workflows will see the Groups tab in their Global overview.
To use synced groups, you need an active SCIM directory integration (Okta, Microsoft Entra, Delinea fka Centrify, OneLogin).
Overview
Employee Groups let you create reusable audiences of employees across Envoy. Use them to:
Select recipients when sending an emergency incident notification or building an incident template. Everyone in the group receives your message across your chosen delivery methods (SMS, email, mobile push, and Microsoft Teams).
Assign admins to an Approval, Notification, or Data collection step in an Approval workflow policy. Instead of listing admins one by one, any group member can review the visit, receive a notification, or provide required visit information.
Adding someone to a group will not automatically grant admin permissions for approvals. You must ensure all group members have the appropriate permissions for the step they must complete.
These custom employee groups offer a way for global admins to create groups of employees without needing their IT teams to make changes in their IDP.
Group Types
When you open Groups, each group shows a Type and who it is Managed by:
Directory groups are built automatically from employee directory profile attributes, such as Department ("Engineering") or Division ("COGS"). Their membership updates automatically as your employee directory changes.
Synced groups are pushed into Envoy from your identity provider over SCIM, for example "Envoy - Global Admins." These are read-only in Envoy because your identity provider is the source of truth. These can be used for assigning neighborhoods or syncing admin roles. The creation of these groups varies across IDPs. Learn more about syncing admin roles via Okta, Entra, or Onelogin.
Custom groups are groups you build yourself by choosing the members. Use these for audiences your directory or identity provider does not already define, such as a cross-functional emergency response team. You can also use them to combine several synced groups into a single group you can target.
Groups within groups
A custom group can include other groups as members. The group that holds the others is the parent group, and the groups inside it are child groups. Members of a child group are included when the parent group is used.
For example, a “Safety - All Sites” parent group could contain “Safety - California,” “Safety - New York,” and “Safety - Texas.”
Nesting is limited to one level.
A parent group (a group that already contains child groups) can’t be added to another group.
A child group can’t contain other groups.
💡Tip: Build your smaller groups first, then combine them into a parent group. Members of the child groups are maintained in one place, and the parent group stays current automatically.💡
Remember, these are global, so be sure to use proper naming conventions that make it easy to know who the group contains. For example, if you want to have state-based safety teams, you would be sure to include the state name in the title.
Safety - California
Safety - New York
Safety - Texas
💡Tip: Since the list sorts alphabetically, a shared prefix keeps related groups lined up together instead of scattered.💡
Creating a group
Navigate to Global overview > Employees > Groups
Click Create group.
Give your group a Name and Description. Descriptions are optional, but every global admin can see these, so it's recommended to include one for clarity.
Add members by searching for employees or other groups. Remove members by clicking the X.
Once you've added all desired members, click Create group.
Your new group will be added to the total list of groups, with Custom as the group type.
You can view your group by clicking on it.
Editing groups
If you need to make changes:
Click on the group to open the side panel.
Click the ellipses, then select Edit.
This will open the editor, where you can make changes, then Save changes once complete.
Deleting groups
No longer need a custom group?
Click on the group to open the side panel.
Click the ellipses, then select Delete.
Confirm deletion, as this cannot be undone.
Deleting a group doesn’t delete the employees from the directory.
If your group contains child groups, they will not be deleted with the removal of the parent group.
Using groups
Your new custom group will be ready to use as soon as it is saved.
Envoy Response
You'll see it listed under Recipients > Employees > Groups when sending an incident notification or when creating a template.
Like directory-based departments, groups are searchable, making it easy to quickly include all relevant parties.
Approval Workflows
Custom groups can be assigned as approvers on an Approval, Notification, or Data Collection step in a policy.
This keeps responsibility tied to a team, not to individual admins. When someone joins or leaves the team, you update the group once, and every policy and step that uses it stays current.
Navigate to Global overview > Visitors > Policies and open your policy.
Select the desired step, or add a new one.
In the right-hand panel, search for the group by name under approvers and select it.
The step saves automatically.
When you assign a group, any member can approve or deny the visit. Approval from every member isn’t required.
For more on building Approval steps, see Creating a Policy: Fields, Conditions, and Approval steps.