How the directory works
To take advantage of features like employee scheduling or host notifications, Envoy needs to “know” who your employees are. You’ll provide your employee contact information to Envoy by creating and maintaining your directory.
Once an employee record is created in your directory, that employee will have certain permissions based on the products and account configurations you use:
Receive host notifications from Envoy Visitors: During sign-in, a visitor will be able to select the employee’s name in the host field.
Access their Envoy dashboard: Employees can log in on web to manage visitors.
Accept an admin role: As an Envoy administrator, you can grant any employee in the directory additional administrator permissions.
Fields in the Employee Record
The directory should contain an employee record for each employee.
These records consist of the following:
Name: The employee's first and last name.
Email address: The employee's work email address. They will use this email address to access Envoy and receive all Envoy-related notifications.
Cell phone number (optional): The employee's cell phone number. Include or adjust a country code if your employee's number does not use the same country code shown as default.
Primary location: This is the primary working location for an employee. If an employee is only listed in one directory, this field will default to that location. If an employee is listed in multiple locations' directories, those locations will appear as options. Learn more about primary location.
In person or remote (optional): If an employee is physically present in the office or not.
Title (optional): An employee's role.
Department (optional): The department in which the employee is included.
Manager (optional): Who this employee reports to.
Assistant (optional): You can add another employee as an assistant. More details below.
Who can view or edit the employee directory?
All Employees can view the employee directory but only admins will be able to view the admin roles or make any changes to the directory.
If you don’t want your employees to have the ability to view the directory, contact us and we can disable this feature.
Want to view every employee at your company? Global admins can use the Global employee directory!
About assistants
Available on Envoy Premium & Enterprise Plans
If members of your executive team would prefer that their assistants manage visitors, invites, and reservations, you can assign assistants within the Envoy directory.
Assistants can receive host notifications on behalf of or in addition to their executive. They’ll also have access to manage and edit their executive’s visitors, invites, and desk reservations.
Directory setup and maintenance
Depending on your Envoy plan, there are multiple ways to add employee records into your directory.
✨ Important Note: If there has been a change to your company's email domain, please contact support before you begin the process. ✨
Option 1: Directory integrations
Available on Envoy Premium & Enterprise Plans
Directory integrations sync employees into the Envoy directory. This is an easy and flexible option to automatically maintain your directory.
Important notes about directory sync:
Envoy currently supports Active Directory, Okta, G Suite, Delinea (fka Centrify), Microsoft Entra AD, and OneLogin sync.
You can sync all employees to all locations, specify employees to all locations or specify employees to specified locations.
You can manually create new employees or add employees from other locations while maintaining your directory sync. This feature is helpful for contractors, temps or other people who may host visitors/receive deliveries but are not core team members. Learn more about manually adding employees.
Directory integrations sync automatically, but you can always force a sync if needed.
Option 2: CSV upload
You can also manage your directory by uploading a CSV of employee records. A CSV is a type of file. It stands for “comma-separated values.” CSV files store data in plain text, and can be created and edited either in spreadsheet software (like Google Sheets or Excel) or a text editor (like Sublime Text).
In a CSV, each record consists fields separated by commas. If you open a CSV in a spreadsheet software, fields are separated into columns instead of separated by commas. For the purposes of managing your Envoy directory, most administrators find it easier to edit a CSV in spreadsheet software.
Here's an example of what the CSV needs to look like to import properly:
name, email, phone_number, assistant_emails, department, primary_location, inperson_remote, manager_emailAlice Prall, [email protected], 555-474-3829, [email protected], Engineering, New York City, In person, [email protected]
Important notes about CSV management
Anytime you upload a new CSV file, it will overwrite the entire directory. As such, it’s best practice to keep a “master” CSV file updated and re-upload it to your directory anytime you need to change it. Manually added employees will not be deleted when a CSV is uploaded.
Each location’s directory is separate, so you’ll need to maintain each location’s directory. You can either have one CSV of all employees at all locations and upload it to each directory, or you can maintain separate CSV files for each location.
Option 3: Manual management
Envoy also provides the option to create and edit employee records manually.
Important notes about manual management
You’ll type employee information into the appropriate fields, making this method easy but time-consuming. As such, this method is not recommended unless you have a very small team with little turnover.
Any manually added employee will not be overwritten if you choose to upload a CSV or use a directory sync at a later date.