When you perform a bulk upload there are two steps of validation. The first reviews all the column headers for the upload and ensures that they match what we expect. The second reviews each record in your file to ensure it is valid in the system.
Issues with file "headers"
This means that the columns in your file do not match what we expect in the system. The uploader is very strict and requires that every header match exactly what is in the system. If you get an error here, it means that you have an additional header, are missing a header. The system will give you a suggestion if one of your headers is close to an existing one.
To review the required headers in the system please see Employee CSV Import Columns article. There are two types of headers - system headers and group type headers. The article above explains in detail what is required for all system headers. Your group headers will match the text name of your Group Types but in the format of lower case and underscores between words (e.g. "Leadership Level" becomes "leadership_level")
Issues with data formatting and validation
The next type of issues relate to the data itself and formatting for fields. These errors will provide guides on how you can update the formatting in your file to match what we expect for dates, phone numbers, email addresses, and require values like receiving_surveys and employment_status.
Issues with duplicate or conflicting employee ids, email, or phone numbers
This final set of errors is the hardest to resolve, but once you've fixed a few of them, the process is fairly straightforward.
When you import employees, the system attempts to match every row in the file against the existing set of employees in the Engage system. It does this first with the emplify_employee_id column. Then if you have the Organization Employee ID setting on, we use the organization_employee_id column. Once a match is found, all the details for that employee record are updated. The system can run into three different errors in this process. Each is described below. The process for resolving them is similar for each.
Existing Email Address or Existing Phone Number
These errors occur when the system is attempting to create a new employee or update an existing employee record and the email provided in the spreadsheet already exists on an employee in the Engage system. This can happen for a few reasons.
It is actually a different employee, but their contact email was recycled in your org, or they have the same phone number. In this case, you should remove the contact information from the employee already in the system so that when you reimport, there is no conflict.
It is the same person, but their employee IDs did not line up. This can happen if there are employees returning to your organization and have a different employee ID or the engage system isn't aware of their organization_employee_id. In this case, you can copy the Employee ID from the employee profile, and paste it into the emplify_employee_id column. When you reimport, the match will be found and the appropriate employee updated. (In rare cases is possible this will result in the error below)
Duplicate Organization Employee ID
This error will only happen when you have an emplify_employee_id in the row for the employee. The system is trying to find that emplify_employee_id record first and then trying to update their organization_employee_id. If an employee already exists with this organization_employee_id, you'll get this error. This often happens when duplicate employees exist and one doesn't have an email. Correcting the errors above often result in this error. In that case, it is best to remove the emplify_employee_id from the row, go to that employee (the one with the emplify_employee_id you just removed) and remove their email or phone that conflicted above. If you need help in these cases, please reach out to help@emplify.com