TeamOhana integrates with external systems like BambooHR and UKG to import your organization’s divisions and departments. However, because HRIS data is often flexible and can change frequently, the raw import can become unmanageable.
To address this, TeamOhana provides a dedicated Department Management interface that allows you, as an admin, to review and control these changes. This guide explains the features available for managing departments and details the important process of claiming external system departments.
Key Features
1. Create a New Department
Purpose: Add a department that doesn’t currently exist in TeamOhana.
How It Works:
Enter a unique department title and select the appropriate division.
Optionally link the department to an external HRIS entry.
Once created, the department is immediately active and can be assigned headcounts, used in filters, and referenced in workflows and reports.
2. Edit a Department
Purpose: Renaming the details of an existing department
How It Works:
Select the edit option to modify the department’s title or other attributes.
Changes apply across the platform—updating headcounts, approval workflows, access control and reporting modules.
3. Mark as Inactive / Archive
Purpose: Remove a department from active use while preserving historical data.
Inactive Department:
How it works: This status flags a department as not available for new headcount creation, while still showing historical records.
When to do this action: When a department is no longer being used but has historical records, for e.g., where a department was reassigned to a different division, or employees from the department have been moved to another department, or if a department is being downsized. It will no longer show up as an option for new headcount requisitions, but it will show up as a filter to search for employees and headcount in the Headcount tab.
Archive a department:
How It Works: Permanently remove a department from active workflows after ensuring there are no active headcounts or unresolved HRIS mappings. (Reassignment of headcounts may be required before archiving.)
When to do this action: When a department has been erroneously created or where there are no historical records associated with the department, we recommend that they are archived so that they do not appear anywhere in TeamOhana
Steps:
Click on the ⋮ (More Options) icon for the relevant department
Hit Mark as inactive or Archive as is appropriate
If there are any headcount IDs associated with the relevant department, there is an optional step to reassign the headcount to the relevant departments. If headcount IDs are still linked to the original department, you'll need to manually reassign them—even if the employees have already moved to a new department.
4. Claim/Map HRIS Departments
Purpose: Reconcile departments imported from your HRIS with your existing TeamOhana structure.
How It Works:
When new or renamed departments are detected in your HRIS data, they initially appear as unclaimed in TeamOhana.
You decide whether to:
Claim as New: Add the unclaimed department as a new department.
Claim as Existing: Map the unclaimed HRIS department to an existing department on TeamOhana, effectively merging them (useful when a department is renamed in HRIS).
Bulk Actions: The interface also supports bulk claiming to manage multiple departments at once.
5. Changing approvals and user access to departments:
When there is a new department added, there are two additional changes to look out for:
Update approval policy to include the new department
Review and update user department access as needed for specific users
→ Things to note:
Users who have access by default to a department will automatically have access to the renamed department
Users who have access to a division will automatically have access to any new departments within the division - if they have been invited as a division lead to a specific division.
For users deriving the department access (ABAC) from role level, the new department will be automatically added if the users role level is ‘All departments’ ( Popularly for admins)
This also works for division leaders, who are having access to ‘All divisions’ and a new department is created in their division
Understanding the Claim and Unclaim Process
What is “Claiming”?
Claiming is the process by which you, as an admin, review an inbound HRIS department that is currently in a pending (unclaimed) state and decide how it should be integrated into your TeamOhana structure.
How to Claim:
Claim as New: If the HRIS department represents a new entity, you can confirm it as a new department. It will then become an active part of your organizational structure.
Claim as Existing: If the HRIS department is essentially a renamed version of an existing department, you map it to an existing TeamOhana division-department.
What is “Unclaimed”?
When HRIS data is imported, new or updated department entries initially appear as unclaimed.
Unclaimed departments remain in the system in a pending state until you take action. This prevents automatic updates that could lead to duplicate entries or misaligned data.
Leaving a department unclaimed means no changes are applied—ensuring you have full control over when and how the HRIS updates affect your system.
Scenario-Based Steps
Create a New Department on TeamOhana:
Navigate to Org Setup > Departments.
Click + New Department.
Enter the department title and select the appropriate division.
Optionally link it to the corresponding HRIS department. The dropdown to link with HRIS department will display only all unlinked HRIS departments (i.e., Unclaimed departments)
Click Save.
→ The new department is added as an active entity across the platform.
Rename (Edit) a Department:
Go to Org Setup > Departments.
Click on the department to be renamed
Click on the Department title dropdown and navigate to the current department name, and click on the pencil icon that shows up on the right
Enter the new name and confirm
→ The updated name will propagate across headcounts, workflows, and reports.If the department has also been renamed to HRIS, it will show up in the Unclaimed department section. Then there is an additional step of claiming this department as the newly renamed department on TeamOhana.
Archive a Department:
Open Org Setup > Departments.
Find the department you wish to archive.
Click the ⋮ (More Options) icon and select Archive.
Ensure all active headcounts are reassigned before confirming.
Confirm the archiving process.
→ The department is removed from active workflows but remains in historical records.
Claim a Department change made in HRIS into TeamOhana:
Navigate to Org Setup > Departments > Unclaimed.
Identify the changed department from HRIS.
Choose your action:
Claim as New: If it’s a new department, click Claim as New.
Claim as Existing: If it’s a renamed department, click Claim as Alias and select the matching existing department.
Confirm your selection.
The department’s status is updated accordingly:
New claims become active.
Existing claims update the existing department’s name and related data.
Reassign a HRIS Department to a different department on TO:
If there is a department in HRIS which needs to be reassigned from one department to another on TeamOhana:
Navigate to the current department on TeamOhana and unlink the HRIS department
Click on the new TeamOhana department you want to link it to
The HRIS department will now show up in the dropdown list - select and save
Splitting a department on HRIS:
If a department is split into two, this may mean the creation of two new departments on HRIS. This means those departments can be claimed as a new department division combination.
Moving a department to a different division:
The best practice is to wait for the change to reflect in HRIS. Once the change reflects in your HRIS you can make the change on TeamOhana
Go into the Unclaimed tab and claim the changed combination as a new division department combination.
Mark the previous division department combination as Inactive on TeamOhana - and move all active headcount into the new division department combination
One-Time cleanup of departments on TeamOhana:
If a department has zero employees and zero headcount, it should be archived. These are typically legacy departments from earlier configurations and no longer needed in the platform. This is a one-time activity after the release of the Manage Departments feature.