When making changes to your organisational structure in the LMS, it’s important to plan carefully. Organisational data is closely linked to assigned or visibility of learning, reporting, and management workflows, so changes can have a wider impact than expected.
Below are the key areas to consider before proceeding:
Organisational Structure & Job Assignments:
Changes to organisations, positions, or job assignments can affect how users are grouped and managed in the system, i.e. audiences.
Where possible, existing structures should be end-dated rather than deleted, to ensure historical data and reporting remain intact.
Manager Relationships:
The LMS uses manager relationships for approvals, visibility, appraisals, and reporting.
After a restructure, it’s important to ensure that all users are still assigned to their correct manager and that no reporting lines are broken or duplicated.
Audiences and Automatic Enrolments:
Many organisations use audiences to automatically assign learning. If audiences are based on organisation, position, or job assignment, a restructure may:
- Add users to learning that they did not previously have, or
- Remove users from active courses, programs, or certifications
Structural changes can impact learning access and progress, particularly where enrolments are automated. Care should be taken to ensure that learners are not unintentionally unenrolled, and that certification pathways continue to function as expected.
Audience rules should be reviewed after any structural change.
Reporting and Visibility:
Reports in the LMS often rely on organisational structure and manager relationships. After a restructure:
- Managers should be checked to ensure they see the correct team member
- Scheduled and shared reports may need to be reviewed (Data is sensitive, and you want to ensure the correct data is being surfaced)
Some reports reflect the current structure rather than historical ones.
Appraisals & Performance Activities:
If appraisals or performance activities (Goals, Learning Plans, Competencies, Objectives) are in progress, changing manager relationships or organisational data mid-cycle may cause disruption.
Where possible, restructures should be timed to avoid active appraisal periods.
HR Integrations:
If your LMS is integrated with an HR system, the new structure must align with the incoming data feed. Manual changes may be overwritten by automated synchronisations if this is not considered in advance.
Testing and Timing:
It is strongly recommended that any restructure is first tested in a staging or test environment. Changes should be scheduled outside of peak usage times and communicated clearly to your learners. For more information on a staging/test site, please reach out to your CSM.
Summary:
An organisational restructure affects more than just user records — it impacts enrolments, reporting, automation, and management workflows. Careful planning, testing and communication will ensure a smooth transition and minimise disruption.