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Import or Update an Employee List

Learn how to update an employee list in Amelio using Excel or your HRIS. Discover how to prepare your employee file, update existing employee profiles, add new employees, and use demographic attributes to improve survey segmentation and reporting.

Keeping your employee list up to date is essential for accurate survey distribution and meaningful reporting.

Whether you are importing employees for the first time, updating existing employee information, or synchronizing your employee list from your HRIS, Amelio makes the process simple.

The platform allows you to segment survey results using the following employee attributes:

  • Manager

  • Department

  • Job title

  • Office or location

  • Age group

  • Years of service

  • Employee level (for example: Employee, Manager, Executive)

  • Up to 6 custom demographic attributes

The more complete your employee data is, the more thorough your analysis will be.

Export your current employee list (recommended before updating)

If you are updating an existing employee list, we recommend exporting your current employee list first.

This allows you to:

  • preserve existing fields

  • modify employee data without recreating profiles

  • avoid accidentally removing information

  • access the latest version of your employee list

Import your employee list

You can import your employee list using:

  • the Excel template available at the end of this article

  • a file exported from your HRIS or current account that has been formatted to match the template

Only the following fields are required when creating or updating employees:

  • First Name

  • Last Name

  • Role

  • Email address or Employee Number (depending on your account's unique identifier)

All other fields are optional but strongly recommended to improve segmentation and reporting.

Once your file is ready, import it from either:

  • Survey > Audience, when preparing a survey

  • Administration → Manage Employees, to manage your employee directory

If you experience any import errors, consult Resolve Employee Import Errors or contact [email protected].

Employee import fields

1. First and Last name. Used to create and update employee profiles.

These fields are never displayed in survey reports, ensuring employee confidentiality.

2. Email Address and Employee Number. Each Amelio account uses one unique identifier. Depending on your configuration, this identifier is either:

  • Email address

  • Employee Number

This value allows Amelio to determine whether a row should:

  • create a new employee profile

  • update an existing employee

If employees have an email address that is not subject to change, the employee number column should be used as the unique ID.

Learn more about the Unique Identifier in the section below.

3. Phone number. Only required if you plan to send surveys by SMS. Use digits only and include the country code (example: 15145551234).

​4. Job title. Corresponds to the employee's position. For example: marketing strategist. Generic job titles are recommended to improve reporting.

​5. Department. Corresponds to the employee's department. For example: Marketing.

6. Manager. Identifies each employee's direct manager.

You can use either:

  • the manager's email address or employee number (recommended)

  • the manager's full name

Note: Using the unique identifier helps prevent duplicate manager names from causing assignment errors.

7. Role/Permission. Determines the employee's permissions within the platform. The permissions related to each role can be defined for each client.

8. Employee level. This segment is commonly used by larger organizations. Some companies will use, actual levels (example: CC1, CC2, CC3, etc.), others will use, broader levels such as: employee, manager, executive.

9. Location. Identifies where employees work. Allows you to differentiate between work locations. For example: Montreal office or Toronto office.

10. Date of birth and date of hire. Dates must use the following format:

YYYY-MM-DD (example: 1961-03-04).

11. Survey language. Determines the language used for:

  • survey invitations

  • reminder emails

  • the survey itself

You can rename certain of these attributes. You will find the procedure here: Rename an employee filter.

Custom demographic attributes

You can add up to six custom demographic attributes by creating additional columns in your Excel file.

These attributes allow you to analyze results based on your organization's structure.

Useful examples include:

  • Employment status

  • Work schedule

  • Work mode

  • Business unit

  • Union

Here are two questions you can ask yourself to assess whether there are other relevant attributes to add:

  • Are there employee groups I would like to analyze separately?

  • Are there any other elements of your organizational structure that are not represented in the current attributes?

Unique Identifier

Every Amelio account is configured with one unique identifier. This identifier indicates the mandatory data to be entered when creating an employee profile and allows you to distinguish each profile.


This setting determines whether employees are matched using:

  • Email Address

  • Employee Number

You can verify this setting by navigating to:

Administration → Account

Using the correct unique identifier ensures existing employees are updated instead of duplicated.

Download the employee import template

Download the latest employee import template before preparing your file.

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