Employee Information

Windmill automatically pulls employee information from your connected systems to create and maintain employee profiles. This ensures your team’s information stays up to date without manual data entry. An employee is a person in the org chart. A member is an employee or another person who has workspace access. An employee can exist without member access.

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Employee data collection

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What Windmill collects

Your HR Information System (HRIS) provides the foundation for Windmill—your org chart and employee roster. What Windmill collects:

• Employee first and last name
• Work email
• Job title
• Department
• Manager / reporting structure
• Start date
• Employment status (active / terminated)
• Gender (if provided by your HRIS)

What Windmill does NOT collect:

• Home addresses
• Social Security Numbers or government IDs
• Date of birth, phone number, or pronouns
• Compensation, salary, payroll, or benefits
• Employment contracts

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Profile pictures

Profile pictures are automatically pulled from Slack. Your Slack profile picture syncs to Windmill automatically. If you don’t have a profile picture set in Slack, no picture will appear in Windmill.

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Data sources and syncing

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Employee data sources

Primary source: Your HRIS If you have an HRIS connected (BambooHR, Rippling, Gusto, etc.), Windmill uses that as the source of truth for employee data. Updates in your HRIS automatically sync to Windmill. Fallback sources If you don’t have an HRIS connected, Windmill pulls employee data from other connected systems like Google Workspace or Slack. However, this data may be less complete or accurate than HRIS data. Manual entry If you don’t have an HRIS and your other systems don’t provide complete employee data, you can manually add and edit employee information in Windmill.

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Sync timing

Employee information syncs automatically on different schedules: Profile pictures:

• Update within a few hours of being changed in Slack
• No manual sync required

Employee data from HRIS:

• Syncs daily
• Updates to job titles, departments, or reporting structure appear within 24 hours

Manual updates:

• Take effect immediately in Windmill
• However, if you have an HRIS connected, manual changes will be overwritten by the next HRIS sync

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How employee data is used

Windmill uses employee information to: Build your org chart Your reporting structure defines direct and indirect manager scope for supported features. Support access decisions Windmill combines the org chart with roles, delegation, source permissions, and feature-specific privacy rules. See Permissions and Access. Sync information across the platform Employee names, titles, and departments appear consistently in Recaps, Feedback, 1:1s, and Reports. Enable Windy interactions Windy uses employee data to identify who to reach out to and when, based on collaboration patterns and reporting relationships.

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Managing employee information manually

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Manually updating employee profiles

If you need to update employee information and don’t have an HRIS connected, you can manually edit profiles in Windmill: What you can update:

• First and last name
• Display name
• Primary email
• Job title and job level
• Gender and pronouns
• Manager
• Start date

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Adding new employees

Use Settings > Members when a person needs workspace access. The invitation flow can match an existing employee or collect the details for a new employee record. See Inviting Members.

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Profile visibility and access

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Profile visibility

Who can see employee profiles depends on your org chart structure: Managers can view:

• Their own profile
• All direct reports’ profiles
• Indirect reports (their team’s direct reports)

Team Members can view:

• Their own profile
• Public information about other team members (name, title, department)

Admins and HR Admins can manage:

• Employee records across the organization in Settings > Org Chart

Access to feature content still follows org-chart scope, workspace roles, delegation, and feature-specific privacy rules.

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Missing profile pictures

If a profile picture doesn’t appear in Windmill:

1. Check Slack - Make sure the employee has a profile picture set in Slack
2. Wait for sync - Profile pictures can take a few hours to sync after being added
3. Verify Slack connection - Ensure your Slack integration is still active in Settings > Integrations

If profile pictures still don’t appear after checking these items, reach out to support@gowindmill.com.

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Archived employees

When an employee leaves your organization, their profile needs to be archived in Windmill. If you have an HRIS connected:

• Archived employees automatically sync from your HRIS
• Their profile is removed from Windmill within 24 hours
• Historical data (Recaps, feedback) is preserved but archived

If you don’t have an HRIS:

• If the employee has member access, an Admin, HR Admin, or Integration Manager must first use Remove member in Settings > Members
• An Admin or HR Admin can then archive the employee in Settings > Org Chart

Archived employees:

• Do not appear in active employee lists
• Do not appear in active team lists or reports
• Have their historical data archived (not deleted)