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Groups are collections of employees in Windmill. You can create groups manually or sync them automatically from Google Workspace, Slack, and your HRIS. Use groups to send pulse surveys and organize performance review cycles.

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Why use groups

Groups help you organize and target employees in Windmill: Pulse surveys Send surveys to specific groups instead of your entire organization. This lets you gather feedback from specific teams or cohorts. Performance reviews Choose which groups participate in review cycles. This is helpful when rolling out reviews to specific teams. Groups provide a flexible way to organize employees beyond your reporting structure. You can create groups for cross-functional teams, committees, locations, or any other grouping that’s useful for your organization.

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Creating groups manually

You can create groups manually in Windmill:
1

Go to Settings > Groups

Navigate to the groups tab under account settings.
2

Click Add group

Start creating a new group.
3

Enter a name for the group

Give your group a descriptive name like “Customer Success” or “Engineering”. Click Create Group to continue.
4

Click Add members

Begin selecting employees to add to the group.
5

Select the employees you want to add

Choose which employees should be in this group.
6

Click Confirm

Save your new group.
Your group is immediately available throughout Windmill. You can use it in pulse surveys, performance reviews, and filtering.

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Archiving a group

1

Go to Settings > Groups

Navigate to the groups tab under account settings.
2

Click on the group name

Open the group you want to archive.
3

Click Archive

Archive the group.
Archived groups no longer appear in group selectors throughout Windmill, but their historical data is preserved. You can unarchive a group at any time if you need to use it again.
Archive groups you no longer need instead of deleting them. This preserves historical data while keeping your active groups list clean.

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Syncing groups from connections

Groups automatically sync from Google Workspace, Slack, and your HRIS into Windmill. This is a one-way sync—groups created in Windmill are not synced back to these systems.

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What syncs automatically

  • Group names
  • Group membership (who’s in each group)
  • Changes to membership when people join or leave groups
Groups sync automatically on a regular basis. Changes to groups in your external systems typically appear in Windmill within a few hours.

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Supported connections

  • Google Workspace - Syncs all groups from your Google Workspace directory, including distribution lists, security groups, and other Google groups
  • Slack - Syncs Slack user groups (not channels)
  • HRIS - Syncs team groupings from your HR system
You cannot manually edit membership for groups synced from connections. If you need to change who’s in a synced group, make the change in the source system (Google Workspace, Slack, or your HRIS). The change will sync to Windmill automatically.

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Using groups

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In pulse surveys

When creating a pulse survey, you can target specific groups instead of your entire organization:
1

Go to Pulse > Create survey

Start creating a new pulse survey.
2

In the Audience section, select Specific groups

Choose to target specific groups instead of your entire organization.
3

Choose one or more groups to receive the survey

Select which groups should receive the survey.
4

Continue setting up your survey as normal

Complete the rest of your survey setup.
Windy will send the survey only to members of the selected groups. This is helpful for:
  • Team-specific check-ins
  • Onboarding cohorts
  • Cross-functional initiatives
You can select multiple groups if you want to survey several teams at once.

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In performance reviews

When setting up a performance review cycle, you can use groups to control who participates:
1

Go to Performance > Cycles > Create new cycle

Start creating a new performance review cycle.
2

In the Participants section, select Specific groups

Choose to limit participants to specific groups.
3

Choose which groups should participate in the review cycle

Select the groups that should be included in the review.
4

Continue setting up your cycle as normal

Complete the rest of your review cycle setup.
This is useful when:
  • Rolling out reviews to specific teams first
  • Running different review processes for different teams
  • Piloting a new review format with a subset of your organization

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Groups and permissions

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Creating and managing groups

Only admins can create and manage groups in Windmill.

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Viewing groups

All team members can see which groups exist, but only admins can edit group membership or settings.

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Synced groups

Groups synced from Google Workspace, Slack, or your HRIS can only be modified in the source system. Admins cannot manually edit these groups in Windmill.

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FAQs

Yes. Employees can belong to as many groups as you need. This is helpful for cross-functional teams, committees, and other overlapping groupings.
When an employee is archived, they’re automatically removed from all groups. For manually created groups, this happens immediately when you archive them. For integrated groups, they’re removed when the next sync runs.
You should archive groups instead of deleting them. Archiving preserves historical data (like which groups were targeted in past surveys) while removing the group from active use.
Groups synced from connections are read-only in Windmill to prevent conflicts with the source system. If you edit a synced group manually, your changes would be overwritten on the next sync. Make changes in the source system instead, and they’ll sync to Windmill automatically.
No. Group syncing is one-way only—from your connected systems into Windmill. Groups you create manually in Windmill exist only in Windmill and are not synced back to Google Workspace, Slack, or your HRIS.
Groups synced from connections are labeled with their source (Google Workspace, Slack, or your HRIS name). You’ll also see a notice that the group is read-only when you view its details.
Yes, but we don’t recommend it. This can be confusing for other admins. If you need a group similar to a synced group, give it a distinct name (like “Customer Success Team” vs “Customer Success”).