Use the Adding new employees with a data import article for reference when handling an employee upload. This article will serve as a troubleshooting guide for data uploads.
Overview
If your Excel import returned any errors that caused the upload to fail, the errors will be listed on your screen. It’s worth noting these errors down as they will give an indication of what to fix on your sheet. It's also possible to download the import log which will list all the updates made via the import as well as any errors during the import.
There are two categories of errors that can occur during an import:
Type | Description |
---|---|
Errors that will cause the import to fail with no data being uploaded. |
These errors will be shown on the screen in order to fix the fix the file and attempt another import. |
Warnings that allow the import to continue. |
These warnings are listed on your screen once the import is complete and they will also be listed in the activity log that can be downloaded once the import is complete. |
How to retrieve a list of warnings that allow the import to continue:
- Allow the page to refresh itself after the import is done, which will present a list of errors or warnings
- Click Download log to save the file
- Click Okay, I'm done to finish and exit the page
For security reasons, after clicking on Okay, I’m done, it is not possible to return to the warning log.
Warnings and errors
Warnings that will not make the import fail
We recommend reviewing the formatting requirements listed in the Adding new employees with a data import article as many warnings and errors can be avoided if the file is formatted correctly.
Name | Description |
---|---|
No value for column "xx", the row will be skipped |
This means that a column is marked as required, and the row doesn’t have a value for it, so it’ll be skipped. |
No identifier found for row, skipping. |
Ensure that an employee Email or Employee ID is present. |
No field found for the column "xx", it will be ignored. |
Make sure this column has a matching attribute name on Peakon. |
No column found for the field "xx", no values will be imported for this field. |
This means there’s a (non-required) attribute defined that doesn’t correspond to any column header. |
No employee found with email, name or employee number xx for attribute Manager. |
This means there is no employee record on the sheet or on Peakon matching the manager email address given on the employee record. Add an employee record for the manager to the sheet and re-upload. |
Employee with name X is not part of [segment name], skipping |
For main system administrators, this happens when the data upload is performed in a specific context, but the file already contains employees from another context. Solution is to switch to the main company level context and do the upload there. For users that are not the overall system administrator and instead manage a specific segment (eg. an entity or a country or business unit), this happens when the user is trying to add or update an employee who already exists in the wider account, but is not part of the specific segment they manage. For this reason, the system does not allow them to make changes to that employee, as they do not have access to them. As a solution, the user must reach out to the main administrator and request that the specific employees get assigned to the segment that the user manages.For example, if the user performing the upload manages Marketing (Department), then the employee would need to have Marketing in their Department field, in order for the user to be able to manage them. If they get uploaded with the Department field empty, or containing another value, they will exist in the wider account, and the Marketing user will not be able to access them. |
There is already another employee with the email [employee email address] |
The unique identifiers of the employee you are importing already exist in the system in some shape or form, but the upload is trying to create that person again with different information.- Try to search this employee in Peakon by their email address - If no luck, find the employee number associated to them on your data file, in the row that has this email address, then search that employee number in the systemIt is likely you will find another version of that employee with either a different email or different employee ID. |
The email [email address] does not match any of the company domains [email domains] |
The domain needs to be added as an allowed domain on the account. |
Errors that will make the import fail
Name | Description |
---|---|
Unable to read Excel file. |
Try opening and saving in Excel first. |
Unable to open workbook. |
Make sure your Excel sheet is not password protected. |
The sheet contains more than the maximum amount of rows (actual limit depends on the attributes). |
The error may also be triggered if extraneous rows don’t hold any data, but have had a format or styling applied to them. |
Multiple sheets found in the workbook. |
Only a single sheet may be present. |
No worksheet found. |
Make sure the file was created using Microsoft Excel. |
The sheet must contain at least a header row and a content row. |
Make sure the sheet is not empty. |
The sheet must contain a "xx" column. |
This means a column that is marked as required is not present in the file, causing the import to fail. |
The sheet must contain one of the identifier columns. |
Ensure a column is present containing either an employee “Email” or an “Employee ID”. |
You cannot remove the identifier for an employee with no email. |
This means that Excel sheet attempted to remove an “Employee ID” but as the employee does not have an “Email” this is forbidden. |
Common questions
When does the data become valid?
The uploaded data becomes valid immediately, and will start allocating survey data to the updated dashboards from the next survey round. If a retroactive effect is required, please refer to Updating employee and segment data with a retroactive effect for instructions.
How to handle accidentally uploaded duplicates?
In instances such as when an employee has changed surname, and, as a result, their email address has been updated, the email address will need to be updated within the already existing employee record.
To ensure you are updating the existing employee record, the employee ID must stay the same, as this is one of the two unique identifiers, which will help the system find a match to an existing employee.
If the same employee ID is not maintained in your data set, the system will treat the new email address as a new employee, and a duplicate of the same record will be created. Whenever a duplicated record is spotted, the best way to go about it would be to ascertain which one is the older record (by looking in the Rounds tab under the employee record in question, for example) and updating the email address of this older record and deleting the newer record. If the record that has to be deleted has been part of survey rounds, it makes sense to empty the duplicate record's attribute fields and backdate them to remove them from the participant lists on those segments, as this will not be possible after deletion.
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