What is Hierarchy and How to Set it Up?

A Hierarchy may maintain a one-to-one relationship (e.g., a grouping of units rolling up into the same upper Hierarchy levels) or multiple relationships (e.g., a subset of units in a grouping rolling in different Hierarchy levels).

Hierarchy Components

The 4 main components that make up the Hierarchy include:

• Units – A “unit” corresponds to an individual unit of the structure on each level (e.g., Restaurant, Area, Region, etc.) and contains all attributes for that individual unit.
• Attributes – Details for each unit. Attributes could include ID/Name, contact information, email, flags, text filters, etc.
• Level – Corresponds to the client’s corporate structure. The highest level is typically Company, and the lowest level is the Unit level.
• Relationships – Defines the rollup from Unit to Company. Outlining the relationship between each level in the organization is important to have a clear reporting structure.

Questions to Consider When Setting up Hierarchy

• What levels are included within your organization?
• What are the relationships among the levels (e.g., the lowest level, highest level)?
• What is the reporting structure (e.g., locations report to districts, districts report to regions)?
• What is used to identify each level? SMG recommends using a consistent (non-person specific) value as the ID for each level (e.g., Region 1 or West Region vs. John Doe’s Region).
• Do the levels and/or the level titles vary throughout the organization (e.g., corporate vs. franchise, domestic vs. international)?
• What information is available about each level (e.g., ID, name, email, attributes)?
• What should be displayed in reporting for units at each level (e.g., ID Only, ID + Name, Name Only)?
• Who will be the point of contact for the hierarchy and any hierarchy questions and updates?
• For EX Hierarchies:
  • Do all employees have unique identifiers (e.g., employee ID, payroll ID) that remain consistent?
  • What information is available at the employee level to segment data (e.g., hire date, job type)?

Hierarchy Checks for Accuracy

• For EX Hierarchies:
  • Hierarchy reflects real reporting relationships (e.g., employees associated with actual non-training units, HR employees flowing into home office vs. stores, etc.).
  • Hierarchy includes unique identifiers (e.g., one employee ID per employee, one district ID per district, etc.).
• The Hierarchy includes data in all fields to ensure the population of data across all levels and allow for reporting segmentation.
• Internal resources are allocated to generate hierarchy files and provide ongoing support (if necessary).

After Hierarchy has been set up, it must be maintained as changes occur within the client's organizational structure. Common updates include:

• Changes in organization structure
• Updating addresses
• Updating alerts
• Updating Callback cases
• Updating survey questions
• Adding Units
• Closing Units

Adding or Closing Units

Units at the lowest level can be made active or inactive. A unit must be active to receive surveys and be displayed on the smg360 Reporting Website. Units at each upper level are automatically made active or inactive based on whether any active units are assigned to them. To minimize file omission errors, SMG recommends your team notifies the SMG Support team when units are closed for the team to deactivate from the system. Allow 24 hours after the system processes the updates for changes to appear on the smg360 reporting website.

Updating Hierarchy guarantees the smg360 reporting platform reflects the most current information for alerts, survey content, reporting, and analysis. Hierarchy changes can be updated in the SMG system either automatically or manually. 

Automated Hierarchy 

Automated hierarchy allows clients to update the hierarchy as soon as changes occur by posting the updated file to an SMG-managed SFTP site. Auto Hierarchy is the preferred method to update Hierarchy because it minimizes errors and creates greater flexibility with hierarchy updates.

Automated Hierarchy File Requirements

• The file must be uploaded to SMG's secure FTP site
• File type and contents should be consistent
• File types supported: CSV, JSON, or Excel (one tab)
• Can have partial/multiple files (e.g., separate files provided by Corporate/Franchisee or countries)
  • All files must be in the same format and have the same fields, mappings, and the same re-coding (i.e., one mapping per project).
  • While having partial/multiple files is possible, it is not recommended. Please work with your SMG Account team to discuss the impact of this option.

How Does it Work? 

1. You will apply updates and/or add new units to the most recent hierarchy file. Each new file overrides the data included in the previous file.
   
   
2. Verify that the new file aligns with the one used in the initial mapping (same columns and column names, all required data populated, etc.) and that the cells exclude formulas.
   
   
3. Save the new file with the desired changes under a new name (e.g., Hierarchy_DDMMYYYY) (no restrictions exist for the naming convention in the SMG hierarchy system).
   
   
4. Go to the SFTP site and enter the SFTP credentials provided by SMG.
   
   
5. Navigate to My Folders > Incoming > Hierarchy and drag and drop your updated hierarchy file.

The SMG platform automatically detects and ingests the updated file. Survey updates controlled by the hierarchy (e.g., changes to flags that control survey metrics) go into effect in real time, and reporting updates appear on the reporting website the following day. 

Manual Hierarchy

As mentioned above, setting up Auto Hierarchy is the easiest and quickest way to make Hierarchy changes, especially to several units at the same. A manual import requires you to work with the SMG Account team to make Hierarchy changes.

When a Manual Import is needed to make Hierarchy updates, reach out to your Account Team, and follow one of the below processes:

• SMG provides your team with the current Hierarchy information in an Excel file, and your team applies the updates directly in the Excel file and highlights the changes
• Your team provides SMG with a manually created file maintained by your team that conforms to automated file criteria (e.g., single flat file format, consistent column headers or column order, your generated IDs)
• Allow 3-4 business days for updates to be reflected in the system