What can I learn from this page?	Guidance on the differences between deactivated and former employees
Who is this guide for?	Account Admins

Wondering about the difference between a deactivated and a former employee?

Both can no longer access Culture Amp—they're unable to log in or take any actions within the platform.

Here's the breakdown:

Former Employee: Their end date is in the past; they've left the company.
Deactivated Employee: No end date; they've been intentionally removed, maybe for duplicate profiles or extended leave.

When an employee's end date is set in the past, they transition into former employees. At this point, they lose access to Culture Amp. If an employee is excluded from a full import file upload, their end date defaults to the import date, turning them into former employees.

On the other hand, when an employee is deactivated manually from the Settings > Users page, no end date value will be applied.

💡 Tip: If you'd rather the default behavior be that those excluded users in your full import file be treated as deactivated instead of former employees, just get in touch with Culture Amp Support, and we can change the default behaviour.

Updating Former Users to Deactivated

You might have a bunch of former users (has an end date) that you want moved to your deactivated list (no end date). Depending on your account set up, there are a few different ways to do this. Let's explore the possible options below:

Manual User Import

If you upload your employee data manually, you can follow the instructions below to update your users from former to deactivated:

Export your employee data in Culture Amp from the Settings > Users page to include both former and deactivated employees.
Remove end date values for records you want moved across to your deactivated list.
Ensure that the Employee Deactivated column is included in the file as exported with TRUE set as the value. Make sure FALSE is set for any other employees.Note: This column won't show in the platform but will be visible in your exports automatically.
Re-import the file via a full import.

Update Individually in the Platform

If you're only dealing with a handful of users, manually marking them as deactivated in the platform is one option you could use. The first step is to reactivate the former user to remove their end date. Once the user has been reactivated, they will appear on the list of Active Users. Check out the steps here.

Following this, manually deactivate the same user. Once deactivated, the user will appear under the Deactivated User list. Check out our guidance here.

HRIS Integration

The default behavior for users left off your HRIS sync file is to set their end date to the import date, categorizing them as former employees. If you have an HRIS integration and would like to move a bunch of former users across to your deactivated users list, you can follow the manual import steps above.

Moving forward, if you prefer that users left off your HRIS file are treated as deactivated instead or former, just contact Culture Amp Support, and we can adjust the default setting.

SFTP Connection