In this article, you’ll learn how to add new hires and update existing employee demographic information in bulk.
Heads up: You cannot upload dependent information or product information in bulk.
Heads up: To prevent Standard Administrators from updating salaries they shouldn’t have access to, the Bulk Upload tool is only available to Master Administrators and Advisors masquerading as Master Administrators.
Bulk Upload allows you to add multiple new hires, and kick off their new hire enrollment. Great for large groups, this functionality is an alternative to adding new hires one by one by click Add/Edit Employees > Add Employee. Read more information on adding hires one at a time.
Follow these steps:
- Head to Employees > Add/Edit Employees > Bulk Add/Edit Employees
- Click Download Template. Note: new hires can also be added to the employee data export if you’d like to update existing information and add new employees at the same time.
- Open the downloaded template file and add information on your new hires. Please note:
- The way you enter the data needs to follow certain conventions in order for it to be imported successfully. The starred fields (such as “First Name”) indicate that field is required. There’s also guidance listed on the “Bulk Upload” page under "View tips for a successful upload"
- The only fields you are able to update in bulk are listed in the template.
- When adding a new hire to Maxwell, email is typically required. Email is what they’ll use to log into Maxwell. If this new hire does not have an email, you can enter the employee's Social Security Number instead.
- In this case, you will then need to communicate to the employee how to access Maxwell. The employee will be required to add their email address when they activate their account.
- The Date of Hire field will be used to calculate the New Hire Enrollment Start Date based on the set waiting period(s).
- By default, Excel will display a warning message about numbers stored as text in the SSN, Zip Code and Annual Salary fields. You can safely ignore these warnings.
- The way you enter the data needs to follow certain conventions in order for it to be imported successfully. The starred fields (such as “First Name”) indicate that field is required. There’s also guidance listed on the “Bulk Upload” page under "View tips for a successful upload"
- Once you've completed filling in the downloaded template, save it to your computer in XLS or CSV format.
- Upload the completed file into Maxwell back on the “Bulk Upload” page either by dropping it or browsing for it. Once you add your file, the system will validate your data. Any errors that need to be fixed will be displayed with the exact location on where to find the error in your file. When you’re done correcting any errors on your completed file, reupload the file.
- Once your upload is complete, review a summary before you confirm the changes. Click Yes, make these changes! after reviewing.
- Your changes will be applied and you’ll see a confirmation page with the option to send a welcome email. Your New Hires' email addresses will populate automatically in the "Recipients" box.
Please Note:
- You may send welcome emails at a later time, but this distribution list won't be saved, and you'll need to add employees to the email manually.
- If you’d like to look back at what you changed in more detail, you can always run a Change Report.
- If you have any employees that you uploaded without an email address, you'll see the instructions on how those employees can activate their account since they will not receive the welcome email from Maxwell.
Your new hires will now be in a new hire event with benefits available to shop based on their Eligibility Group’s new hire waiting period (unless the date of hire is over 123 days in the past, in which case, a new hire event and the associated benefits will not open). Any personal information that wasn’t added via the Bulk Upload tool will be completed by the employee when they log into Maxwell.
Update Existing Employee Information in Bulk
Heads up: To maintain Standard Administrator permissions with regards to salaries, the Bulk Upload tool is only available to Master Administrators and Advisors masquerading as Master Administrators.
Bulk Upload allows you to upload existing employee information in bulk. Follow these steps:
- There are two ways you can get started:
- Head to Employees > Add/Edit Employees > Bulk Add/Edit Employees and download an export of your employee data. This is a good option if you want to reference your existing employee data to make the changes or add new hires at the same time you’re updating existing information.
Note that only the fields that are able to be updated in bulk will be completed in the exported file. If you want to run a full census report, head to Tools > Reports.
- “Maxwell ID” is one of the columns listed on the export. This is a system-generated ID assigned to the employee that should be used for updating employee information in bulk if you don’t have an Email for the employee to provide. You cannot change this ID and it’s not listed on the employee’s profile as it’s only used for Bulk Upload.
- "New Annual Salary" and "New Salary Effective Date" fields will be blank on the CSV file. This is to ensure that you don't accidentally forget to update the salary effective date if you're changing an employee's salary. When uploading a new salary, the effective date is always required. If the effective date matches the salary record that already exists for that employee, the existing record will be replaced with the amount you're uploading.
- You can also use an outside XLS (Excel) or CSV template, including the one you’ve downloaded from another payroll or HRIS system. Only the required fields and the fields being updated need to be included in the import file. You just need to make sure of a few things:
- Only include column headers that are listed in the template file and make sure they are spelled correctly. For your convenience, the column headers are listed here:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Middle Name
- Prefix
- Suffix
- SSN
- Employee Identifier
- Date of Birth
- Gender
- Disabled
- Street Address
- Suite/#
- City
- State
- Zip Code
- Email* (required or you can use "Maxwell ID")
- Home Phone
- Eligibility Group
- Date of Hire
- Job Title
- Annual Salary
- Maxwell ID* (required if "Email" is not complete)
- Custom Field (applies only if you have custom fields in Maxwell)
- The way you enter the data needs to follow certain conventions in order for it to be imported successfully. The starred fields (such as “First Name”) indicate that field is required. See guidance listed on the “Bulk Upload” page:
- Only include column headers that are listed in the template file and make sure they are spelled correctly. For your convenience, the column headers are listed here:
- Head to Employees > Add/Edit Employees > Bulk Add/Edit Employees and download an export of your employee data. This is a good option if you want to reference your existing employee data to make the changes or add new hires at the same time you’re updating existing information.
- Whether you’re using your exported data or an outside file, keep the following in mind while completing the file you’re going to upload:
- This is not likely, but if updating eligibility group in bulk, keep in mind this change may warrant a change to products. Follow these steps if you need to make a change to products as a result of this update of eligibility group >
- If you’d like to clear out any data from Maxwell, enter “NULL” in the field on your file. Any fields that are simply left blank will not be cleared out.
- Once you've completed filling in the downloaded template, save it to your computer in XLS or CSV format.
- Upload the completed file into Maxwell back on the “Bulk Upload” page either by dropping it or browsing for it. Once you add your file, the system will validate your data. Any errors that need to be fixed will be displayed with the exact location on where to find the error in your file. When you’re done correcting any errors on your completed file, reupload the file.
- Once your upload is complete, review a summary before you confirm the changes. Click Yes, make these changes! after reviewing.
- You’ll see a confirmation page letting you know your changes have been applied. Note: If you’d like to look back at what you changed in more detail, you can always run a Change Report.