When you turn on Automatically assign manager on a dynamic list, Knowly uses each participant's directory profile to find their manager and assign them automatically — so you don't have to track down and assign managers by hand.
Available on Enterprise with SCIM
Automatically assign manager is part of the Enterprise plan and requires SCIM directory sync. It runs on learning journeys connected to a dynamic list.
See If a feature is locked if the option is unavailable.
Each user in your directory needs to have a manager email — that's what Knowly uses to find the matching Knowly user.
If you don't have access yet and would like to learn more, email [email protected] or reach out to your contact person at Knowly.
When this applies (and when it doesn't)
This feature is only available if your workspace is on the Enterprise plan with SCIM directory sync turned on, and the learning journey is connected to a dynamic list. If you don't use both, Automatically assign manager won't appear in Knowly — and the rest of this article doesn't apply to you.
When this feature isn't available, you assign managers the standard way: by hand on the People page when you add each participant, or in the manager-email column of a CSV upload. See Adding managers to a learning journey for the assignment paths that apply to every workspace.
How it works
When Automatically assign manager is on, every time a participant is added to the learning journey through the dynamic list, Knowly:
reads the participant's manager email from the directory
looks up a Knowly user with that email
sets that person as the participant's manager in the learning journey
If no match is found, the participant is still added — just without a manager. You can always assign one yourself later.
Turn on Automatically assign manager
This setting lives on a list that's already connected to the learning journey. If you haven't done that yet, start by connecting a dynamic list to your learning journey.
Open the learning journey.
Go to People.
Open Connected dynamic lists.
Turn on Automatically assign manager for the list you want to use.
"Automatically assign manager" is turned on per list under "Connected dynamic lists"
The flow looks slightly different depending on whether your learning journey is a cohort or an individual one (what's the difference?). Both are covered below.
Cohort learning journeys
When you connect a dynamic list to a cohort learning journey, the Add participants drawer has its own controls under Automatic dynamic manager selection:
Automatically assign a manager to participants based on their directory profile — the same idea as the toggle on the learning journey. Turn it on so participants the list picks up later get managers automatically.
Assign participants being added now from selected lists to their manager if possible — a secondary toggle that catches the people you're adding in this batch, not just future additions. Use it when you want the existing batch to pick up managers immediately too.
On the "Add participants" screen you can also assign managers to participants being added in this batch
Individual learning journeys
When you connect a dynamic list to an individual learning journey, each matched user shows up with a suggested manager pre-filled from the directory. You can accept the suggestion or pick a different Knowly user before you finish the connection.
Why a suggestion is sometimes blank. The suggestion comes from the directory's manager email. If that's missing, or it points at someone who isn't a Knowly user yet, the row stays blank — pick a manager by hand to fill it in.
Manager suggestions are pre-filled from the directory; blank rows mean no match was found
What updates automatically, and what doesn't
New participants pick up their managers as the dynamic list adds them, as long as the toggle is on.
Existing participants' managers stay put. If someone's manager changes in your directory later, the manager already stored on the learning journey isn't overwritten. Update it by hand if you want the new manager to apply there too.
Turning the toggle off stops automatic assignment for future participants. People who already have a manager keep that connection.
Troubleshooting
If a participant ends up without a manager, or with the wrong one, the answer is almost always in the directory:
No manager assigned. Check the participant's manager email in your identity provider, and confirm that the person it points at exists as a Knowly user.
The wrong manager. The manager email in your directory is pointing at someone other than who you'd expect. Fix it in the identity provider, then update the manager by hand on the learning journey if it's already been assigned the wrong way there.
Lastly, keep in mind that automatic assignment happens at the moment a participant is added. Anything you change in the directory afterwards needs a manual touch on the learning journey if you want it reflected there.