Setting up a Dotted-Line Manager in Lattice – Lattice

Permissions and visibility for a dotted-line (secondary) manager

Please Note: If your organization uses Lattice's elevated design, you can find the updated navigation steps here.

What is a Dotted-Line Manager?

A dotted-line manager is a user who is an additional manager to a user in Lattice, however, who is not their primary manager shown in the Org Chart.

What Visibility Does a Dotted-Line Manager Have?

Dotted-line managers can be given a variety of visibility permissions in Lattice:

What Can a Dotted-Line Manager Manage?

A dotted-line manager cannot take any action in the system. This role is solely for visibility. If you would like a dotted-line manager to be reviewed by the user they have visibility into, or if you would like them to review that direct report, the Admin can add them as an additional direct report and manager reviewer into the review cycle.

How to Make a User a Dotted-Line Manager

Step 1: Navigate to the "User attributes" tab found under "People" in the Admin panel

Step 2: Click on the "User attributes" tab

Step 3: Click on "Create custom attribute"

From here, choose the Attribute type "Relationship" and name the custom attribute.

After you have created the custom relationship, you will be taken back to that "Custom attributes" page, where you will see that field listed.

Filling in User Data and Applying This Relationship

To bulk change the custom attributes of many employees at once, admins can upload a CSV (also from the People page on the Admin Panel) by clicking Upload CSV. In the CSV, be sure to have a column for the custom attribute you want to change, and that all of the values for each employee are a valid option for that custom attribute. To upload a field that is a custom relationship, use the email address of that user in Lattice to designate the relationship in the CSV.

How to Apply the Custom Attribute Manually (Without Uploading a CSV)

Step 1: Navigate to the "Employee" tab found under "People" in the Admin panel

Step 2. Find the employee you would like to give another employee visibility into

Step 3: Click on the ellipsis to the right of that employees' name

Step 4: Click on "Edit profile" from the dropdown.

After you have clicked into the employee profile to edit it, you will see the custom relationship you have created listed under "Custom". Here, you can add the employee you would like to grant visibility to.

For example, if I want to give Joseph manager visibility into Preston's profile, I will want to 1) click in to edit Preston's profile, and then 2) add Joseph's name under the "Dotted Line Manager" custom attribute I created.

Configure What Visibility to Give the Dotted-line Manager

Step 1: Navigate to the "Permissions" tab found under "People" in the Admin panel

Step 2: Look under "Custom attribute relationships"
Here you will see the name of the custom relationship you have created, as well as how many employees it applies to.

Step 3: Click "Configure" to the right of the custom attribute name to choose visibility options given to the custom relationship

Visibility Options

There are seven visibility permissions that you can configure for a custom relationship. For example, when setting up the custom attribute relationship of "Manager Visibility" given to a dotted-line manager, there are seven different visibilities you can give this additional manager, as shown below.