OneDirectory News and Product Updates
Feature update

Sync priority

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Shared by Lawrence • August 28, 2025

We've improved manual sync performance with a new priority queue.

Previously, all syncs - scheduled, manual, and trial - shared the same queue, which sometimes caused delays depending on system load ⏳

Now, manual syncs are prioritized and processed immediately, so your syncs will start without delay 👌

New feature

New fields: Employee Type and Employee ID

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Shared by Lawrence • August 26, 2025

You can now enable 💼 Employee Type and #️⃣ Employee ID fields for inclusion on the profiles.

These fields are synced from Microsoft 365 by default, and can be made editable in OneDirectory.

Employee Type and Employee ID are optional (and disabled by default) since you may not wish to display this information on the profiles for all employees to see. However, if you do have this requirement you can now simply enable the fields and they'll work out the box.

👉 Employee Type is for storing and displaying the worker type, for example, Employee or Contractor.

👉 Employee ID is used for storing and displaying the internal employee number or identifier. Perhaps you've used this field to store other generic information about the employee (as we've found many companies do) and in this case you may wish to display this field on the profile.

To enable one or both of these fields, go to Settings > Fields, find them under Job Information, and toggle them to enabled.

Improvement

Fixes and improvements (July 2025)

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Shared by Lawrence • August 07, 2025

In July we released two new features: org chart display options and the ability to add organizational units to OneDirectory. We also completed a huge platform upgrade that's been in the works for months 🚀

Here's some of the other things we improved in July 2025:

📄 A completely redesigned trial registration page. Including new "Continue with Microsoft" sign in option.

Improved field styling across the profile page, with a more compact contact number section and layout tweaks to support upcoming fields

📱 Updated app icons for better support on modern browsers and mobile devices

🖼️ Improvements to the image selector, including smarter upload behavior for office, department, and org unit images

✍ Various UI tweaks to editing controls in profile edit mode

🍪 New cookie banner design across our web properties to make it easier for you to customize your consent preferences

🐛 Fixed a bug with filtering rule tooltips not showing in edit mode (the tooltip when hovering over the "eye" icon in the list view)

New feature

Map your company structure with organizational units 🏢

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Shared by Lawrence • July 30, 2025

Organizational units are here!

Microsoft 365 only lets you group employees by office and department. But most organizations need more flexibility, such as grouping employees by division, branch, business unit, district, or faculty.

So we built organizational units into OneDirectory to let your directory match how your company is actually structured.

This feature has been in limited release with select customers for the past few months, and is now available to you in our Pro plan.

You can add people to org units in whatever way makes sense for your organization. Organizational units appear on profiles, in search results, are directly searchable, are clickable throughout the directory, and appear on the sidebar filters (e.g. view all divisions in one place). Each org unit has its own homepage with a unique URL, description, and background.

How to enable organizational units in OneDirectory

Here's how to enable org units in OneDirectory. First, go to Settings > Fields, and under Organizational Structure click "+ Add organizational unit"

  1. Enter the display name of your org unit in singular form (e.g. Division)
  2. Choose an icon that best represents this org unit
  3. Choose if it's Synced with Microsoft 365 or Editable in OneDirectory. Currently, "Editable in OneDirectory" is default - chat to our team if you need it synced to an existing field in Microsoft 365.
  4. Set the field's edit permissions
  5. Click Add

Now, when you enter Edit Mode in the directory, you’ll see the new org unit section in the left sidebar. Click it, and you can add your master list of organizational units.

For example, if you’ve defined an org unit called Division, this is where you’ll add all your company’s divisions. Once they’re added, those divisions will appear in the Division dropdown when editing a profile, making them easy to assign and manage.

Can I sync an org unit to my Microsoft 365 directory extensions?

Yes. If you're already using directory extensions to store your organizational units as metadata against profiles in Entra ID, you can map those to org units in OneDirectory. Please chat to our support team for assistance with this.

Product update

Core platform upgrade completed 🚀

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Shared by Lawrence • July 29, 2025

We’ve spent the past few months working behind the scenes on one of the biggest upgrades to OneDirectory since its launch.

We’re excited to share that the entire core of OneDirectory has been upgraded to a faster, more maintainable platform, now fully deployed across all our regions. As part of this work, we restructured the entire codebase and rebuilt our architecture on a more modern foundation.

While this upgrade isn’t something you’ll notice visually, it brings improved stability and performance, and makes it easier for us to deliver new features faster. We also used the opportunity to strengthen our security foundations and further protect your data behind the scenes.

OneDirectory has come a long way since our original Staff Directory web part launched back in 2011. As the OG enterprise employee directory for Microsoft, we're committed to pushing the boundaries of what employee directories can do and continuing to lead this space.

If you're a customer, thanks for being a part of our journey! We’ve got an exciting roadmap ahead with some new things in the works, and we can’t wait to show you what’s coming next.

New feature

Org chart display options

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Shared by Lawrence • July 21, 2025

You can now toggle various elements in the org chart with a brand new Display Options button in the org chart toolbar.

Show or hide photos, offices, departments, assistants, and dotted line managers in the org chart, and swap name and job title fields to prioritize titles.

We plan to add more display options over time 🚀

Improvement

Fixes and improvements (June 2025)

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Shared by Lawrence • July 07, 2025

In June we released our new Dotted Line Manager feature, and there were many improvements and bug fixes along the way:

🟦 Changed the default org chart highlight color from your company's brand color to OneDirectory's system blue, to improve visibility of highlighted paths and cards. Brand-highlighted blocks were fun, but they were hard to see in most cases.

💅 Highlighting a node in the org chart now highlights the expander button too. We also fixed the hover style of the highlighted org chart blocks.

🌉 The org chart blocks are now slightly larger to allow more text without wrapping, for those extra-long names and job titles

💼 The icon in the group by dropdown is now the icon of the selected field

🎭 The "Dotted Line Manager To" heading in the reporting pane was renamed to "Dotted Line Reports." Much simpler.

🆎 Optimized size of avatar text in card view, and in the horizontal org chart layout

🛸 Better hover styles on org chart nodes and office/department tiles

🔨 Org chart toolbar styling updates, and sizing of org chart toolbar dialogs (e.g. download dialog)

➕ Increased the size of the reporting line expander button on the profiles, to make it easier to click (it's a feature that's used a lot)

👁‍🗨 Text contrast improvements in list view for readability

🐛 Corrected the position of the assistants on the org chart in horizontal layout

New feature

Dotted lines on the org chart! 🎉

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Shared by Lawrence • June 25, 2025

We’re really excited to announce a brand new feature we've been working on for months. You can now view dotted line managers and dotted line reports directly in the org chart!

OneDirectory already gives you an up-to-date, fully interactive org chart of your entire organization, built automatically from your Microsoft 365 people data. But Microsoft 365 only gives you solid line reporting (via the Manager field) - it doesn't allow for dotted line reporting 😢

By enabling the Dotted Line Manager field on your OneDirectory profiles, you now have a powerful new view within your org chart. Unlike other org chart tools, OneDirectory overlays dotted lines right on top of your existing solid line structure. No separate view, no context switching. Just browse your dotted lines directly within the live org chart, exactly where they belong 😍

Plus, it's interactive. You’ll now see a little dotted tab on the card if someone has dotted line reports, with a quick tooltip showing who their reports are. Click the tab to expand the dotted lines, hover to highlight them, and use the display options in the toolbar to turn dotted lines on or off whenever you need (e.g. for download/printing).

We hope you love this new feature! 💚 Let us know what you think.

Feature update

Improved card view and face view

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Shared by Lawrence • June 11, 2025

People Search just got better 🤩 We've improved the card and face views in search results to make them more useful and easier to navigate.

In card view, each card now includes an office and department label. Photos are slightly larger, text contrast is improved for better readability, and we’ve added new borders and hover styles.

Hovering over a card now shows contact options. You can hover to preview details or click to call or email directly from the search results.

Face view also got a refresh, with office and department labels, improved contrast, clearer separators, and updated hover styles.

New feature

Dotted Line Manager field

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Shared by Lawrence • June 03, 2025

Hot off the heels of the new Assistant field, you can now add a Dotted Line Manager to any profile in OneDirectory!

This new field helps reflect matrixed reporting lines by showing secondary or dotted line managers directly on employee profiles, so reporting relationships are clearer across your organization.

To enable the Dotted Line Manager field:

  1. Go to Settings > Fields
  2. Under Connections, click the Dotted Line Manager field
  3. In the side pane, toggle the field to Enabled
  4. Choose who can edit it (Directory Editors or Employees)
  5. Click Save

Once enabled, just switch to edit mode on any profile and you’ll see the new Dotted Line Manager field in the Connections pane on the right.