What Circles Are (and Why They Matter)
Circles are your core building blocks for delivering learning, skills, and events to the right people.
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Think of them as living groups of employees that represent your companyâs reality â departments, roles, locations, or career stages.
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Key ideađ± Circles make learning about people, not just about content.
The Mindset Shift -> âCircles arenât folders for content â theyâre living groups of people.â
When you think this way:
Content becomes more personalized.
Compliance gets easier.
Employee growth feels intentional, not random.
Two Types of Circles
There are only two â and you should be intentional about which one you use.
Dynamic Circles (Default)
Automatically include employees based on rules (e.g. role, department, location, hire date).
Perfect for departments, lifecycle stages, or any audience that should always stay up to date automatically.
Static Circles (Special Case)
Manually curated â you pick exactly whoâs in.
Use for VIPs, pilot groups, or unusual cohorts.
Designing Circles the Right Way
Mirror your company: Circles should look like your real org chart and lifecycle.
Name clearly: Use simple, structured names â e.g. DK â Store Managers or All Employees â Compliance.
Describe the purpose: Every Circle should have a short description explaining who itâs for and why it exists.
Give ownership: Someone should always be responsible for keeping the circle accurate.
Sharing Content: People First
When you share learning, ask yourself: âWho is this for?â
Then share it with the Circles that match that audience.
Universal content (e.g. GDPR, Code of Conduct):
Assign to an All Employees Circle or use the Sharing (Journey) interface to push to multiple Circles at once.
Targeted content (e.g. store manager training, advanced GDPR):
Assign directly to the specific Circles that need it.
Quick tipđĄ Build Circles first â Then assign content to them.
This keeps things scalable and avoids circular sprawl.
Scaling for Big Organizations
Role-first approach: Donât create 200 circles for 200 restaurants â just create circles for each role and let rules pull people in automatically.
Layer lifecycle stages: Add âNew Hire,â âRamp,â âLeadershipâ circles on top of roles to target by career stage.
Plan for growth: As circles multiply, use consistent names to stay organized.
Skills & Growth Tracking
Users keep skills theyâve earned even if they leave a Circle.
When Circles overlap, the highest target wins.
Remove skills only if they were never earned (still at level 0).
Avoid These Pitfalls
đ« Donât create a circle just to send one piece of content.
đ« Donât duplicate circles for each campaign.
đ« Donât use static circles when a dynamic rule would do.