Groups (People & Permissions)

Genesys Cloud has two distinct group systems that serve completely different purposes. This page covers Directory Groups — the groups used for access control, role assignment, queue membership, and communication. Do not confuse these with Work Teams (WFM-specific groupings) or group workspaces (document sharing). All group management lives under Admin → Directory → Groups.

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Navigation Path

Task	Path
Manage all groups	Admin → Directory → Groups
Create a group	Admin → Directory → Groups → Add Group
Edit a group	Admin → Directory → Groups → click group name
Assign roles to a group	Admin → Directory → Groups → select group → Roles tab

Required permissions:

Permission	Required For
Directory > Group > View	Viewing groups
Directory > Group > Edit	Editing groups and managing membership
Directory > Group > Add	Creating new groups
Directory > Group > Delete	Deleting groups

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1. Two Types of Groups

Genesys Cloud has two fundamentally different group types, each with distinct behavior and use cases.

General Groups

Manual or rule-based groups used for communication, role assignment, and directory organization.

Feature	Detail
Membership	Added manually one at a time, or automatically via membership rules based on profile data and org hierarchy relationships
Chat room	Genesys Cloud automatically creates a persistent chat room with the same name when a general group is created
Profile page	Has a group profile page showing members, contact info, and group photo
Roles	Can have roles assigned directly — all group members inherit those roles and division scopes
Group types	Can be designated as Official (work-related) or Social
Deletion	Deleting a general group does NOT delete the associated chat room. Chat rooms cannot be deleted.

When to use general groups:

Use Case	Example
Role assignment at scale	Create "Outbound Supervisors – Monterrey" group, assign the Supervisor role + Monterrey division once — all members inherit it automatically
SME identification	"SBC Experts" group makes specialists findable via directory search
Project teams	Temporary groups for cross-functional projects
Location-based teams	"Monterrey Floor 2" for announcements and group chat
Queue membership via Bullseye routing	Assign groups to bullseye routing rings in queue configuration

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Skill Expression Groups

Dynamic groups whose membership is automatically managed by the system based on ACD skill and language proficiency conditions.

Feature	Detail
Membership	Fully automatic — the system adds/removes members when their ACD skill assignments or proficiency ratings change
Update speed	Membership changes take effect within approximately 1 minute of a skill change
Chat room	No chat room is created for skill expression groups
Primary use	Dynamically populating queue membership or bullseye routing rings based on agent skills
Inactive members	The Membership tab always shows total member count including inactive users

Example skill expression:

Expression	Meaning
English > 3	Includes all agents whose English language skill proficiency is greater than 3
Spanish >= 4 AND SBC_Support >= 2	Includes agents with both Spanish proficiency ≥ 4 and SBC Support skill ≥ 2

📌 Key distinction: General groups are managed by admins or rules based on profile data. Skill expression groups are managed entirely by the ACD skill engine based on skill assignments. Use skill expression groups when your queue membership should automatically track skill levels.

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2. Group Limits

Limit	Value
General groups per org (recommended max)	500
Skill expression groups per org	300 (contact Customer Care to exceed)
Primary conditions per skill expression group	10
Subconditions per primary condition	10
Groups a single user can belong to	Up to 100 official + 100 social (200 total)
Individual members added manually (recommended max)	1,000 per group

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3. Group Membership — General Groups

Manual (Individual) Membership

Add users one at a time via the group's Membership tab.

Admin → Directory → Groups → select group → Membership tab → Edit → Individuals tab → search and add

📌 Members added individually are not affected by changes to membership rules. Manual additions are permanent until explicitly removed.

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Automatic Membership Rules

Rules automatically add or remove members based on profile data and org hierarchy relationships.

Rule Type	Example
Profile tags/certifications	All users tagged with "Cisco"
Reporting relationship — Superiors	Everyone in the management chain above a specific person
Reporting relationship — Subordinates	All direct reports below a specific manager
Inclusions / Exclusions	Include everyone from a rule, then exclude specific individuals

Admin → Directory → Groups → select group → Membership tab → Edit → Inclusions tab → define rule

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Owners vs. Members

Role	Capabilities
Owner	Full editing rights — can modify group settings, membership, and roles
Member	Limited rights — can participate in group chat, appears in group directory

📌 When you create a group, you are automatically its owner. If you create a group on behalf of someone else and don't want editing rights, remove yourself as an owner after creation. If you remove yourself as owner, you lose editing rights unless you have the Directory > Group > View and Directory > Group > Edit permissions assigned to your role.

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4. Group Membership — Skill Expression Groups

Admin → Directory → Groups → Skill Expression tab → select group → Membership tab → Build Skill Expression

Membership is built by defining conditions using ACD skills and language proficiencies with relational operators (greater than, equal to, greater than or equal to, etc.) and logical operators (AND, OR).

⚠️ Skill expression groups are dynamic. If you modify an agent's ACD skill assignments or proficiency ratings, their membership in any skill expression group that references that skill updates automatically within approximately 1 minute.

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5. Assigning Roles to Groups

One of the most powerful uses of general groups is bulk role assignment. When you assign a role (with a division) to a group, every current and future member of that group inherits that role scoped to that division automatically.

Admin → Directory → Groups → select group → Roles tab → Assign Roles → select role → select division → Save

Behavior	Detail
New members	Automatically inherit all roles assigned to the group upon joining
Removed members	Lose all roles inherited from the group upon removal
Role editing	Roles inherited from a group cannot be edited on an individual user's Roles tab — you must edit the group or remove the user from the group
Division-Aware Role Management	If enabled org-wide, admins can only assign roles to groups within divisions they themselves have access to

📌 Best practice: For large teams with shared permissions (e.g., all Monterrey supervisors), use a group + role assignment instead of assigning roles to each user individually. This dramatically reduces maintenance overhead when staff changes occur.

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6. General Group Types: Official vs. Social

When creating a general group, you designate it as Official or Social. This affects how users can search and filter groups in the directory.

Type	Use Case	Workspace Eligible?
Official	Work-related — teams, departments, projects, queues	✅ Yes — can be added to group workspaces
Social	Non-work — interest groups, social clubs	❌ No — social groups cannot be workspace members

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7. Groups and Chat Rooms

Behavior	Detail
Creating a general group	Automatically creates a persistent chat room with the same name
Deleting a general group	Deletes the group but not the chat room — chat rooms cannot be deleted
Skill expression groups	No chat room is created

📌 If you create test groups or temporary groups, be aware that their associated chat rooms persist indefinitely even after the group is deleted.

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8. Limits & Operational Notes

Item	Guidance
Keep org group count under 500	Genesys recommends no more than 500 groups per org for performance
Limit individual manual members to 1,000	For groups with larger populations, use membership rules instead
Disable group calls when adding members	For best results, temporarily disable group calls while bulk-adding members
Workspace access via groups	When an official group is added to a workspace, any user added to the group automatically gains workspace access — use carefully for sensitive files

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Quick Comparison: General vs. Skill Expression Groups

Feature	General Group	Skill Expression Group
Membership management	Manual or profile/hierarchy rules	Automatic via ACD skill conditions
Chat room created	✅ Yes	❌ No
Profile page	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Role assignment	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Queue/bullseye routing	✅ Yes (manual)	✅ Yes (dynamic)
Max per org	500 (recommended)	300
Membership update speed	On admin action or rule trigger	~1 minute after skill change

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Last verified against Genesys Cloud Resource Center – March 2026