---
title: "Employee Groups"
description: "A group is a saved set of employees that an automation or a step can send to. Pyn keeps most groups up to date for you; a static group is the one you manage by hand."
sidebar:
  label: Overview
  order: 0
area: directory
feature: employee-groups
appPath: /directory/home
audience: admin
related:
  - directory/employee-groups/create-a-filter-group
  - directory/employee-groups/create-a-static-group
  - directory/employee-groups/create-a-relationship-group
  - directory/employee-groups/reference-group-types
  - directory/employee-groups/how-audiences-match
intercom:
  - id: "12651638"
    title: Understand Groups in Pyn (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/12651638-understand-groups-in-pyn-pyn-2
  - id: "6843523"
    title: Create a Custom Group
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6843523-create-a-custom-group
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "6024178"
    title: Understand Groups in Pyn (Pyn 1)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6024178-understand-groups-in-pyn-pyn-1
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
---

An automation's audience is built from groups: include these, exclude those. Pyn gives every workspace a set to start with, one group per department, location and so on, and lets you add your own. Membership is evaluated by Pyn as employee data changes, so a group you made last year still means what it said.

![Directory > Employee Groups lists every group with its type and parent demographic.](https://support.pynhq.com/media/directory/employee-groups/directory-employee-groups-table.png)

## The five kinds

| Kind | Members | You create it by |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Demographic** | Everyone with one value of a property: Department is Engineering. | Creating a demographic; Pyn makes a group per value. |
| **Lifecycle** | Everyone near a date: a birthday in the next week, the first 90 days after start. | Seeded; **Birthday** and **Onboarding** exist from the start. |
| **Filter** | Everyone matching an audience: lifecycle stages plus included and excluded groups. | **Create** > **Filter**. |
| **Relationship** | Everyone who has, or lacks, a manager, buddy, mentor or HRBP, or who is one. | **Create** > **Relationship**. |
| **Static** | The people you add. | **Create** > **Static**. |

The table shows a type icon, the **Parent** demographic (for demographic groups) and the **Name**. The views **Demographic**, **Lifecycle** and **Filter** show one kind each; relationship and static groups are in **All Groups**. Select a group to open its panel with **Group Employees:** and, for a filter group, a **Configure** tab showing its audience.

## What you can do here

- [Create a filter group](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employee-groups/create-a-filter-group/) for a saved audience.
- [Create a static group](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employee-groups/create-a-static-group/) from names, pasted emails or a file.
- [Create a relationship group](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employee-groups/create-a-relationship-group/) such as everyone without a buddy.
- [Create a demographic](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/demographics/create-a-demographic/) to get a group per value of a property.
- [Group types](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employee-groups/reference-group-types/) lists the seeded groups and how each kind is evaluated.
- [How audiences match](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employee-groups/how-audiences-match/) explains how included groups combine: any of those with the same parent, all of those with different parents.

## Where it is in the app

Open **Directory** in the left navigation and select **All Groups** under **Employee Groups**. **Create** at the top right opens **Create Employee Group**. A group opens in a panel on the right; **Search** in the navigation finds groups by name too.

## Related

- [Group types](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employee-groups/reference-group-types/) for the detail on each kind.
- [Demographics](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/demographics/) for the properties behind demographic groups.
- [Automations](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/) for using a group as an audience.

## Related Intercom articles

- [Understand Groups in Pyn (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/12651638-understand-groups-in-pyn-pyn-2)
- [Create a Custom Group](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6843523-create-a-custom-group) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Understand Groups in Pyn (Pyn 1)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6024178-understand-groups-in-pyn-pyn-1) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference