In Cyber Missions, a squad is a small group of employees that brings a team dynamic to the awareness program. It is an optional feature. This article explains how squads are composed and how to adjust them.
1️⃣ How are squads composed?
Squads are generated automatically by Riot from your org chart — that is, from the manager / employee relationship synchronised from your directory. They are not a copy of your groups or organizational units (OUs).
Composition follows a hierarchical logic:
Riot starts from each manager and their direct reports to form a squad.
Very small teams (3 members) are rolled up into the squad of the level above.
Beyond a certain size (20 members) a squad is split into several balanced squads.
An employee belongs to only one squad.
2️⃣ Why does an employee not appear in the expected squad?
Because composition depends primarily on each employee's “manager” attribute, not on your directory groups. The most common cases:
The employee's “manager” field in your directory does not match what you expect: the squad follows the actual reporting line.
The team was rolled up to the level above (very small teams) or spread across several squads (large teams).
An employee with no manager set is not assigned to any squad automatically.
👍 Good to know: Updating a group or an OU in your directory does not change squad composition. What determines it is your employees' “manager” attribute and the resulting hierarchy.
3️⃣ Can a squad be created or joined manually?
If your organization has activated the squads / leaderboard features, an employee who is not already in a squad can, from their own space, join an existing squad or create one. This option depends on these features being activated on your workspace.
4️⃣ How do I change an employee's squad?
The automatic composition does not update on its own after an org-chart change: an employee who already belongs to a squad is not moved automatically if their manager changes later. An administrator can, however, adjust squads manually at any time, from the Team -> Squad tab
👍 Good to know: For an effective team dynamic, we recommend keeping squads small and balanced.
To see how squads fit into the overall Cyber Missions experience, see Understanding Cyber Missions.
Key takeaways
Squads are composed automatically from the org chart (manager / employee relationship).
They do not mirror your directory groups or OUs.
A manager change is not propagated automatically to a squad that already exists.
An administrator can adjust squads manually at any time; we recommend keeping them small and balanced.