# Company, departments and job roles

Before you add employees, it helps to have your organisation's structure in place: the company
record itself, its departments, and the job positions and job roles people will be assigned to.
These live under **Settings → Base**.

<div class="bon-video">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/6MJ2knj_jGU" title="Set up your organisation: company, departments, job roles" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MJ2knj_jGU">Set up your organisation: company, departments, job roles</a></p>
</div>

## Company

**Settings → Base → Company** lists the company record — name, headquarters flag, city, country and
date format. Your organisation's primary record is marked **HQ**. Use **Edit** to correct it, or
**Add Company** if your BlueOneHR workspace covers more than one legal entity.

This section is marked **Sensitive** in the product itself: company identity underlies every other
record, so changes here are worth making deliberately rather than as a quick fix.

![Settings → Base → Department, one of the Base configuration tabs alongside Job Positions, Job Role and Company](https://docs.blueonehr.com/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/ytmsettings-company-setup-department.png)

The screenshot above shows the **Department** tab; **Company** is the adjacent tab carrying the row
described above.

## Departments

**Settings → Base → Department** is a flat list of department names — Engineering, Finance,
Marketing, and whatever else your organisation uses. **Add Department** to create one; **Edit** or
**Delete** an existing one. Departments are what the Employees list groups and filters by, and what a
contract records against an employee.

## Job Positions and Job Role

Alongside Department are **Job Positions** and **Job Role** — two related but separate lists.
BlueOneHR keeps them apart deliberately: a job **position** is the seat itself (for example,
"Software Engineer"), while a job **role** groups the responsibilities and permissions that come with
it. Set both up before you need to assign an employee to either.

## What happens next

None of this is required before you can add a single employee — department and job position fields
on the employee form are simply blank until you create the values first. It matters most once you
have more than a handful of people, when filtering, reporting and payroll all lean on this structure
being in place.

## Related

- [Adding an employee](https://docs.blueonehr.com/books/employees/page/adding-an-employee)
- [General settings](https://docs.blueonehr.com/books/company-settings/page/general-settings)